SpyParty

At this year's Game Developer Conference, I finally got to sit down with SpyParty and developer Chris Hecker in a San Francisco hotel room. Hecker started up the laptop with the game on it and then booted up a laptop with screenshots, sliding past numerous comparison shots to the beginning of a presentation.

Hecker was excited. And with good reason.

SpyParty, a game first shown as a concept at the experimental gameplay workshop at GDC 2009, is finally hitting Steam Early Access on April 12. After eight years and 24,000 copies sold through the SpyParty website, the game was finally going to be available for a wide release on Steam.

The voyeuristic competitive game pits one sniper against one spy with only one shot at getting it right. The spy does their best to complete their mission (for example, poisoning a diplomat) without the sniper identifying and shooting them with their single bullet. Everything from the way the spy moves to the way their hand reaches for the poison matters, leading to tense standoffs between the two players.

"People have been playing for thousands of hours," Hecker explained. "It's something like 20,000 games, the forum has tons of people posting strategies, it's been amazing."

Hecker and I got in a longer conversation about fighting games and if SpyParty functions in a lot of the same ways. We eventually started talking about yomi, the Japanese concept of reading your opponent's mind, and how SpyParty is based around observations on a micro level.

"One year, I showed off SpyParty at Evo," Hecker said, referring to the major fighting game tournament held in Las Vegas. "At the time, [former Capcom community manager] Seth Killian bet me that the top SpyParty player would be from the fighting game community. He was right for a long time. Now it's a lawyer, I think."

The new SpyParty has the visual overhaul first introduced in 2013 further refined, where character animations are not only more distinctive but also far more natural. The character models have gotten to the point where tier lists are being created, with Hecker pointing out that a character using a cane has a more subtle animation for poisoning than others.

The environments are also improved, boasting architectural and design changes. One level is circular with a focus around a statue, making it so the spy, who can see the sniper's general aim, can hide both in plain sight and behind the environment. This adds another layer of strategy to the match with a lot of the levels changing different focal points to drastically change the way the spy and sniper interact.

Hecker also showed off the new replay system, which rivals and exceeds a lot of AAA replay mechanics. Players can watch entire replays of matches from any angle, act as a second sniper and try to figure it out before the recorded player does with their own bullet, downloadable replays, and more.

One of the things Hecker has struggled with is explaining the game to people, something that has resulted in passing out guidebooks to players in line at gaming expos. Now, SpyParty boasts a 40-minute narrated tutorial to help explain the role of the sniper and the spy and even allows players to make mistakes, intentionally or otherwise. The key is not just learning what to observe, but how to observe.

You can check out the Early Access trailer for SpyParty below.

Hecker has plans and a schedule for how long he hopes to stay in early access, but right now he's just playing it by ear. "I want to ensure the community is healthy and happy before we rush forward with anything," he said. "When you spend eight years on something, you want to make sure you get it just right."