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What is SpyParty?
SpyParty is a spy game about human behavior, performance, perception, and deception. While most espionage games have you spend your time shooting stuff, blowing stuff up, and driving fast, SpyParty has you hide in plain sight, deceive your opponent, and detect subtle behavioral tells to achieve your objectives.
Unlike the suave and confident spies you might find in films or books, most spies in spy games are more like super powered commandos--more Rambo than James Bond. By contrast, SpyParty is a new and quite different game about the more interesting and deeper aspects of being a spy.
How SpyParty Trains the Most Fundamental Human Skill
Watching Dr. Jordan Peterson’s lectures on Personality and Maps of Meaning has been incredibly enriching, and as a result I’ve been thinking about what makes games meaningful. When Peterson describes the state of mind where one is engaged in something meaningful, it sounds nearly identical to the state of having fun: you lose track of time, are completely invested in what you are doing, and all the suffering in your life seems to fade away. I believe that what makes a game feel fun is exactly the same as what makes any other activity feel meaningful.
Your brain is attuned to identify meaningful activities. Experiencing a good drama, whether in the medium of video, literature, or music, feels meaningful because those dramas provide you with patterns of action that you can utilize in your own life. When you see someone in a good movie deal with a problem that is facing them, that provides you with a possible pattern of action that you can carry out should you ever face a similar problem in your own life. This is also what happens when we ask each other “How was your day?” We aren’t looking for a scientific answer detailing every muscle movement from the time you woke up; we’re looking for a narrative where you came across a problem and were able to overcome that problem, and we want to know how you dealt with the problem because it provides us with strategies for our own lives.
I believe that games feel meaningful for the same reasons that reading a good book or watching a good movie feel meaningful: they train you to better face problems in your life.
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Interrupt Speaker: A Quick PAX 2016 Oral History
On the new art characters
steph: My favourite new character is the Duke, because all of his animations are really angry.
kcmmmmm: Evil Bondo. He has a very dominant, imposing stature, and wears princely clothes; he just looks really cool. Also, his “neutral” animation position places his hand behind his back, so I kind of wonder how it’s going to feel to track animation cycles with him.
virifaux: I think of the blonde character as “More Handsome kcm.”
evilsnake: The short guy made the biggest impression on me. He will be very interesting to play as.
pwndnoob: Little DeVito. I’m a sucker for a unique bar animation.
elvisnake: His size will provide interesting opportunities for cover, and I love Toby’s kneeling animation when you get a drink.
slappydavis: I think DeVito is the most interesting gameplay-wise (obviously), but I’m really not looking forward to him likely being the de facto “Guess Who meta” character when streamers play the game.
igounseen: I’m looking forward to the It’s Always Sunny references.
warningtrack: “Frank Bugs the Ambassador.”
drawnonward: Easily Orange Dress. I love how Chris managed to sneak in a reference for us old-timers.
elvisnake: Honorable mention goes to blue dress, solely for that eyeball glitch.
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Burning Out, But Refusing to Fade Away
I’ve been addicted to SpyParty for over four years.
I tend to throw myself into whatever game I’m playing, forgetting to pace myself. I burn out on most of them, and move on to a new game. And I’m worried that is happening with SpyParty. This is a pretty normal cycle for me when it comes to playing video games. The unusual part is, with SpyParty, I don’t want to burn out.
I think of my time with SpyParty as consisting of four phases: Sprinting, Jogging, Stumbling, and Crawling.
On April 17th, 2012, I was lucky enough to become one of the first internet strangers to play SpyParty. And boy did I play. This was the sprinting: every day after work I would jump into the lobby and wait for someone to join. But as is the case with every other game I’ve played, I wasn’t satisfied just by playing it. I wanted to delve into the mechanics of the game, and with SpyParty that meant studying the AI.
Studying the AI wasn’t easy back then: we didn’t have replays, guides, or even veteran players. Everything was fresh. Everything still had to be discovered, learned, and shared. So I got to it.
Cookies, Cough Drops, and Locked Rooms
“Welcome, to SpyParty! Have you read the manual?”
That’s what magician1099 said to me when I entered the lobby. I hadn’t read the manual. I played as spy anyway, twitched, and got shot. I played as spy again, twitched again, and got shot again. I thought to myself “I should probably read the manual.”
May 31st, 2016
I’d joined the beta on January 10th after watching lthummus stream a few sets, and it took me three months to decide that this was a game that I needed to have. I threw myself into it, and shortly after, threw my name into the PAX volunteer hat. I didn’t think there was any chance I’d be chosen.
Fittingly, it was lthummus that told me it had happened: “Hey Steph, it seems like you’re going to be a booth slave.” Apparently he’d seen a forum post about it before I had. I was in shock: me, representing SpyParty at PAX West? I’d had the game for 150 days, and I had 6,000 fewer games than any of the other selected volunteers. I got this crazily exciting news at midnight, and barely slept.
I’d never been to any gaming convention before. But I’d heard and read many stories about what they were like (Shaking the Hand of Someone You’ve Shot, Caley’s PAX Diary). I’ve read about sleeping in cars, in parks, and in a room with seven other people. I’ve learned that there are four things I definitely need to bring with me:
- Water, for thirst.
- Hand sanitizer, so that I don’t get sick.
- Cough drops, so that I don’t lose my voice.
- Deodorant, so that I don’t add to the smell that I’ve heard occurs at PAX.
PAXcast: An Impromptu Podcast
Big thanks to virifaux for bringing some recording equipment and capturing some first impressions of the new PAX build. Featuring virifaux, drawnonward, wodar, cleetose, and slappydavis.
How Chris Hecker Changed My Life: A Multi-PAX Story
When I first started playing SpyParty, I never thought any game (much less an indie game) could have such an impact on my life. For years I’ve considered Mother 3 to be my favorite game. I didn’t expect much to come of my SpyParty career, in the game or outside of it. But that all changed at an event called the Penny Arcade Expo, and I believe that change has altered the direction of my life.
Before PAX 2013
Prior to PAX Prime (now PAX West) in 2013, I hadn’t been doing much with my life. I didn’t have a job, I was living at home, and although this article made me want to become a game designer, I wasn’t doing anything to reach that goal. I had an active social life and was enjoying myself playing video games (and learning about board games), but I wasn’t progressing.
One thing I was doing was streaming this fun little indie game called SpyParty. I’d started in October of 2012, and had a small (but loyal) audience. I wasn’t very good at the game, but the other people playing were welcoming and nice, and the creator tweeted out a link to my stream anyway, which meant the world to me.
I played nearly every day, and eventually reached the point where I felt comfortable talking to other community members. I started playing players with huge game totals (over 3,000 games played!). I remember Chris, on Twitter, referring to me as the “LNS” (Late Night Streamer), because I would always stream at midnight PDT.
For my 100th stream, I started using a webcam and added an overlay, which changed how I interacted with the people in my chat. The audience was still small, but also still loyal.
After streaming for awhile and interacting with the rest of the community, I found my own style and voice. Posting to the forums wasn’t so stressful any more, and talking with Chris was more like talking to a friend than an authority figure. So as PAX 2013 approached, I posted this:
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The Three Stages of Talking to Drawnonward
As performed by SpyParty artist John Cimino:
1. Clarification
“Wait, are you saying _____?”
2. Processing
“Okay…”
3. Disbelief
*stares*