With 21 fully fleshed-out characters and 10 maps, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of avenues for the spy to be caught in each round, and just as many opportunities for them to conceal their actions, complete the mission and win the game. Certain spy moves will trigger sounds or actions at the party, while specific characters are known to behave in unique ways when they're controlled by the AI - the sniper is looking for any inconsistencies or slipups by the sole human in the room. Meanwhile, the sniper watches everything from afar, attempting to pick out the spy and shoot them on the spot. The spy's job is to blend in with these AI characters while stealthily completing a series of tasks for their mission. The spy attends a party packed with AI characters making small talk, wandering the room, drinking, and generally behaving as fancy humans would. It's a one-on-one battle of wits and detection, where one player is a spy and the other is a sniper. SpyParty is the Turing Test in video game form. It's a dense competitive game with thousands of tiny rules essential to top-tier play. In his mind, SpyParty can't exist without an engaged pool of people helping each other out, and he might be right. He's placed an emphasis on cultivating a welcoming, knowledgeable and non-toxic player base as the game has been put through its paces in beta on Hecker's own website. One of Hecker's greatest concerns - and accomplishments - with SpyParty has been the community. Like the fact that I have the best online competitive gaming community ever.' There's a whole bunch of things I'm concerned about with that and excited about that. 'That's fucking crazy and I'm terrified, like literally, abject terrified, and my anxiety level is through the fucking roof,' he says.

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. 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.

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