A Small Party at GDC for Playtesters and Press
I decided at pretty close to the last possible minute to have a small “thank you” party for the first set of SpyParty beta playtesters, and I invited some friends from the press who have been covering the game for a while. Scheduling things during the evening at a big tradeshow like GDC is basically impossible…there are so many other conflicting events and parties and meetings that you have to just pick a date and go with it. I picked Tuesday night, and tried to make it a short party, scheduled in-between other big events, but in a bizarre twist of fate I still ended up landing right on top of the SimCity 5 launch event, a game being made by all my old friends from Maxis. Oops.
Anyway, the idea behind this party was to get the hardcore playtesters playing together in-person and say “Thanks!” with beer and snacks, but also to get them mentoring the folks from the press, who haven’t seen much of the mid-game yet because they haven’t played enough games. I don’t know how well the mentoring thing worked out since it was not exactly a quiet contemplative training environment, but everybody seemed to have a good time, and that was the main goal. Huge thanks to Jonathan Blow for letting me use his suite for the party, and to Luis & Mylene and John & Alice for bringing the food1 and drinks!
I took some pictures, maybe you can recognize some playtesters and press…
And, now we’re in the home stretch for the next batch of invites. I’m plowing through the list of bugs and feature requests from the first batch, and the next invites are going out really soon™. Here’s the current todo list:
put portraits up along side for cast charactersalso spy!how to center text? allow two lines worth of space? uneven spacing?have box with ? on side for casting characters – progress status and neatdon’t get that click on guy selects during cast characterscharacter/level chooser mouse tip for select versus next/prevmouse overrides cursor keys in menus if over item…don’t override if key change but no mouse changewhy is volume not working on last 30 seconds timer on sniper machine?sniper review tells on waiting screens – sort ofbasic infrastructure for thischooser through animations playing on loop!text title and description supportrequire sniper okay to continuebug_ambassadordouble_agentinspect_statuesseductionsteal_statuetransfer_book- check_watch
mouse clicks are going to background window on spy sidedoes spy side keep mouse cursor on results screen?sniper camera moves on results screenpgup->PageUpfix statue pad size- multiple affordances controls
- display bumpers/QE/mousewheel?
update action test text as affordance changes for Signal Double Agent?or kill it if it’s not an active affordance, so have to restart?- document action test is same button?
- put small icon next to it?
update while in lobbyUpdate Failed on download bar…needs to test more- remove briefcase verbs? or ignore them?
- write forum welcome/intro/faq posts
- update readme, or just empty it and point to the focum post?
how to report bugs postpost threads for known bugs- tutorial video, walk through Spy and Sniper practice mode as if I was showing you how to play at a playtest
ctrl-delete delete next word, use ctrl-right code…uh, and fix thatupdated lobbyserver won’t accept old connections, even to update, idiot!start sniper while other on results -> no -> sniper -> assert(level) – yay, found it!needs to zero play id on starting sniper because still currentneed to fix gameid/playid thing…I’m constantly stomping the gameidstore gameid/playid pairs from server, then look up based on playidstore playid on server as wellcan’t escape from sniper results after play attempt? IsLobbyGameOver bustedadd string wrap to property parser, or general line continuation?
I haven’t decided how many people to invite in the next batch, but it’ll be somewhere between 20 and 50, depending on how confident I’m feeling. Yikes, 50 strangers from the internet!
2012-03-23 15:19:45 – Crossed some stuff off. Working on the missions preview code, so people will be able to see what all the tells look like before playing.
2012-03-30 13:24:10 – Added a bunch of stuff I’ve been working on that wasn’t on the posted list!
2012-04-03 17:18:30 – Well, it turns out the mission tell preview took a lot longer than I thought, and I still didn’t manage to hook it up to the Sniper waiting screens, so it’s just in the practice menu for now. I shouldn’t have done this one now, but once I started I failed to stop working on it.
