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10 years later, 'SpyParty' hits Steam Early Access on April 12th
Chris Hecker, the creator of SpyParty, is smiling and gesturing wildly over the open lid of a laptop showcasing the game's six new upgraded maps. After 10 years of development, SpyParty is finally going to land on Steam Early Access on April 12th, and Hecker is barely containing a cacophony of emotions -- not all of them bad. "That's fucking crazy and I'm terrified, like literally, abject terrified, and my anxiety level is through the fucking roof," he says. "But I'm excited too, and we'll see. There's a whole bunch of things I'm concerned about with that and excited about that. Like the fact that I have the best online competitive gaming community ever."
'SpyParty' finally looks like a real video game
Yes, after nearly 10 years, SpyParty is still in development. It's an underground kind of independent, competitive game where one player is a spy attempting to complete discreet tasks at a fancy party, and another player is positioned outside, observing the scene through the scope of a sniper rifle. The spy attempts to blend in with a room full of AI-powered partygoers while the sniper tries to figure out which one is actually human (and then shoot that character, of course). And soon, it will all be much, much prettier. Creator Chris Hecker, artist John Cimino and newly hired environment artist Reika Yoshino today revealed five new characters, a professional-looking UI and an updated version of SpyParty's largest map, Veranda. The update isn't live yet, but it's coming in hot and should be available in the game's paid beta late tonight.
Peek behind the developers' curtain with 'SpyParty' slider images
Most 3D games don't begin life as gorgeous, fully animated, shaded and colored products. They start with concept art and placeholder images that allow developers to fine-tune the mechanics and build out a full experience. Sometimes, these placeholder characters are unrefined. Sometimes, they look like a weird hybrid between a Lego man and one of the original Sims. That's the case for SpyParty, an intense game of one-on-one stealth, misdirection and sharpshooting that's been in development for roughly eight years. And, looking at its original art, we do mean rough (though the OG characters are beloved by many early players). In a blog update, SpyParty creator Chris Hecker shows off how his game has changed since its placeholder days, in a set of images with sliders comparing old and new, fancy graphics provided by artist John Cimino.
The curious case of 'SpyParty' and self-funded indie games
Game developer Chris Hecker attended Parsons School of Design in the late 1980s -- his admissions counselor was a fashionable man named Tim Gunn, who accepted Hecker's portfolio complete with a four-foot oil painting of Freddy Krueger, the canvas slashed as if it had been attacked by the subject's own bladed fingers. Hecker eventually dropped out of Parsons and studied computers, picking up jobs at Microsoft and, finally, EA Maxis, building Spore. Now, he's an independent developer and his current project, SpyParty, has been in the works for eight years. Hecker is experienced. He's a veteran developer. He's a relic of gaming's lost AA industry. Or, as Hecker puts it, he's "old and decrepit." "I'm 44 years old, which is old as hell in development," he says.
Not even spies suspect a thing when Octodad goes to a party
Don't blame the sniper in Short-Lived Heroes' YouTube vid "OctoParty: Dadliest Spy" - a mash-up of Octodad and SpyParty - for having trouble spotting the undercover agent slinking through the crowd of partygoers; after all, the sneaky cephalopod slipped by us at E3, too. [Image: Short-Lived Heroes]
SpyParty update: 5 new characters, possible dog murder, no new launch date
Chris Hecker has something to say to everyone who thinks he's taking too long to develop SpyParty: "They're right. It's taking too long – but probably not for the reasons they think." SpyParty has been in development for five years. Hecker says part of the problem is that he just needs to type faster, but really, SpyParty is taking so long because he needs it to be perfect. That, and the development team is just him and artist John Cimino – no extra PR team, concept art division, website designer or programmers. Hecker and Cimino are all of these things, plus more roles, all of the time. "It's insane to do a competitive-level, multiplayer, 3D game with 20 custom-animated, high-end, AAA-quality chraracters – with two people," Hecker says. "That's bonkers. You just don't do that. So it just takes time. I'm slow anyway, but it just takes time, even if I were fast."
