SpyPartyParty

I was JUST looking for this! :D

banana bread

pies for the spies!

Abby is a beast! And really good at this game.

B a n a n a b r e a d

Banana bread is pretty great.

I was really looking forward to this, but watching it on spectator mode ruined it for me.

Seeing either the actual sniper trying to figure it out, or the spy trying to complete their objectives is what makes this game interesting to watch and gives us a better sense on how the game is played. Watching Vinny's version of events, screwing around and taking fake shots while the actual game is going on but we can't see it just removes all the tension and fun.

I hope they do more SpyPartyParties but showing the player's camera, like they did on other videos when the developer was playing with them.

Zooming in is useful for seeing deeper into maps and looking more closely at animations. Animations are a big focus for high level play. @ybbaaabby

Eh. I may be with Jeff on this one. Being good at this game requiring you to act like the games bad AI just seems a little out of the overall "spirt" of this game. Oh well, still good to see people actually playing this thing without developer going on an on trying to sell it.

I'd like to see another one of these in a few weeks when maybe a few people have played a bit more. This is a game that definitely needs you to play its tutorial, and even after that, reveals itself slowly as you step up the game difficulty.

further to the chat on the live broadcast of this, how about anyone who wants to play a little of this either adds each other or makes a steam group, it's fun against random members of the community and like abbey said, people are generally really nice, but it's nice to have someone to work things out against/

@johnymyko: Agreed, having the actual players cloistered away from the stream made this really disappointing and not as much fun as I was hoping.

Dan has never been more confused in his life, it's real good.

I didn't know Abby was in СМЕРШ...

This stream was put together really well. Hopefully everyone can have time to learn how to play the game so we can have less confusion and more gaming :-)

Seems like the kind of game that would be better with a full group of players rather than two players and Ai. When you think about it, this is just mafia/werewolf with a gun

Love cross-coast content, and thought this went pretty well. It's awesome watching Abby dominate. I echo the sentiment of the person that wanted to see another video in a while (Spy Party Party 2: Rogue Nation) when the rest of the crew has at least all played the tutorial and one of them is very familiar with the higher level spy objectives.

Always bums me out when Jeff is audibly exasperated (example: the GOTY 'best world' segment) because it kind of takes over any moment where it happens and seems hard to pivot out of. Wasn't a big deal, but we got a little of that here.

Very fun stream. I do think I agree with a previous commenter that watching either the spy or the sniper's perspective is more tense and engaging. The spectator view is so divorced from what's going on in the minds of the two competitors.

Heres abit of constructive feedback... Great idea for a stream, but like other commenters have stated, please can we see the actual match playing out instead of Vinnys fake playing spectator mode next time. Its pointless watching a competitive game if you cant see people actualy competing. Theres no tension or anything to build up to. Vinny messes around and then some one dies randomly and its over? Weird to watch. Id like to see more of this game but presented in a better format. Like maybe we see Abbys perspective and she talks through the process as she does it? tbh just seeing it from the actual snipers view would do it. Feels like this got way overly complicated in its inception. Also, please learn how to play the games before streams instead of complaining throughout that you dont understand it. Thats on you, not the game, you chose to stream it, so make it fun to watch. Sure the game is complicated, but Abby and Brad clearly put the time in and without them this couldve been a disaster.

Game just isn’t fun for me and as such I didn’t really find it interesting to watch either. Seems like the kind of thing you can appreciate when you’re good at it but much like Jeff I really had no idea what was going on.

No real interest in playing this, but it was super fun to watch. Abby was a beast!

Fun stream! I want more of this. Maybe able to listen to one/both players during game, and have more of the snipers view during matches.

@cornfed40: Disagree. Jeff doesn't really know enough about the game, neither did anyone else... even Abby (who knew the most). They should have done a little research going in to this, and it's weird because they even took extra time to set it up. Just seems they didn't actually play it in prep. For ex. Jeff was talking about how jitters are obvious bc the ai doesn't do them... yes the ai jitters as well, ai also sometimes does bad pathing that looks like a player messing up. The team should study up and host it again properly... minus the fake play.

Great stream, loved it! Abby is a beast. It's also was interesting to see Jeff and Dan try and figure out how the game works without really playing, and Ben, Brad, Alex, and Vinny being middle ground.

@faux_x: If that's true, then you are right, it really hasn't been presented well. Even in the last video with the developer, he was saying things like "if you see someone standing in the center of this room, its the spy, because the AI will never stand in the center of the room, and if you play enough you will notice things like that." Presented that way, it doesn't really seem like much of a "party" to me. But again, I haven't actually played it, and probably wont, so Ill believe what others say as to how it works

I also don't get the love for this game. It's an interesting concept, but the game looks more like a student project than an actual product.