- Mylene’s homemade guacamole was awesome! [↩]
Stranger danger! I need an adult! I need an adult!
…
That bug/todo list is looking strangely manageable. Bet it won’t look that way once you crack the floodgates and let 20-50 people in
“STOP! Don’t do that! I don’t like that!”
Aye, looking extra manageable!
Yeah, I expect the list to get a lot longer once more people are in. Also, this is a fraction of the full list, this is just the list until I do the next batch. So many lists…
If it were up to me, i’d say 42 is a good number to invite but that just may be the hitch hiker in me.
Keep up the good work Checker!
Agreed. In a totally unrelated note, what’s your spot in line?
I’m sitting at 1108, so got awhile yet.
I won’t be able to reply for awhile so don’t take it as me being rude. Cheers!
Sorry about that! I was trying to invite Jordy at 11:59pm and you at 12:01am and let you guys decide what that meant for your bet, but I didn’t make it. :/
Congratulations, Keith and Checker. You are officially the first people to April Fools me =(
And it’s only 2am… gonna be a looong day :)
I was at least expecting a fake beta-invite this morning in my mailbox?! :D
See you Keith, now you are gone we’re free to talk strategy.
> Congratulations, Keith and Checker. You are officially the first people to April Fools me =(
Really? What happened? Because it can’t find any jokes here or anywhere else. Or am I misunderstanding something?
I think Quirken thought there was a joke, unless he’s saying that me thinking I was potentially going to make 11:59pm is itself a joke. :)
I never should have tried to get this Tell Preview thing in, a feature too far!
Operation: Market Spy?
Operation: Spy Garden?
Good ideas for levels though – Have a party in a rose garden, with the sniper on a clock tower in the distance.
Have another one in a bazaar at nighttime, lit by torchlight – some kind of outdoor celebration.
I would love a rose garden, and a outdoor high-society lawn party, however if the sniper would be hauled up in a distance clock-tower, I’d imagine he’d have a very limited view range.
I actually recently thought about that for a brief second, what kind of vantage points the sniper could have on the different maps, I imagine the first map will pose the most problems, though not impossibly ofcourse with some fancy architecture.
In a bazaar the spy could have to purchase different things, perhaps optional ones, that he can use to provide him with an advantage.
Great, now he’s going to want to finish the garden level before the next wave of beta invites.
Hah, you fool, still believing in such a thing as “the next beta-invites-wave”. I’ve become a non-believer, if you truly exist … then SHOW it to me!
I’m around 1100 in line iirc, so as far as I’m concerned, an extra 45 days for a Garden level tacked onto the 5 months or so to get to 1100 isn’t too bad in the grand scale of things.
Besides Mr Hecker’s the one who brought up Operation: Market Garden, with his “A preview too far”/”A bridge too far” reference. =)
The first picture reminds me of Spy Party, like there is a sniper watching through the window
Interesting observation. Could be kind of cool to do a “real life” spy party with a camera in some corner, and then have somebody after-the-fact attempt to identify the spy.
Other than being a promotion for the game, it could result in new gameplay mechanics or better AI or any other number of tweaks.
Indeed, but to quote the FAQ: ‘People find it challenging to get the players playing the NPCs to “act normal”, apparently.’ Or do you want to do this at an actual party, so that the NPCs don’t know they’re NPCs :-P? Haha, I guess that wouldn’t work either, because they would probably say things like: ‘where the hell are you going with these statues’ :-P?
Well, I sorta meant LARP but not in quite the same context as the entry in the FAQ.
Checker (or anyone, really) could host a party, and not tell the guests it was a Spyparty event. So everyone would just act naturally. Meanwhile, one person would have objectives to do while at the party.
You could then look at the footage and see how people at parties behave, and compare it to what the AI in Spyparty is doing. I imagine it would likely smooth out the AI behavior a bit to have a real life counterpart.
And having the spy behave more organically rather than trying to emulate a computer might give Checker some interesting ideas, too.