See if you're a spy or a sniper in new SpyParty trailer
There are two ways to be a successful spy. Option one: You blend into the crowd, wandering among civilians and your target inconspicuously – until you strike. Option two: You stand out, turning heads with a sexy swagger and distracting your victim with sensual charm. SpyParty is transitioning from spy option one, to option two. Rawr. SpyParty is Chris Hecker's Turing Test simulator that has one player attempting to blend into a party full of computer-controlled characters, while another player tries to find the real human down the scope of a sniper rifle. The SpyParty website just got a facelift that better mirrors the new, wildly updated art style that will be in the final game. There, you can sign up for instant access to the beta, read about the SpyParty community and compare the before-and-after art styles. Plus, we finally have a trailer for the game itself, rather than for specific features (also known as bugs). "You'll notice this trailer is almost completely the old art and is completely in-game footage," Hecker says. "This is intentional, because the last thing I want is somebody watching some super polished pre-rendered trailer and then loading the game and feeling misled. Of course, this means the Spy pours a drink down her face in one shot because the runtime code for taking sips from a drink isn't aligned with the mouth properly in the old art. Oops." [Image: Chris Hecker]
SpyParty's new art brings eerie new glitches
Developer Chris Hecker recently added attractive new art to multiplayer espionage game SpyParty. With the new aesthetics, however, come entertaining new bugs that turn a suspiciously quiet dinner party into a squamous freakshow of floating bodies and contorted limbs.
SpyParty's new art crashes the open beta dinner party
The purty new SpyParty art, revealed back in August, has made its way into the ongoing public beta. In this latest developer diary, developer Chris Hecker walks us through how to access the new level and shows off some of the much more dashing player models.
SpyParty's new art, animated for the first time
Developer Chris Hecker revealed the new art style for SpyParty characters last year, and now we get to see those new pixels in motion for the first time. The first animated characters for SpyParty are Mr. A and Ms. B, each shown solo and side-by-side with their old, blocky selves. These animations are in real-time, rendered on Hecker's two-year-old laptop – he and animation expert John Cimino want to keep the minimum spec for the full game as low as possible, while striking a balance between "uncanny valley" and "cartoony." "The first animations are of two of the characters talking, so we looked for reference of people lecturing, giving monologues or just conversing in a stylish way," Hecker says. "We haven't chosen in-game names for the characters yet, so we're going to name them by letter for now, which sounds all spy-like and mysterious, but is mostly us just not knowing what else to call them." SpyParty will be at PAX Prime from August 30 to September 2, and the new art will be on display in a supplemental form alongside the playable game with old art. That new build should hit the public beta right after PAX, Hecker says. Last week, Hecker showed off the new environment style for SpyParty, but said the remodeled art wouldn't be fully integrated into the beta for a "very long time." Hecker plans to update the SpyParty blog with new animation videos every Monday, Wednesday and Friday right up until PAX. Check out Mr. A and Ms. B – names subject to change – above and below, respectively.
SpyParty invites you to the garden party: New art for old environments
SpyParty has earned attention over the years for being an intensely addictive, competitive game. What a lot of people forget is that SpyParty is also supposed to be a pretty game. SpyParty mastermind Chris Hecker released a batch of fresh, updated concept levels today demonstrating the intended final look. These new environments join the updated character models that Hecker released one year ago and will oust the placeholder art that players in the beta have come to associate with the game. Hecker, and even some players, lovingly call that art "ugly." "I'm not ashamed to show my really ugly game because I'm really proud of the gameplay," Hecker tells me as we walk through the new screenshots over Skype. "If the game had looked like this when we first showed it, people would want to talk about how pretty it was, too, and that's just a distraction." The remodeled environments won't hit the SpyParty beta for a "very long time" (surprise), but Hecker and his development partner, John Cimino, will work on implementing the new art on a separate plane and then slowly roll it into the game. These images are rendered concept pieces, but Hecker says they're a "visual target" and he's hopeful the in-game products will be a close match.%Gallery-195633%
EVO 2013 Indie Showcase features Towerfall, Aztez, SpyParty, 6 more
EVO, the annual fighting game convention and tournament, packs an underground punch this year with nine games in the Indie Showcase, bringing in four new titles and five returning champs. The four new games are Towerfall, Treachery in Beatdown City, Samurai Gunn and Super Space ____ (pronounced "Super Space Blank"), and the repeat offenders are SpyParty, BariBariBall, Nidhogg, Aztez and Super Comboman. Towerfall caught our eye on the Ouya, Aztez has been creating buzz around conventions local and otherwise, and SpyParty has a special connection with EVO – its current No. 1 player first saw it at last year's convention. The EVO 2013 Indie Showcase is organized by Nathan Vella, President of Capy Games (Below, Sword and Sworcery), and the entire show runs from July 12 - 14 in Las Vegas. Aaaaand FIGHT.
