SpyParty - You've done it, Checker. I want to play this game

I just read this Wired article on SpyParty and the concept is more than a little brilliant, and it looks like QT3’s own Checker’s behind it.

SpyParty begins with the spy player, who first selects his character. The player can chose to slip into a handful of different character models: a guy in a tux, women in a variety of dresses, a rotund chap in a top hat.
The mind game starts immediately, because even on this character-selection screen, the spy is trying to outwit his opponent: Which character do they suspect I’d pick?

The spy player has to complete four tasks to win the game: Plant a bug on the ambassador at the party, make contact with a double agent, move a book from one shelf to another and swap a statue for a different one.

Each of these actions has a “tell,” a giveaway that the sniper can pick up on if he is paying attention. In the case of the physical actions, it’s a quick character animation. For the double agent bit, it’s a secret code phrase — somebody will say the words “banana bread.” (Hecker says this is what he was having as a snack when he recorded the audio.)

The sniper player needs only to watch and listen, but within the limitations of his faraway vantage point. From afar, the sniper can see the entire party, in the windowed corner of an apartment building. He can see everyone mingle, chat and stroll around the room. But he’s too far away to make out the subtle “tells” that can help identify the target. Zooming in with the rifle scope narrows the view, but lets him see what the guests are doing.

My first try as the sniper was easy: All I had to do was watch for the one player that didn’t act like a computer-controlled bot. The first time I caught my friend correcting his movements in mid-stride, I knew I had my target.

Later moments behind the trigger weren’t so easy, once the spy had figured out how to pretend to be artificial intelligence. I wasted more than a few bullets on wild guesses and longshots. SpyParty gets hard.

I can imagine spending hours just to get good at the game, if only to fuck with people’s minds. Imagine playing the game with someone else who’s in the room with you, or even over voice chat. They’d yell the moment you shot them and it would feel like pure satisfaction.

Sounds like tons of fun. I need to play this.

Awwww several years out?!?! Way too soon for this thread, this looks like a blast.

This sounds brilliant, such a shame it’s nowhere near release.

This is for Mac too, right?

So we’re all invited to the open beta right?

Yes, I agree.

Looks extremely cool and unique.

Hi guys, thanks! Yeah, with the wired article hitting today, and the Destructoid article a couple days ago, I’m over the moon.

And yes, when it’s time to beta^H^H^H^Halpha test, I’ll ask here first, of course. Heck, now that there’s a thread, I can post occasional updates if people are interested, and Tom doesn’t mind. I don’t know what the protocol is for that kind of thing…

It currently won’t do NAT punchthrough–you have to be on a LAN to play it right now–so I gotta fix that before I can do any kind of outside-of-my-house testing.

It’s also super hardcore player skill right now and completely inaccessible, since I’m following the Blizzard “depth first” design methodology (I talk about it a bit here), so it also needs a bunch of work before anybody can play it without me standing there.

Thanks for the kind words!
Chris

Your name really threw me for a loop there.

The protocol is that Tom loves it.

As far as I understand he don’t want us writer types to shill other webpages, forums and whatever - at least I think continuously pointing people to articles/threads on Gamerdad is what got Andrew Bub banned - but he encourages game designers to shill theirs.

In fact game designers talking about what they’re working on is one of the things that’s supposed to make this place special (again as I interpret things).

And let me just add, that I too thinks it looks excellent. A very smart idea for a game.

This sounds like a cool idea. Keep us updated, Chris :)

Very awesome, Chris. We’re all certainly looking forward to any updates you have about the game. And while I none of us can speak for Tom, I’m pretty sure he just doesn’t want us to shill our blogs/articles.

I’ll go read the SpyParty site now.

The idea is completely awesome. I like that it’s sort of a reverse Turing Test.

how long until spyguru.com?

Too bad it’s only for two people, because this would make a great party game. Somehow. I don’t know. There’s a reason I don’t do design docs.

It sounds very interesting, and I love the idea that there is acting involved on the part of the spy.

Troy

The simple ideas are the best! But why in a couple of years… if he’s working alone, I can see why, but there are a lot of helping hands around…

it is our duty as developers to follow a mechanic to its logical and aesthetic extent. I hope to dive to these same levels of depth with SpyParty.

ok, got it…

My first try as the sniper was easy: All I had to do was watch for the one player that didn’t act like a computer-controlled bot. The first time I caught my friend correcting his movements in mid-stride, I knew I had my target.

Later moments behind the trigger weren’t so easy, once the spy had figured out how to pretend to be artificial intelligence. I wasted more than a few bullets on wild guesses and longshots. SpyParty gets hard.

This entire program is an obvious attempt to beat the Turing Test from the other direction: making people behave like AIs.

This sounds great! And on a similar note, how many of us Qt3ers own “The Ship” source mod/game on Steam? I think it would be great to get a game together sometime. That is what this game reminds me of, and it really is a fun game if you can play with some friends and laugh about getting murdered and such ;)

how much different is it from The Ship, now that you mention it…

Touché. Every game I make a fansite for fails miserably (the game, not the site). I’ll keep my hands out of this one.