I played with Spaceteam when it came out and nagged my 15 year old to install it so we could play. Not many things you can do with a smartphone bridge generational gaps any better.
How does a group of people shouting actually enhance the gameplay over just two? Are there competing interests? Seems rudimentary, and not fun.
Heck, watching people shout gibberish is always fun, and if they’re playing a game and not just some random person shouting for no discernible reason, it could be even more fun to try and figure out what they’re doing without asking them!
Not really. My point is that if there is really only one action that a player can take, i.e. shoot an alien coming at them from 6 o’clock, then there’s no difference between one person telling them and 10. And for 9 of those 10 (if not all of them) it’s pretty boring gameplay. Now if some of those people are alien sympathizers and the blindfolded person has to be able to figure out who they are and can eliminate them, that might be more interesting (similar to Mafia/Werewolf/Village). Looking at the video I can’t really tell that much about how it works, but I can’t think of a way to make that mechanic fun for a group of more than 2, much less 20.
Space Team (as @jonathanpeterso mentioned) is one game that works really well because each person has a role and everyone is barking orders to each other, rather than just one person.
I’ll reserve judgment until I see the actual game, but right now I’m rushing to pre-order.
Hmmm…okay. I was speaking more from an observer’s point of view, not a player. And if it’s in a place where alcohol is served…ugh, I won’t go there.
It makes a little more sense if you keep in mind that the person moving doesn’t have any reference points (other than the general direction of where a voice is coming from). So the other players have to work with each other to use general commands to fine-tune how the moving player moves. If the difficulty ramps up with multiple directions the moving player needs to point at, multiple players could also generate additional chaos as different strategies conflict with each other.
For short periods it could be amusing, like playing the “Marco Polo” game or Charades.
I can’t really see it working with the up to 200 people they claim in the video, though - you’d quickly hit a point where people can’t see the screen, and even if they could it would sound like the audience all screaming suggestions on The Price is Right.
If you’re looking for more things to be needlessly picky about, the group who made the game call themselves “A band that makes games”. As we all know, bands make music, not games.
There’s a shot of what appears to be someone streaming the spotter’s tablet to a large-screen TV - that would address the “can’t see the screen issue”. I’ll definitely agree that there comes a point past which the game doesn’t scale simply due to the audience’s instructions becoming the gibberish of a crowd shouting.
I’m still interested - even if the game’s not fully baked, it seems like an interesting project.
I was just wondering how Leigh felt about getting her ass kicked out of Gamasutra. You should never have messed with Gamers, Leigh.
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