The top SpyParty player is a fighting game guy from EVO 2012
Four months before SpyParty debuted at EVO 2012's Indie Showcase, convention founder Seth Killian threw down a gentlemen's bet with SpyParty creator Chris Hecker: "An EVO attendee will be your No. 1 player in subsequent tests, and take down whoever the existing top players might be." Hecker took the bet. One year later, SpyParty is on its way to EVO 2013, and Hecker owes Killian a beer. SpyParty is slow-paced for a one-on-one "fighting game," but it requires the same mad obsession with detail prevalent in many fighting games. Players are either the spy or the sniper: As the spy they must blend in with a room of AI characters attending a fancy party and complete tasks unbeknownst to the sniper. The sniper has to spot the human character with enough certainty to shoot it before the other player completes all the tasks. The top SpyParty player in the world is Korey Mueller, AKA "kcmmmmm" (pictured above, standing in the blue button-down), and as a lifelong fighting game fan, it's fitting that he first heard about SpyParty at EVO 2012. Since the convention, Mueller has played 6,436 games of SpyParty and has spent 262 hours in-game, with 1,020 hours total log-in time. The player that comes closest to these numbers clocks in at 5,151 games and 213 hours in-game. After picking out which beer he's going to buy Killian, Hecker asked Mueller about his fighting game roots and how he thinks SpyParty fits into the fighting game community. "There's always this feeling that there's some way I can improve, and every time I meet a personal goal, I find another one," Mueller tells Hecker. "I couldn't really look at the game and decide to be a top player, I just wanted to continue to improve – and at some point, I guess I got pretty decent at it. Now that you mention it, 6,000 games is a lot." Yeah, it is.
SpyParty open beta is live, pop some bubbly and lie to your friends now
SpyParty is throwing an early-access beta and you're invited! For $15 get your mitts on SpyParty, or spend $50 or more to get the game and some warm fuzzies for helping a developer make his game great. SpyParty is about subtle behavior and scoping out the real person in a room of fancy robots, and it's been in closed beta since 2011. The game's mechanics and graphics have intrigued us since 2009, when former Spore frontman Chris Hecker announced its development, and today you can finally see what all the fuss is about. SpyParty is a one-on-one, live Turing test with strict rules (if you want to succeed, at least) and a loyal, underground fanbase. Hecker even brought it to EVO 2012's Indie Showcase, giving fighting game players a taste of intense espionage. Hecker hosted a final closed-beta loadtest last night and drew in 170 players, so the SpyParty lobbies should be nice and primed for some fresh blood.
SpyParty redesign: The new art of espionage
Last year, animator John Cimino turned down a cushy position at Zynga, pre-IPO, to work out of Chris Hecker's garage redesigning Hecker's ambitious, notorious indie game SpyParty. Cimino worked in secret since September 2011 to transform the primary colors and block-based skeletons of SpyParty's characters into the artistic, realistic designs revealed today.Hecker calls the new style "illustrative," and he's extremely pleased with it."We spent a ton of time trying to figure out the best possible art style for the game," Hecker tells Joystiq. "We really wanted the art style to reflect the same level of subtlety that the gameplay has. I didn't want it to be too realistic or too exaggerated, and I think we hit it on this really nice, call it naturalistic or illustrative – they look like illustrations. I'm super excited."%Gallery-163415%
SpyParty's graphics leap from 1998 to 2012 in one gallery
Up until now, the most interesting thing about SpyParty was its ridiculously deep gameplay. That remains the case, actually, but the game's new look is certainly something to write home about. We've got a full feature with Chris Hecker detailing how the changes took place, but if you just wanna take a looksy, here you go!