Three other variants:
– people know it is a spyparty event, but only at random periods in the party is there a spy, who gets randomly selected. This should keep people from trying to identify the spy, as doing that for a few hours straight when mostly it’s just a party would probably get a little dull.
– the other NPC types could know who they are too, and try to fill that role. It’d be a little less awkward if the spy had an objective related to them.
– everyone could be given a sort of “role-playing” personality card as they come in, and so everyone would be acting some sort of role (“Hollywood star” or “Finnish Interpreter” or what not) rather than just the spy. this would probably be more fun
On a mostly irrelevant point, it’d be fun to mix Spy Party with booze, from a strategy perspective. How do you tell whether the person who bumped into the bookshelf was drunk, or the spy? Bwahahah.
I’d like that, plant a bug on a nice ambassadress..
Ambassadress? LOL! Excellent word there :D
Could be an interesting party. Someone should take notes and such and publish for them good old school sociology books or if you wanted to narrow it down to just the spy, then psychology could work too.
As far as drinking goes, i remember somewhere something similar. If you had too much to drink then you could start ‘feeling’ the effects. Things like action test could get harder, perhaps a slight wobble. Of course guests who drink would have to display similar characteristics too. Or maybe it could just effect what the spy sees. For example could see double vision of the sniper laser, or the whole action test thing and stuff like that. So this way it could be an interesting choice of whether to drink at the party or not. Having a drink in hand kind of hinders what the spy can do. But not having a drink in hand kind of says “i’m a spy” but not exactly.
Live Spy Party could be fun. Maybe have a Sniper standing outside the room with a laser tag gun and everyone in the party gets a vest.
Just to clarify, the drinking part that i posted wasn’t discussed the way i talked about it. But i believe it was discussed that eventually Checker wanted to add personality to each character. That way, the spy has to know each character and you know that someone at the party will have the “drink to much” personality!
I definitely observe people at parties and other social gatherings now a lot more than I used to. And yes, drinks are going to play a bigger role in the future…handling something like drunkeness is a delicate thing in a player skill game, especially if you plan on making the Spy’s controls less accurate, but certainly acting drunk is something I want to explore, since that gets to the performance aspect of the game.
Letting the spy have a glass of alcohol, and then choosing whether or not (and when) to actually drink it would add another layer. Simply holding a drink would make you stand out less, but if you never drank from it, that would look fishy :)
What you could do is just have drunkiness effect the action reload thing based on number of drinks and what character the spy is playing. Increasing the actual tells could be fun but only for the really drunk, also drunk NPCs could act like spies such getting too close to the ambassador saying loud random phrases putting statues back in wrong places and flirting more than usual. Again this would only happen for when they drink way to much.
You could do a thing where you had to either sip or fake sip, and sipping gets rid of the liquid, and fake sipping doesn’t, so you wouldn’t ever have to get a new drink. But, observant snipers would notice this. Eventually I’ll render the liquid level as well. Or you could dump it in a plant. Lots of possibilities!
That sounds amazing.
Any chance there might be ‘costume’ spy parties once the game is done? :) I think it’d be fun to see how it would change the sniper’s perception of things if the party was full of dinosaurs and superheroes and other random costumes
come to think of it, that would probably make it easier for the sniper unless ALL the costumes were unique or theyy were sort of non-descript, in which case there’d be no point. so nevermind.
What if you went the other way with it and made drinking a positive for the spy? James Bond was never impaired by his Vodka Martini, In fact, it emboldened him. Perhaps a spy would exhibit less tells after a few drinks to calm his nerves.
You could still have other guests being impaired by alcohol, with alternate animations for various actions, such as talking over-zealously, or getting touchy feel-y with other guests. Of course the spy would be able to mimic those. I think there are just as many gameplay ramifications (Who seems like they are trying to get loaded at the start of the party? Who hasn’t had a drop to drink, but now is acting drunk?)
