Critical Play: Spyfall
Spyfall is a game full of intrigue and espionage. It is a unilateral competition game where one player becomes the spy and tries to blend in with the crowd. Spyfall is designed by Alexandr Ushan, but I played using an online interface coded up by someone who goes by the Github username adrianocola. The game was free to play and didn’t have any ads distracting from the game itself, which was really great. The free to play model reduced financial barriers, making it easier for me to recruit friends to play. That’s awesome for a social mediation game that relies heavily on fellowship… very inclusive!
Theme and Fun
Spyfall uses a theme that plays up the undercover spy. I think the theme aligns well with the genre (i.e. social mediation games of deception; think Mafia, Werewolf, etc.). I didn’t really pay to much attention to the theme though, honestly. I found the social interactions and core mechanics of the game to be more compelling than the storyline. That being said, I wouldn’t say there were any missed opportunities with the theme. The storyline was pretty seamless with the game mechanics.
Mechanics and Fun
In Spyfall one person is the spy (or two if you have many players) and the rest of the players are non-spies who receive a secret location. The players ask each other questions to figure out who doesn’t know the location (and hence, is the spy).
If you are not the spy, you want to make it clear to everyone you know the secret location BUT you don’t want to reveal the secret location to the spy or else the spy wins. This is easier said than done, especially since you’re on the clock. A timer creates time pressure, which contributes to the challenge aesthetic of the game.
If you are the spy, you want to trick your opponents into thinking you’re not the spy. Or, if you sense the crowd is onto you, you can also win the game by correctly guessing the location. There is a list of possible locations so the spy can start narrowing down the options using observation and deduction. This mechanic helps balance the difficulty amongst spies and non-spies. In the unilateral competition game my team is designing for our social mediation game in CS247, the game has been too difficult for the lone player during the playtest. So, we might incorporate a mechanic similar to Spyfall’s in our final prototype.
Promised Fun
Spyfall is great for social gamers, as there is hilarious discussion regardless of whether you are the spy or not (provided you are playing with decently funny people). If you are in the non-spy role, you get a good dose of challenge with a sprinkle of fellowship. If you are the spy, you get a double dosage of challenge. In my opinion, the spy role is more fun, but that could just be because I’m a competitive gamer.
Graphic Design and Fun
The online version that I played has pretty sparse design elements, other than maybe a spy icon here and there. I was impressed because the game still held up even after stripping away the flashy graphics. I did, however, research the game and found the rule booklet via the magic powers of Google. The graphics may have been helpful, developing the fantasy and narrative aesthetics of the game. That being said, I think the primary types of fun offered by the game are fellowship for the non-spies and challenge for the spy. And those are strong enough to keep the game interesting in my opinion.
Handling Abuse
Spyfall does a pretty good job making sure players don’t gang up on any one player in particular. For example, the spy always has a pretty good built in excuse for giving vague answers: “I know the location, I just don’t want to give it away to the spy.
Closing Thoughts
Spyfall was a lot of fun, and I look forward to playing it with more friends. I think the game mechanics are strong enough to succeed without the flashy graphics. They look pretty, but the bare bones online interface included just the core elements and got the job done for me. I think there are definitely concepts from Spyfall that we can incorporate into our own social mediation game in CS247.