Influential indies on the brouhaha around Ouya
The Ouya, a $99 Android-powered console whose prototype has raised $4.9 million in 7 days on Kickstarter, is a mystery wrapped in a sleek silver box. Many players seem to gravitate toward the idea because of its price point, while it would appear developers, especially indies, are backing it for its open hardware.But those are just appearances – we want to know what prominent and plucky indie developers actually think the Ouya can do for the industry. So we asked a few, including Minecraft's Markus Persson, The Binding of Isaac's Edmund McMillen, Retro City Rampage's Brian Provinciano and five other indie starlings. Their thoughts are collected below in the order each developer responded to the email thread, because that seems more fair than arranging them by "best hair" or something.A few of the indies are tenuously linked to the Ouya and have already been quoted on the Kickstarter itself, or have a game listed in the mock-up images, but none of the following developers have seen or played the Ouya. These are initial reactions to an idea, and speculation about a rapidly evolving industry:
Crashing EVO: SpyParty's Chris Hecker on depth and fighting games
When we asked Chris Hecker how SpyParty snuck its way into EVO 2012, we didn't think he'd actually tell us – revealing sensitive information is opposed to an entire half of his game's title, after all. We assume it was the other half that allowed him to divulge the details behind how SpyParty, a one-on-one asymmetric Turing Test, snagged a featured spot at the year's largest fighting-game gathering:"It all started with Seth Killian," Hecker said. "Seth and I have talked about my goals for SpyParty to be a game that can eventually be counted among the most intensely competitive player-skill games we have, games like Counter-Strike, Starcraft, LoL, Dota and Street Fighter, and he's been really supportive of that goal."Seth emailed me and asked if I'd be interested in bringing SpyParty to EVO. I knew a bit about EVO and was kind of blown away by the offer."SpyParty is one of EVO 2012's Indie Showcase titles, and will be available for anyone to try out on the expo floor, which is completely free and open to the public July 6-7 at Las Vegas' Caesars Palace.The game itself is based on subtlety, precision and practice, much like many fighting games, but it doesn't involve any twitch movements, bright, flashing colors or hadoukens – and it comes with a four-page manual that must be read before anyone attempts to play it. In terms of pacing for the American audience: if Mortal Kombat is football, SpyParty is soccer.
SpyParty selected as the Indie Showcase title for EVO 2012
Remember Spy Party, that sniper vs. spy game Chris Hecker made and showed off at our E3 meetup last year? The game, originally designed as the ultimate test of deep gaming skill, is getting a spotlight on one of the biggest competitive gaming stages as the Indie Showcase title at EVO 2012.That means Spy Party will be playable at the event in Las Vegas in two weeks, and Hecker says he's hoping to have the demos hooked up to the Internet, letting attendees play some of the top players online. 50 beta invites are also being given away right now, so head over and sign up if you're interested. Spy Party was designed to test and highlight extreme player skill, so it's awesome to see it get placed in an event that brings in skilled gamers from all over the world.
Overheard@GDC: The craft of mining
Minecraft creator and recent millionaire Notch held a fireside chat with Spyparty's Chris Hecker, seated alongside a pixelated fire roaring across a plasma screen in one of the large halls at GDC. Hecker and Notch kicked off the chat with two bottles of Sierra Nevada and a cheers, and for one hour, a roomful of fans and developers listened to the pair of them talk about the intricacies of Minecraft's development in some of the most riveting, "you had to be there" moments.But one thing Notch said applies to everyone, even those who weren't cool enough to be in the room:"There is one thing that hasn't been found," he declared, referring to the Easter Eggs and cool tricks buried in Minecraft gameplay. Grab a beer (or legally applicable beverage) and get diggin', folks.