I like this better because I think it fits in much better with the Spy fiction motif. To use James Bond as an example again: Bond will never be too drunk to get the job done and even if he is caught off-guard, he always sobers up instantly. He will also pretend to act drunk to get the job done. Also, the way drunkenness is portrayed in video games is usually annoying double vision or impaired controls, which I have never felt has added anything to any game other than the novelty of “LOLZ! I’m drunk!”
I agree. This is why I am infavor of just having the action tell be harder to pull off for the spy when intoxicated. The sniper could see a person drinking too much and think they don’t have to pay as much attention to that person because they are more likely to mess up or be more obvious in their missions than otherwise. The trouble is I want drinking to always be a risk for the spy and a skilled spy could get good at a much harder action tell. The npcs would be noticeably effected if they have too much to drink and the spy can mimic them, but the wavy screen/ bad responding controls that show up in games to show the player is drunk would not fit in spy party.
Interesting idea. If you were going to run with this positive idea, it could be more like a brief powerup. The sweet spot on the action bar could be a little longer than normal. Or perhaps the slider bar thing can move at a slightly slower pace. The more you drink the bigger the effects.
A spy could chug like 3 drinks and be super amazing at the action test and get stuff done swiftly. Obviously there could be a small timer of the effects lasting.
Maybe even it can just be a one time deal where you have to be more percise when and where you drink it. Good discussion.
Good discussion indeed. I like both the positive and the negative suggestions (action test easier vs harder) for alcohol:
*The negative because drinking a lot would then make you less suspicious, which would then again make it a good reason for the spy to take the extra risk, but elite spies of course know this, so… etc. yomi is the key word here.
*Positive because it would really make spies ‘time’ their events. That makes it similar to League of Legends’ ultimate, which is one of my favourite game mechanics of all time: as it has a long cooldown, you really have to pick the right moment to activate it. If it then turns out you picked the right moment and get a kill, it’s such a great feeling.
One more thought, the sniper could choose how alcoholic the drinks are. More alcohol could mean guests act more distracking but spy has a harder time performing actions.
If the sniper got to choose the potency, what would be the reason behind choosing a less potent one? If I was sniper id probably pick the most powerful stuff everytime.
If the spy doesn’t know the potency, even while he’s drinking it, that could be a give. And if the alcohol is really strong (let’s give straight everclear to all the party guests!) then the spy might not stand out at all unless he’s acting totally sober.
The idea is the more alcohol the more the guests become distracting take up the screen/via wild dancing and would obscure the bug ambassador and flirting missions. It would be most harmful to the sniper when the spy got to choose his/her missions without the sniper informed of which. Also certain guests may be unwilling to drink the more potent liquids (for the future when Chris decides on adding roles into the game) less alcohol would mean the spy has an easier time on missions such as the book case and switching statues while alcoholic drinks would make poisoning a guest, flirting and bugging an ambassador easier. Another possibility would be alcohol would just change the dynamics of flirting such as proximity number of times necessary etc.
I completely neglected the other guests drinking too. Good point.
Most potent stuff must surely mean a guest passes out and needs the ambulance to come. There could be a brief moment where they are blocking view of the bookshelf or statues or something. Spy could take a risk and go for it but I’m sure a good sniper would pick up on it.
Thinking about all this alcohol stuff hurts my brain.
A masquerade party would work well, and fit in with the whole James Bond aristocracy type party thing.
It could even just be the same NPC models (same clothes and everything), just everyone wearing a mask or holding those masks on sticks.
… masks on sticks would make the spy do everything one-handed. Devious.
That’s what a drink in hand does as well. Except some missions require both hands…
For what it is worth, Here is my idea for Drinks in SpyParty:
After Finishing the first drink, any additional sips cause a small increase to the Good action test meter, but also cause a large reduction in the normal portion of the action test meter. Thus creating a scenario where the Spy has a slightly better chance to perform action tests better, but also a much greater chance of failing. I would think that this would add another level of stress to the spy’s role.
