SpyParty's Not-Strictly Ballroom Update Incoming
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SpyParty [official site] - Chris Hecker's game about blending in with AI lest you reveal yourself as a dirty human and are assassinated - is due to get an update at the end of the week. It's called The Not-Strictly Ballroom Update and contains a revamped (it's a makeover on the level of Clueless's Tai) map and additions to the cast of characters.
Okay, first up is the map - it's the ballroom one. I haven't played SpyParty yet but looking at the imagery the ballroom was more like a floating greenhouse filled with people models and drifting through a grey nothingness than a room you could imagine anyone suggestively tango-ing in or whatever you do in ballrooms. With this new art pass there are bookcases that aren't neon green, portraits of the cast of characters, fancy wallpapering, trophies and the like, and instead of drifting through the void it's part of a stately home.
Behold the slider gif:
You're probably better off looking at the fancy images on the website though.
The other addition (i.e. the thing that makes it not a strictly ballroom-based update) is the group of six new characters. We spoke to Chris about them in detail a while back so if you're interested you should definitely read that interview. The gameplay possibilities afforded by the twins - identical characters, so with the potential for behaviour comparisons - are the part I'm most interested in.
"Right now, one of them wears all the jewelry, so Snipers should be able to tell them apart, but you will usually have to zoom. We already had situations at PAX where Snipers shot the wrong twin, including a case where both twins went behind a pillar going in opposite directions, and then must have bounced off each other and went back out the way they came, and the Sniper assumed they’d kept moving straight and shot the wrong one. Good times!"
There are also a handful of other tweaks and changes which you can read about in the update notes.
The update is currently pegged for 24 or 25 September (although Hecker caveats that with "Given my track record on hitting dates, wish me luck").