Spyfall emphasizes social deduction through its very simple, yet very effective mechanics. The game is centered not around what is going on on a board or screen, but instead forces you to focus on what is being said among the players. The effectiveness of the social deduction in Spyfall can be shown mostly through the formal elements of boundaries, objectives, and procedures and rules.
The objective of the game is what drives a lot of the social deduction of the game, which is to try and find the “spy”, who is the one person in the game who doesn’t know what the given location for that round is. While other elements of the game like boundaries and procedures/rules help to make the social deduction easier, the objective of finding the odd one out is the main driver of the social deduction, which can also be found in other games like Among Us and Mafia. I also thought it was interesting that as players, we didn’t seem to care very much about the overall objective, which was to get to a certain point total. When looking at the official rules, it gives point values to spies and non spies based on the outcome of each round, but much like when I play Apples to Apples or other social “party games”, the players become more focused on winning each round, and don’t seem to care as much about the total points. We were just playing new rounds until we didn’t feel like playing anymore, instead of playing until a point total was met.
The procedures and rules are used to guide the objective and create dynamics between the players and the objective, but they are incredibly simple. Everyone except for the spy is given a location, and as people take turns asking one person of their choice one question at a time, the spy tries to figure out the location, while the others try and figure out who the spy is. That is basically it, and while the general rules can be explained in just one sentence, the game doesn’t feel too boring or simple. This is because the rules are intentionally simple so that it forces the players to talk amongst each other and ask questions, which enhances the social deduction of the game and is the source of the conflict. With more lax constraints, we were really getting into it with each other, and the intensity started to pick up. If there had been more guidance or prompts that we were supposed to touch on, then we maybe wouldn’t have been able to call each other out as much and wouldn’t have gotten as invested in the game. Without too many constraints, players have to ask questions and make deductions on their own, which makes it more challenging and more fun.
The boundaries of Spyfall enhance the social deduction aspect of the game because although the game is started on a phone browser, the players have to be in the same room with each other so that they can talk to one another. This means that the “magic circle” of the game boundary consists of the players participating in the game. Unlike some social deduction games like Among Us or Mafia, nobody gets voted out or “killed” during the rounds, so each round everybody who is in the game is participating and a part of the boundary. Although only one person can ask one other person one question at a time, the information given in these questions and answers is useful for everybody, and so even those who aren’t actively asking or answering questions are paying attention to try and get as much information as they can to figure out who the spy is.
