I'm hoping the fighting-game folks love the game, because although SpyParty is very different at the low level, with very few twitch elements, the high-level psychology, deception and perception skills of elite play might be similar. There's a huge difference between designing a game for 10 to 30 hours of play, versus designing one that can be played for 300 or 1,000 hours at a competition level. 'I've been to PAX a bunch of times, but I think EVO is going to be really different. 'I really have no idea what to expect,' Hecker says.

Hecker doesn't know if the fighting-game community has the attention span or interest in such a (non-)violent departure, but he's eager to see. In terms of pacing for the American audience: if Mortal Kombat is football, SpyParty is soccer. The game itself is based on subtlety, precision and practice, much like many fighting games, but it doesn't involve any twitch movements, bright, flashing colors or hadoukens – and it comes with a four-page manual that must be read before anyone attempts to play it. SpyParty is one of EVO 2012's Indie Showcase titles, and will be available for anyone to try out on the expo floor, which is completely free and open to the public July 6-7 at Las Vegas' Caesars Palace. I knew a bit about EVO and was kind of blown away by the offer.'

'Seth emailed me and asked if I'd be interested in bringing SpyParty to EVO. 'Seth and I have talked about my goals for SpyParty to be a game that can eventually be counted among the most intensely competitive player-skill games we have, games like Counter-Strike, Starcraft, LoL, Dota and Street Fighter, and he's been really supportive of that goal. 'It all started with Seth Killian,' Hecker said. We assume it was the other half that allowed him to divulge the details behind how SpyParty, a one-on-one asymmetric Turing Test, snagged a featured spot at the year's largest fighting-game gathering: When we asked Chris Hecker how SpyPartysnuck its way into EVO 2012, we didn't think he'd actually tell us – revealing sensitive information is opposed to an entire half of his game's title, after all. Crashing EVO SpyParty's Chris Hecker on depth and fighting games

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