Indie Spotlight: ‘InconSPYcuous’

I moved the cross-hairs over the football player. Was he the spy? Almost instantaneously, my friend playing as the spy started laughing. It was as if he was panicked. I took the shot… and killed the spy.

Without realising it, InconSPYcuous will test you. Not so much on your skill as a gamer, sniper or spy, but on your ability to remain calm under pressure. How will you act when the sniper thinks he knows who you are? Will you stay still and hope he moves the cross-hairs away, or will you keep moving as if nothing has happened? You are forced to think in the heat of the action- it’s an intense experience.

InconSPYcuous is an easy game to grasp. It’s the sniper’s job to pick the human spy out of a room full of NPC characters. As you are only allowed three shots, you have to watch carefully and search for anything out of place.

Meanwhile, it’s the spy’s job to blend in. In a sense, it’s the spy’s job to act like a piece of code. The human controlled spy, has to try to be a better artificially controlled character than the artificial intelligence controlling the other characters. It is a unique experience that makes you appreciate the existence of artificial intelligence in games.

InconSPYcuous was developed by the Australian development team Cardboard Keep during the 2012 Stealth Jam 48 Hour Game Competition. Yes, that means it was made in a mere 48 hours.

While InconSPYcuous is only a small game, it’s an extremely fun game to enjoy with friends. The matches only take a short amount of time which means you can rotate roles quickly.  Furthermore, if playing with a group of people, on-lookers will find enjoyment in watching the man hunt while they wait their turn.

You should try out InconSPYcuous. It reminds us that, underneath the emotional stories and immersion of the modern video game, the main reason we all play video games is for fun and entertainment. Additionally, who doesn’t want to see their friends psychologically broken due to a video game?