And obviously, the new UI has to precede the Steam launch. The first item might be more understandable than the last, because it’s a one-time event from which there’s no going back. The game still isn’t on Steam, still doesn’t have a new UI, and we still don’t have dossiers or recommendations. This is probably inevitable, and probably worth it, but it’s part of the trade off. The downsides, apart from pulling the game into a more competitive, high-stress format, is that it standardizes certain game modes through its mere existence. SpyParty‘s community has always been filled with independent, self-starting, technically-inclined people, so none of this comes as a surprise, but even so, this group has risen to the occasions to fill these needs. It’s also led to a highly encouraging increase in the number of third-party tools, from lthummus’ SpyParty Draft Tool, to sgnurf’s SCL match database.

The upside of the SCL, in addition to the increased activity mentioned earlier, is a corresponding uptick in high-level strategy discussion and analysis. Trying to have both may be impossible, but at minimum we can look at the upsides and downsides of both. Today, it’s the opposite: we’re missing those fun, casual games, but we have lots of more serious matches.

The downside is that there weren’t as many being played. The positive side effect of this was that most of the games were casual and fun. When I took a break a year ago, many players were commenting that there wasn’t a lot to do after reaching a certain point in the skill curve. The way people talk about the game is different, thanks to the SCL. The role the speedrunning community has played (a few prominent speedrunners have found the game through Kraz圜aley) as of late cannot be overstated. Even in the short time that I’ve been back and interacted with these people, they remind me of why I enjoy our community so much, as well as being people I am looking at to be the next big ambassadors of the game – Sure, we have our virifauxs and zeroTKAs who’ve been here forever, but we can’t rely on a handful of passionate players we need an army of passionate players to spread the word, or else we’re leaving the future of our beloved game to chance. Seeing all these newer players getting really into the game, being driven with such a sense of competition and community has been glorious to watch. We’ve had a large influx of players, which has been fantastic.

It remains under-promoted in formal channels, however, and it’s fair to say the streams, while greatly improved over season one, are still finding their footing. The increase of activity in the lobby is noticeable, and anecdotally it seems like new players are climbing the skill curve faster than ever. It’s the most sustained and successful attempt thus far at formalizing competitive play. The most significant change is probably the introduction of the SCL (SpyParty Competitive League). I find myself asking: what’s different? What isn’t? What’d I miss? What’s New These are the kinds of things I find myself thinking about more after taking some time off. All of this was by accident: I thought streaming would be fun, and no one was doing it, so I did it.

I was privileged to host many players regularly who are now among the best in the world, like bloom and canadianbacon. And the community was small enough that I was streaming earlier and more often than anyone, which gave me more influence on the game and the community than I had expected ( Kraz圜aley first found the game watching my streams, and lthummus was introduced to higher level strategy through them). Without trying to sound pretentious (as if I need to try to sound pretentious), I started playing around the same time as many great, highly influential players: virifaux, KCMmmmm, zeroTKA, and slappydavis to name a few. I think I’m in a unique position to comment on the evolution of the community, for a few reasons. Now, I find myself drawn back to both the game and its still-welcoming community. It’s been over a year since I posted this message and took a leave of absence from the SpyParty community.

Spyparty steam people playing now