At first, the amount of information can be overwhelming.

You’re outside the room, watching like a voyeur, analyzing each character as you wait to spot someone moving with too much purpose as you try to catch a “tell” of a fumbled task. You’ve just fooled the Sniper (unless you’ve been “highlighted” as suspicious).įor the Sniper the job is just as difficult. You begin to feel the laser burning into your Spy’s head, and pause for a few heartbeats praying the Sniper moves on. This may happen when you try to secretly contact the Double Agent, or you could in the middle of completing a task when the laser-pointer from the Sniper washes over your character! All of a sudden, you don’t know if you’ve been caught, even if you feel confident that you blended in perfectly. The first time the laser from the Sniper stops on your Spy, the game's complexity will make perfect sense. In addition, you can quickly lose your cool as you question whether your movements look more like a human’s or a computer’s. However, remaining undetected can be somewhat complicated, as it requires moving around like an AI-controlled character and blending in with the other partygoers. Completing these tasks without being detected earns you a victory. In SpyParty, you enter the party as a Spy with a list of tasks that range from following an AI-controlled character and flirting with them, to swapping out some of the priceless statues.

At first glance the idea seems simple, but after playing through your first game, you will quickly discover a deeper psychological battle raging on just beneath the surface.

SpyParty, an indie game designed by Chris Hecker, has a simple premise - one player takes the role of the Spy in the middle of a cocktail party with a set of tasks to complete the other player is the Sniper whose only goal is to identify the Spy, and take them out.

Spyparty maps