For this critical play, I played Spyfall, a card game designed by Alexandr Ushan for 3-8 people in 2014. This game seems to be intended for a younger, teenage audience and has been adapted to an online platform as well. Although Spyfall has a number of similarities to the game that we are prototyping for project 1, specifically related to the social deduction aspect and the mechanic related to spies, I find that the two games focus on different goals resulting in a quite different experience. By utilizing the best parts from my critical play of Spyfall, I hope to improve our final design.
In Spyfall, social deduction is emphasized through the mechanics related to information distribution. Although all the players but the spy knows the information, no one can be sure of each others’ roles. Because of the stark contrast in information between the players and the spy, players are often forced to make random assumptions based on peoples’ behaviors. Although the players may narrow down their suspects for the spy, they are never given “new” information throughout the game and must rely on process of elimination to finally vote out the spy. On occasions where random votes occur, this can result in frustration from the players who feel as though they were only found guilty due to bogus evidence. On the other hand, as the game goes on longer, spies are given a slight advantage due to the constant sharing of indirect information. Once the spy has survived for enough rounds, they are often able to infer the location based on the questions being asked. The combination of these mechanics means that effectively, the players slowly become disadvantaged while the spies become more advantaged, eventually reaching a middle ground in which the game is decided. Since the nature of the game is rooted in this struggle between a balance and imbalance of information, with the spies having a slight edge over time, players are forced to try to win in the early stages of the game.
In Writer’s Block, the opposite phenomenon is likely to occur. In this game, the spies know who the other is, while the players still lack any information regarding roles. A key difference occurs due to the mechanic of missions in that players are given an advantage over time rather than the spies. This happens because the spies must follow their set rule/mission until the end of the game, allowing players to gather evidence and cross-check their hypotheses before coming to a conclusion. I find that this results in a less frustrating experience overall because players are able to finish the game with much more confidence in their choice when compared to Spyfall. Instead of relying on slipups and body language as main sources of evidence, players in Writer’s Block are able to deduce the spies using logic and pattern analysis. To improve the experience for the spies in our game, we may incorporate “growing” rules or missions that evolve over time so it is not too straightforward for the players to find the spy.
Although both games can be seen as team vs. team, each has a unique twist on the classic “Find the spy” gameplay. While Spyfall focuses on deception through verbal communication, using vague answers and questions, Writer’s Block focuses on written communication, allowing spies to be creative with how they hide their mission. Since spies in Writer’s Block may have missions related to either the words they write or physical actions like tapping or rubbing their head, it introduces several new dimensions to the game. The mechanic of players having to collaborate without knowing the identity of the other while sabotaging the spies relates to the idea of fellowship fun. During the Spyfall round that I played for this critical play, I was a non-spy player and remember the warm feeling of thinking I knew exactly who my team was — until I was ultimately betrayed at the end of the game by a quick-witted friend who found out the true location early. This up-and-down of emotions related to trust results in exciting gameplay, which is something we wanted to incorporate in Writer’s Block. In our game, we actively promote the idea of narrative fun as well, putting the players in the driver’s seat and letting them lead the story in whatever direction they want. We had a particularly fun round playtesting where we believed we wouldn’t be able to finish the sentence smoothly, only for a player to write an amazing final three words to wrap up the story. Two areas we hope to further improve in our gameplay is the fun related to discovery and challenge. We want the game to be balanced enough where both teams feel adequately challenged throughout the game, whether that’s hiding their identity with quick-witted written phrases or gathering evidence to discuss. Additionally, we hope to incorporate a number of lesser known stories as well so that players can learn and discover new narratives while also learning how to write in new ways.
Writer’s Block aims to be combination of creative freedom, social deduction, and problem solving, inviting a wide audience spanning kids, adults, elderly, and of course, writers. With our unique twist of spies following missions while still continuing the story, our players can flex their creative muscles while engaging in an exciting battle of wits and deception.