That’s an interesting idea! I’m going to be hesitant to do powerups at all (even ignoring the myriad political issues with making alchohol a powerup!), but I kind of like the tradeoff there. That said, for elite play, it would basically only be a help…unless I made the “good” zone bias towards the edge of the normal zone once you started drinking so the risk of going for it increased…hmm, requires more thought and maybe some playtesting.
If I do alchohol affecting play, I was thinking about the “performance” end of it (meaning performance like acting, not like high-performance). Two of the themes of the Spy gameplay is that of deception and performance, and so having to act drunk in a convincing manner interests me. Kind of Drunken Master style.
Additional thought: if you are ever planning on submitting SpyParty for a rating (ESRB/PEGI/what not)… having alcohol in the game is likely to raise the rating. Probably not a huge deal if you only self-distribute, but if you’re hoping to get on Steam, you might need one. Just a thought.
Yeah, that’s on the list of things to worry about, smoking too. It’s funny, actually, because for Xbox Avatars, you can have them kill each other, but they can’t smoke or drink. Welcome to America.
Thanks! I was particularly intrigued by the double edged effect of the idea, where alcohol is not just a power up but also a liability. Additionally you have the added tell of drinking more to boost your action test meter.
I am curious as to what Ian has to say about elite sniper play. Do share!
It wasn’t specific to strategies or anything (except reminiscing about how he shot Paul a bunch because he started talking too soon after entering a conversation circle), but more about balance stuff, and practice modes, and spectation, and whatnot.
> Yikes, 50 strangers from the internet!
Don’t worry, we’re actually very nice :-).
Also for a moment I thought ‘put portraits up along side for cast characters’ meant paintings on the wall. I wonder how long it would take before players would find out that the the picture on the wall ALWAYS is the double agent or something like that :-P.
My guess is that kind of thing would show up on a wiki in about five seconds.
Haha, you’re probably right. But what if the spy gets to pick the paintings :-P? Not that I think this should be real feature.
Actually, the current plan is to have the Sniper pick more stuff about the room, so they have more to do while the Spy is picking missions, but I like the idea of the Spy teasing the Sniper via the paintings.
I like the sound of this. Correct me if I’m wrong but at present the Sniper doesn’t have any control over the room other than his one and only sniper shot that ends the round. You’ve mentioned giving the sniper more stuff to do like accessing a CCTV camera or giving a security guard orders, so once this kind of stuff is added it becomes a real cat-and-mouse game!
As the spy receives info from command in his hidden earpiece:
*He’s hacking into the music selection at the party*
*That’s insane! What is he… unless… my god..*
*Sir, he’s updated the playlist into an infinite repeat of Yakety Sax! You need to complete all objectives in a conga line!*
*Touche Mr Sniper. Touche*
That’s pure evil. I like the idea of giving the sniper a bit more control, though.
I like the idea od spy getting small intel of what the snipers up too.
It’d be really cool to let the sniper change the music playing at the party as a non-verbal communication method. (Provided the music is built-into the game, and not anyone uploading a random mp3 or we’ll all be rickrolled 90% of the time)
Yep, having the Sniper be able to control stuff like lighting, the music, when appetizers are served, when the dance floor opens up, or the soloists starts singing, and things like that are all part of the plan.
I was hard set on playing as a spy but apon learning I could play jaws esque music and Beethoven’s surprise sympanthy I feel I will quite enjoy playing sniper.
If you could pick the song as the sniper, I wonder what songs snipers would pick before pulling the trigger.
But yeah, being able to pick our own random songs would definitely result in some rick roll
Anyone here any ideas of how a sniper could use changing the music to his/her advantage? And I like the idea of also being able to to influence when appetizers are served. If you time that well, that could really disrupt a mission.
while rickrolling might be obnoxious… that’s kind of a strategy.
