Comments on: Seduction on the Balcony

By: jordy

jordy — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 07:43:07 +0000

Hmm, I hope we get to see a little more subtlety in your game then that answer ;p

By: checker

checker — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 01:49:04 +0000

I will be announcing that soon, having just recently figured it out, but the answer is a word that starts with ‘y’ and rhymes with ‘mess’. ;)

By: Gerafin

Gerafin — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 01:44:33 +0000

I know this is kind of out of place, but do you have any idea if you’ll be at PAX East next month? I just got my badge and was thinking about the things I really wanted to see, and I seem to remember you hinting at coming to PAX East in a comment a while back.

Sorry if you’ve already answered this, but is that still happening?

By: checker

checker — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 22:53:14 +0000

It’s my full time “job” so anywhere from 0 hours to 20 hours. It’s different from working at EA in a lot of ways, to say the least. :) It’s great to have all the control and responsibility. That way if it sucks, it’s my fault, but if it rocks, that’s my fault too!

By: Jakub

Jakub — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 20:33:30 +0000

This is exciting Chris! How many hours per day do you usually work on Spy Party? And how different is it from working for your previous employer?

Take care and I wish you all the success you can have with Spy Party!

Jakub

By: checker

checker — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 20:15:56 +0000

Thanks! I work from home usually, and I had my garage converted into an office which is great, but I often work at the dining room table, because the garage isn’t heated. :) Sometimes cafes, sometimes at other indie developers’ houses.

By: Jakub

Jakub — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 19:57:05 +0000

Dear Chris,

this is all fascinating reading!

As a fellow game developer – I’m interested – where do you work from? Your house? An office?

I’m happy to be watching the progress on this game!

Jakub

By: checker

checker — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 19:34:49 +0000

We usually playtest for 3 or 5 hours at a time, with people alternating as they feel like it. When you’re trying to do a deep player-skill game, it’s so important…think about how long people play Counter-Strike or Starcraft…you have to make sure the game stays balanced for that play length. It’s actually a burden on your playtesters, but luckily they still like the game! :)

By: checker

checker — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 19:33:08 +0000

Eventually I want the Spy to be able to be most of the cast characters, like the Waiter, the Ambassador, the Security Guard, etc. The Double Agent is tricky, because I really like the Suspected Double Agents mechanic with the Sniper, but I think I can at least let the Spy be one of the Suspects. Not sure yet what the best solution is there, but it’s relatively easy to try different options. Making that possible would be a pretty big change even though it’s simple in the code, since the Sniper being able to eliminate the Suspects is a huge part of the current tuning, so it’ll take a lot of playtesting.

As for the footnote, the facebook people started it!
http://www.facebook.com/SpyParty/posts/186538191380811

By: Ron

Ron — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 15:28:32 +0000

Wow on footnote #1. Just… wow.
I know it’s not much to say this time, but have you considered having the “Contact Double Agent” still have the option of randomly letting the sniper think the ACTUAL spy might be the double agent? That would kind of be a plus and a minus. Basically it wouldn’t eliminate anyone right off the bat, however, it would cause the sniper to pay more attention to said character.