First Trailer For Spycursion!

Spycursion character ostensibly hacking a datacenter

The first ever trailer for Spycursion is now live! It’s a trailer representing an early version of the game and does not represent the final game. Hopefully, it should give you an idea of what Spycursion could look like in action!

Enjoy! And spread the word!



Our Plans For Kickstarter

Earlier this week we shared our ideal vision of Spycursion. A “what if” of the game’s ultimate potential if everything works out like we hope it does. In order to approach that potential, we’re taking this project to Kickstarter.

Our project is a big one, and we’re incredibly ambitious about where we want to take it and what it can be. This is why we’re taking this route. We want Spycursion to be everything we say it will be and more: a sprawling world of subterfuge and espionage centered around a variety of busy and detailed cities where hacking, brokering information, performing espionage and daring thefts are just a few of things you’ll need to do to get by.

As with all good things, though, this is going to need capital, something that we have a strong need for as a small indie studio. I say capital because it isn’t just money we need, we also need talent. As it stands we’re a very small team, there’s only a small handful of us, and only one of us is spearheading the actual development of the game at the moment, and that’s Scott. Dan is the Community Manager and PR, but he has no clue when it comes to coding or programming (it’s true, I really don’t).

If you’re reading this and you want to join the team, see here for more info. We’d be delighted to hear from you!

Anyway, enough preamble, let’s talk details.

  • When will the Kickstarter launch? Well, to be honest, we don’t know yet. We’re still working on building an audience and getting the word out about Spycursion. We’ll launch when we feel it’s right. Don’t worry, though, we’ll be sure to give plenty of notice. If you’re paying attention you won’t miss the launch.
  • What is our goal? We’re quite ambitious for Spycursion because we have so much we want to do with it. That’s why we’re currently thinking of $50,000 as a starting point. That number may change as we go ahead, but that’s our base number.
  • Elastic development. The better the campaign goes, the more of Spycursion’s initial vision we’ll be able to fulfill at the game’s launch! Over time, we can, of course, expand the game based on player feedback and revenues; it might just take longer that way. Some game features will be included as Kickstarter stretch goals.

What can you do now, though? We’d be extremely grateful to anyone that wanted to back the Kickstarter when it launches. Otherwise, though, if you’re a dedicated follower or simply someone who likes the idea of what we’ve got planned, spreading the word about Spycursion and its upcoming Kickstarter is the best thing you can do right now. Share it with anyone you know who might be interested, stay tuned to our social media pages, and help share the exciting updates we’ll have in the future.

We hope you choose to come along with us for the ride, and we hope to see you there when the Kickstarter launches!



What Spycursion Can Become

Can I speak freely for a minute? Marketing your own game sucks. It especially sucks when you’re an indie studio, and it sucks even more when your game is shaping up to be as ambitious as Spycursion. The last thing we want to do is promise features that end up being outside the scope of what our Kickstarter revenue will allow. And yet, I believe that for Spycursion to reach its full potential, our fans and supporters (that’s you!) have to understand what that potential is.

So, rather than the overly conservative details we’ve been putting out, in this post I’d like to give you a glimpse inside my mind (careful, it’s a scary place) at the other end of the spectrum — the level 100 version of Spycursion. Please, treat this post not as information, but as inspiration. If you just want to know what Spycursion will look like when it launches, you probably want to skip this one.


In addition to the core details we’ve already mentioned…

  • Simulated economic, business, and political systems, centered around technology and security.
    • Market fluctuations, of stocks and cryptocurrencies, based on player activity, missions, and random world events.
    • Run your own corporation, by yourself or with other players. Do business legally or illegally, but don’t get caught!
      • If you do, you’ll go to prison and have to break out, or convince someone on the outside to break you out.
    • Alternatively, you could just blackmail a politician to get the laws changed in your favor…
      • … or hack the laws themselves, which are implemented as smart contracts…
      • … or become a politician yourself, if you’re famous enough.
  • Spycraft like in the movies (and hopefully better).
    • Need to follow someone? Hack their phone and watch their GPS…
      • … or do it indirectly by hacking security cameras in the area…
      • … or do it the old-fashioned way and hire informants.
    • Got a tough corporate target to crack? