Innovative Video Game Concept Should Appeal to Poker Players

The Wired Game|Life blog featured today a unique indie game in the early stages of development. Chris Hecker’s SpyParty is

an asymmetrical multiplayer game: One player mingles among computer-controlled party guests, attempting to perform sly feats of espionage. The other player watches the action from afar through the sight of a sniper rifle, hoping to pick out the human spy from a roomful of robots, then assassinate him.

Why do I say this should appeal to poker players? The strategy for the spy player entails trying to deceive his opponent by imitating the AI-controlled people at the party. The assassin player’s job is to look for tells that will distinguish the human from the robots, a task which gets particularly intense when the two players are in the same real-life room:

When the laser focuses on you, the tension is intense. And the relief, when the beam swings away, is powerful. But if you’re playing in the same room as your opponent, you can’t sigh or show relief, or you’ll reveal your hand. Hecker says he’s seen players fake button presses to fool opponents.

Seems like a fun way to practice your poker face, and your reverse tells.

2 thoughts on “Innovative Video Game Concept Should Appeal to Poker Players”

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Mitch Beckstead

April 30, 2010 at 10:01 pm

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