I’m inclined to say that it’s better to not have music be a gameplay element at all (unless you let people provide their own music in a playlist form that the sniper can pick from. i.e. complicated). Otherwise, I might just turn down the in-game music and put my own on.
I would play the sniper-shot sound so that the spy would be relieved and mess up :).
By switching the song from say a fast paced song to something a little more romantic, things slow down. There’s less ‘noise’ so you might be able to focus a little more. Where as if its fast paced, people can be running on the dance floor and cause more comotion that you have to filter out.
Romantic songs could help the spy with seduce a target though.
Depends how checker implements it though. But can’t think of too much of changing songs other then what I mentioned.
I can just imagine Mozart’s Requiem Mass playing in the background.
Surely “this ™” week the next wave will come out?! ;p
You know, if this blog was the spyparty party, and you were the spy and i was the sniper, i would have you clocked in so fast. Your weakness is that you love spyparty. This will inevitably help™ me when we meet head to head! Hope you don’t mind a small audience watching!
If this blog was a spyparty I would be the most annoying AI, you see, unlike some other commentators, I perform no useful tasks on this blog, I’m merely scripted to make it harder for the sniper (you) to find the real spy :).
When we meet head to head, somewhere in the not too distanced future, aka within a year or 2, also known as soon (tm, how do you create those small letters?) in Checkers time and space, I will surely astound you with my arsenal of tricks I’ve been building up, thus creating a fatal analyzes-paralyze situation in your head, allowing me to fulfill my tasks unseen :)
I understand that a vast majority of our comments may just be cosidered trivial™, but if our comments didn’t exist, where would that leave the blog? Well it’d certaintly still be moving right along like it has and continues to do so except it’d lack a little character™, or oomph™, or yoohoo!™ I think every blog needs a little yoohoo.
So far Checker has allowed it to continue without any public objection so I assume he doesn’t mind it on his blog.
Invites will happen soon. Easily within the month. And I’m not sure how to ™. I assume some alt code. Alt 168 is an upsidedown question mark.
I will also type /dance when I’m the spy so you know to look for me dancing, and ill still get away with it. :)
A lot of people (most) are going to be drinking whilst playing the game;
if you give the character “drunk vision” or some such, then it’s going to be doubly difficult to get away with it.
if you’re drinking while playing spy party, you deserve what you get :D
I need to add a Like button on comments here on the blog. :)
I’m sorry, I’m sorry, but I’m absolutely forced, FORCED to ask this I tell you. But in relation to the pictures you put up… WHO was the ultra-hot asian girl who seemed to be wearing no wedding ring? =P
She’s the girlfriend of the 6’2″ guy standing next to her most of the time. :)
I just got the absolute greatest idea for this game! What if you added hats? Like costumizable hats! That would be AMAZING!
http://www.spyparty.com/faq/comment-page-1/#comment-14987
accidentally left my reply on that link instead of here :P
I just realize that it’s now a regular part of my morning to check this page and count how many unchecked list items there are left. That makes me feel a little sad
Sad that you check it every day, or sad that I’m not crossing them off fast enough? :)
I just updated the list with the stuff I’ve been doing the past few days which wasn’t actually on the list.
It comes in waves, first I’m sad that I can’t play, then I’m ashamed for being a grown man who is upset over not being able to play a video game. It’s a rich tapestry.
I’m not qualified to offer therapy and I’m more than a bit biased in this specific case, but I’d say the sadness is an understandable and healthy emotional response to the situation, but the shame needs to be explored deeper.
Given that unquestionably accurate diagnosis, I’m left to conclude that the only adequate prescription is a SpyParty Beta Invite.
See? It appears that I’ve already become shameless.
> I just realize that it’s now a regular part of my morning to check this page
I read this while doing exactly the same morning routine :-)
It has been a part of my morning and nighttime routine to check this site and has been for a good year and a half. :( I will need to find a support group soon.
