A friend and I have been working on an online version of the party game "Werewolf"; perhaps some of you have played it before either live or online in other forums. If you haven't, the basic idea is written out here.

At any rate, we are at the point of having the basic game-play in place and are playing some test games. Right now it's a windows client, though we are working on version for iOS and Android mobile devices (and likely Windows Phone after all of that).

Anyway, I didn't know if anyone who was familiar with the game (or interested in it) would be interested in playing a few test games through, understanding that we are still in early stages, but if you are we could use a few more people (games run best with 9 or more players), so send me a PM.

Do you have a good link that explains the IRL Werewolf game?

There was an episode of This Week in Tech recently that drove me up the wall. The panel had just gotten back from FOO Camp, and kept talking about playing Werewolf but never explaining how it worked. It drove me crazy because it was like a broadcast of a bunch of people telling inside jokes. Why Leo thought that made for good listening I have no idea. Even worse, a few times through the show he said he'd explain it but never did.

So anyway, I think it's a neat idea. I don't think I'd have the time needed to join in, but I love the idea of turning a real life game into a digital form. I think you have a good rule system down...

Rules for Werewolf



Thanks!

I think it's been alive in digital form on forums for a while now, but with the rise of mobile devices I think now is a perfect time to take it to a new level and write a dedicated client. We shall see though!

I LOVE the game, even though it gets the worst out of people: lying, cheating, accusing innocents, killing withouth evidence or due process, etc. Lots of fun....

It's called "Lupo Mannaro" here (meaning exactly werewolf) and there's a really nice edition by DaVinci Games which is in both Italian and English.

In any case, let me know how I can help.

I've played the Mafia version many times and I love this game. My time is not my own these days, but if the games happen to fall at a time when I'm available, I'd love to play.

We no longer have the Droid, however, so it'd have to be a mac or pc client for me.

When we play mafia though, we usually have a doctor who can choose to heal one other person or himself during the night. We also never reveal our identities after being killed. The game simply goes on if there are mafia left.

Well, the great thing about playing online is that phases tend to run 12 hours, so as long as you can put in a little time in over the course of a day, you can play at your own convenience. This is one reason I think having mobile versions will be great. Unfortunately, the client is blocked where I work (as are many internet sites, including this one at times) so until we get the mobile version up and running, most of the action doesn't ramp up until about 6:00 eastern (our current test pool comes largely from my office). I can use my hotspot access on my phone to post a little, but since my boss is a tester I have to be careful with that! Additionally, since you can tell your own role at a glance, it's not a great idea to have the client open at a place where other players can walk up behind you.

Regarding variants, we are revealing roles when players die and the role of 'wolfsbane' or 'angel' (the titles used in the werewolf theme) is probably the next one I'll add. I've never played with that role, but it seems to be a popular variant.

I'll need a PC client (or a WP7 one, should you have that...).

No love for MacOS? Or Linux?

I've got loads of LOVE for every OS. But I'm talking about -> Werewolf <-here. I'm talking about bood, fear, horror, and merciless deception.
Really no room for love in this thread.

I'll send you guys a link to the client. I think we are going to start the next game on Tuesday morning, but I'll let you know. We want to try and at least have 9 players.

No love (yet) for Linux or Mac. Basically, originally the plan was to ONLY support mobile devices, but I wrote a windows client to quickly and easily test the back end code. I've been deploying it to testers using click-once, and actually it has come out so nice that we will probably continue to support it, though our monetizing strategy will be the mobile versions. I can say from personal experience, being limited to a windows desktop is very frustrating once a game is going, so I think if people get involved they'll want the mobile versions and be willing to pay (or at least put up with ads).

FWIW, our initial testing has revealed that this game is NOT for everyone. I had a tester quit last night due to the uncomfortable nature of lying, deception, and general manipulation. She has played and enjoyed the game live, but once you play online it takes on a different tone- it's less about community and more about analysis and aggression (you can see why a poker player would like it ). This realization is definitely going to impact the direction I'll be taking with regard to new features- originally I'd planned to amp up the "role playing" aspects of the game with dynamic flavor text for transitions in between phases and things like that, whereas now I'm going to focus more on analytical tools like point-in-time vote summaries and chat filtering.

The biggest problem I am having now is finding good testers who are into this style of game- we've had a lot of people show interest and then not show up, which really kills the game. Last game ended in disaster when one wolf was a no-show and the other quit after the first day (though she was seer-peeked anyway and would've been lynched). But I am learning testers need to be a little analytical to retain interest in the game.

In each test run, though, I've gotten great feedback and I think the functionality is coming along nicely.

Oh, as for WP7, one of our testers is also chomping at the bit for this, especially since it is written in WPF which SHOULD be an easy port to SL. Maybe once I get the basic feature set in place I'll quickly do this port. In the grand scheme of things, unfortunately, WP7 is behind iOS and Andriod in terms of priority.

I don't really understand how the game would work when it's not presented in real time. How do the villagers collaborate and so on?

Maybe a quick demo of the gameplay would be helpful. As it is, I'm not sure if I'd find it fun or not.

A demo is a great idea- I'll have to think about how I'd put that together. I've been having trouble with testers understanding the game play who haven't been exposed to it before (resulting in adding tips in game which has definitely helped).

The basic interface is a chat client, except that whenever you log in you'll see any chat that you missed. So the villagers (and wolfs as villagers) all contribute during the day phase to try and root out who the wolves are. In the beginning it becomes a delicate balance because the true villagers have no problem talking about the game and all of the other players because they won't have to tell any lies. The wolves are more reticent to talk about the game, because the more they do, the more what they say has to make sense when the talk later in the game. The best course of action for a wolf is to say little of substance, but of course that in and of itself is very suspect. Eventually players start voting for other players, usually on VERY thin evidence. But all the little hints add up and with wolves not wanting to vote for other wolves patterns can emerge if the wolves aren't careful.

Once someone (usually a villager) is lynched on day 1, the wolves can chat just among themselves and then agree who to kill during the night phase. Now on Day 2 the villagers have a LOT more info to go on. They will try to decide what reasoning the wolves used to select their victim, and they look at the voting records and chat to see if certain people were sticking up for other people.

Of course running through all of this is the Seer who is slowly gaining absolute knowledge of other players, but cannot reveal himself without being killed by the wolves. So he may catch a player in a lie (which usually means a wolf because as a general rule, the villagers have no reason to lie) but be unable to communicate it effectively. Seers often have to leave clues to what they know that are understandable upon reflection (he was killed in the night and now we know he was a seer), but aren't immediately obvious at the time. Alternatively a Seer will out himself and expect to be killed that night, but believing the knowledge is important enough to sacrifice himself.

Ok, this sounds really awesome. If you need another tester, let me know.

Now THAT I like to hear
I will absolutely invite you to the next game!

Upon further reflection we will probably do the next test game either next Thursday or start the following Monday, depending on where the code is at.

I am just putting the finishing touches on adding chat quoting via a BBS-like markup, which I think is an important feature for giving evidence of lies. I need to decide if there are any other features I want to play-test in the next test game, which will determine the game schedule. Or I may just put a game out there and we'll start once 9 people sign up (which you can't do just yet, but it's a feature I'd like to add soon).

Next test game is starting Monday at 9:30 AM EST- if anyone else is interested please let me know (unfortunately, still Windows only ).