Well this is a pretty awesome game idea!
My first thought was "Pffft, this can't work! I mean I can obviously see the other player hitting the keyboard", but I realized that it to
me a bit to find out which one I was controlling in the crowd.
I haven't had a chance to play it with a friend yet, but this does remind me of a game called Spy Party,
http://www.spyparty.com/. It had a really similar idea where one player tries to blend in with the NPC's and subtly carry on a mission as the other tries to stop him.
I definitely think there's a lot of potential for more human/AI interaction in games like this. I'll try it out with a friend and report back!
(Also reminds me of
)
Ooh, that cursor camouflage thing is really awesome!
And I saw a bit of coverage on spyparty, I liked it's concept a lot but I found the controls and graphics a bit counter productive ( I know the graphics are getting majorly changed but still)Another problem with spyparty is that everything comes down to that one pull of the trigger, the game may go for five minutes but the most climatic thing that happens is somebody shoots a gun. You spend a lot of time squinting at the screen.
For the sniper, that timer ticking down adds suspense. "gotta find him! which one is he?!"
But for the spy things are so much calmer (except for when a laser comes in the window, my favourite bit)
And for spectators this can lead to 5 minutes of nothing, and a half second "oh s**t!" moment.
Stuff that has the same spirit like assassin's creed and
the ship suffer from a different problem, you are hunting someone, but someone is hunting you, so people end up never stopping and running straight for their assigned target. The NPCs just add depth to your team deathmatch with weird mechanics.
When designing psy ops, I wanted to have lots of moments in the one game where you panic. I didn't want there to be a lead-up to an all or nothing event. Playing it on a massive iMac screen with my friends, things go from stressfully quiet, to uproariously hectic really quickly. With four people in the game, it becomes much easier for them to float back into the crowd, which was a problem I had with
hidden in plain sight.
So I tried to create these great moments of "dammit! that was an NPC! run! run! oh crap this guys onto me! drop the disk! abort!"
But at the same time I respect Spy Party's buildup. Each second that passes is in direct ratio to the amount of stress you're under, you grit your teeth and hold your breath and BANG. the deed is done. Which Is another reason for the four players thing, you end up with all different styles of gameplay, from assassins creed to the ship to HIPS to spyparty.
Four players, it's hectic, noone knows who they are, people run for the disks and run away from anyone suspicious. Someones head explodes. You see the killer and either hunt him down with your NPC posse or run away. Splat, two people left, the other two guys have taken their hands off the keyboard, it's no longer such a hectic battle, now it's a duel. You see the two adversaries' eyes dart around the screen, looking for that one slip-up. It happens, one of them changes direction too quickly, they know the game is up, they know they're being chased, they run for open ground, trying to get away from the cloud of NPCs that could be their future murderer. The spectators are screaming that escalating ooooooOOOOOOO
OOOOOO noise.
One of the NPCs slides into view at an odd angle and boom. Game Over. You push R and do it all over again.
Thanks for the feedback! Be sure to give me every detail of how it goes when you get a chance to play it for real.
Developer