I’ll make a Waited a Long Time for My Invite Support Group section in the beta forums. Of course, you’ll have to have your invite to join, so maybe that’s not too helpful right now…
Being in the 707 and being almost open beta is making checking my email unbearable. I hope you will be hiring a psychiatrist for the support group.
Closed*
Checker on Twitter: ‘I just sent 5 SpyParty beta invites’
Omg! To random strangers on the internet? I didn’t get one, sadly, but that was expected. Have fun, everyone reading the comments to the blog who got invited! Don’t forget us, waiting outside the door, longing for some screenshots and gameplay videos!
Yea, I would love to see some gameplay videos or game reports!
Oh yeah, game reports would be great too, indeed. :-)
You guys will get in VERY SOON, I just wasn’t going to let myself go to sleep last night without starting the next set of invites, and these 5 people have already played at PAX so they won’t mind that I still don’t have the Welcome post written!
You have desensitized me regarding the word “soon” but capital letters and the word “very” still have some impact :).
It’s true, the capital letters and the word “very” made my acute case of spypartyitis flare up
Haha, I already copied ‘spypartyitis’ to Google what it was, when I suddenly recognized a very familiar word :-P. It looks very Greek with the two y’s! And yeah, VERY SOON worked on me too, I’m so excited!
I need a shoulder to cry on, after spending most of the night in some half-at-sleep/half-awake state of mind, thinking about the spyparty invite that would surely be waiting in my inbox this morning.. I woke up to see that my internet-connection was down!
I laughed at fate and thought how cruel it was to do this to me, of all days…
Luckily it was just a bad plug so after hours of worrying I finally got to open my e-mail, no invite.. ok, that can happen, but then I came here, only to see people mention there is lot of work to be done?!!
It’s a tough life as a prospect SpyParty BETA player, that’s for sure.. Though my heart goes out to Chris, who will bravely fight the bugs of and make it safe for us to play :).
That is.. if spypartyitis doesn’t kill me first..
For some reason, I think many of us wouldn’t mind either. :D
Yeah, the latest batch of people are having some network connection type problems (not to mention that I broke bugging the ambassador while walking), so I’m going to fix those first, then invite some more of you in. Also, I picked these 5 because they’ve played before, so they knew what should be happening (mostly), so they could say when it isn’t.
VERY SOON
okay, well now you’re just being a TEASE
VERY SOON
I wish I could get this relay server working.
Bold AND italics?! This is getting serious! I’ll wait for the underline before I really start to get excited.
(Who am I kidding, I’m probably like number 1 bajillion in line.)
Nope, 1554.
No, dear readers, I won’t look them up on demand, it’s a pain in the ass, sorry!
chris,
the section headed ‘What is SpyParty’, on the right of your page, reads:
‘… By contrast, SpyParty is a new and quite different game …’
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think:
‘… In contrast, SpyParty …’ would be more appropriate.
I think both are correct? Using random internet pages to resolve issues of grammar is fraught with peril, to say the least, but I found this in a quick search.
Checker on Twitter: ‘Super Duper Soon!’, and here on the blog we get italics, bold AND capitals. God, we must be extremely close now ;-P.
The relay server is working, so that’s good news!
VERY SOON: “Another common term implemented by Checkers often misleading players into excitement for future content. “Very Soon” is guaranteed to arrive between now and the end of time with a higher chance of arriving on the “now” half of the time table. Although this means closer to now than “soon” there is no guarantee that you will live long enough to see the content finally release.”
Source: http://www.wowwiki.com/Soon
It seems Checkers subscribes to more then one philosophy of Blizzard ;)..
Words to live (and develop games) by!
Valve does it as well, and I think they’re pretty successful.
http://hw1.pa-cdn.com/par/img/editorial/v37.jpg
Can we get an update when you get to Very, Very Soon?
Yea, might be better to take a nap, as long as we’re not at Very, Very Soon or have underlining it might still take a while :(
Definitely not a bad idea to follow Blizzard’s or Valve’s it’s ready when it’s ready philosophy.