@cornfed40: Yea not sure he phrased that well. Ai can deff just stand in the middle of the room bc they are on a conversation pad... and if no others are there, it looks like they are just standing in the middle of the room to the sniper. In closing, the ai actually does a lot of things which can look like a bad player and if you look at high level play, you can see how even top players can mistake ai for a player.

You guys found a really great way to stream this! I love it!!

Fun stuff. One of those games where it's entertaining to watch in a format like this, but I have zero interest of ever playing it myself.

Jan said in the chat that he would have to step up next time. Let's get an Abby vs. Jan on Experienced follow-up stream.

This.

The fact that a simple stutter step gives you away and the fact that the AI never does it seems unfair. Why bother watching for the other tells, just look for a person to mess up the way they move or stand in those specific areas.

That said this was fun to watch. Seems like I'll enjoy this more by watching the crew play this coast-to-coast!

@cornfed40 said:

I sort of felt this way when I first saw the game, years ago, but a brief conversation with Chris Hecker convinced me otherwise. It's actually totally in the spirit of the game, because it's all about observing the people around you and doing your best to blend in with them. A big part of the initial challenge of this game is that you get better and better at figuring out the little nuances of how the AI works and adjusting the way you act accordingly. Once you get past a beginner level of play you don't really see those kinds of mistakes anymore, or very rarely.

I'm not gonna argue that everyone should find that fun, I guess, but I personally really enjoy the experience of getting into the AI mindset, focusing on every step and minute movement to blend in as much as possible.

This UI is just BAD.

This was rad.

I hope 49:32 and then 59:12 make it to best of GB.

I liked the spectator mode and watching everyone chat and exchange suspicions. The spy/sniper view is tense, but it's more satisfying after the on-screen audience is allowed to figure things out (which, granted, doesn't always happen, but that's the nature of the game).

What a terrible, no good way to do this video. If you want the audience to "play along" then just use the snipers view. It's so weird and dumb to have the game end and the players start talking but still have Vinny looking around and taking shots.

And let the players talk to each other.

Happy to see the cross coast video evolve though!

@ybbaaabby is a cylon

It's incredibly easy to not stutter step though. When it does happen, it's usually a player stopping early thinking they're gonna stop on a pad, only to end up just short of it. It doesn't take long to get used to the game and avoid ever making that mistake. For those that do still make it, I wouldn't call it anymore unfair than the mistakes you can make in other competitive games.

So ultimately the reason you look for the other tells is because most players won't make these kind of mistakes. Generally speaking, acting like the AI is actually the easy part in this game; they have random enough pathing that a player can meander without it being suspicious, and the way movements are automated once on a pad means you don't have to do any acting at that point . "The way they stand" isn't something the player actually has to worry about; once on a pad, your character will automatically move into the specific position for it and rotate the right direction. Avoiding the stutter step onto a pad is really the main thing you have to be good about, and again, it's not that hard once you get used to it.

Like faux x was saying, there tends to be a few conversation circles around the middle of rooms, so the AI can potentially stand there alone if no one else joins. However, they will never stand in the middle of a room where there isn't one of those circles, which is what the dev must've been getting at. The sniper can't see those circles though, so to use that to their advantage, they would need to memorize where each circle is for each map.

banana bread

This was great. Abby was great.

Cool jacket, @ybbaaabby! Also, well done.

Furthermore...

The sniper view is impossible, impractical, and idiotic. Why are you on a camera dolly 15 feet away from the party.

Cool, weird idea for a game.

I'm definitely in the camp that the player's views was much more interesting than the "play as sniper" view. I couldn't really figure anything out (as to what the game is) from the faux sniper view, but they used the player views it started to click.

I don't really get what the problem is.

The AI not stutterstepping is exactly in the spirit of the game. The AI don't all perfectly hit their marks each time, they don't space themselves out perfectly. That would be BS.

If you stutterstep it's because you're nervous and not confident. After about 5 matches, most people don't stutter step. Problem solved.

This seems less like "find the spy" and more like "find the non-AI"

@ashton:

Stutter stepping stops being a tell literally 10 games in, once new players get used to the movement.

More of this please :)

I refuse to believe the real Waluigi would be a bad spy.

Welcome to video games.

It's a cool idea, but after watching 3 rounds I had my fill.