Here's what it looks like in the Steam launch build:Ĭourtyard is an arty outdoor sculptural homage to Alan Turing. Pub is a level with a, you guessed it, pub, named after Sherlock Holmes character Irene Adler.

Here's what it used to look like:Īnd here's what it looks like for the Steam release. Take Balcony, a level with an architecture style based on a pre-war building in Chelsea in New York City, for example. I had the chance to see the new and improved SpyParty in action at the recent Game Developers Conference, and it's safe to say the game has come on a long way in recent years. The Steam release has eight missions, a replay system with over 300,000 games in its database and a 40 minute, fully narrated (by Chris Hecker himself) interactive tutorial to help teach newcomers how to play. The idea is the player isn't supposed to be able to work out the year in which the game is set. SpyParty has a 'timeless' style, as Hecker describes it, with environmental props that could have existed in multiple modern eras. Things are about to change for SpyParty, though, as it launches on the biggest video game platform on earth.Īs such, Hecker has spruced up the game's visuals, with 21 new art characters with custom animations and 10 new art venues. Almost 24,000 copies have so far been sold on the official SpyParty website, where there is a small but bustling community of players. Games last a few minutes each, with matches usually involving 10 or 20 games.Ĭhris Hecker, who led the development of much of the tech behind Maxis' Spore, has worked on SpyParty for eight years. The skill comes from sniffing out unusual behaviour, or making your behaviour as 'usual' as possible while completing mission objectives.

In SpyParty, one player is the sniper, the other the spy who tries to avoid detection by mingling with a crowd of fancy partygoers. Chris Hecker has been working on SpyParty for eight years. SpyParty, the two-player competitive spy versus sniper game set at an exclusive cocktail party, comes out on Steam as an Early Access title on 12th April priced £19.49.

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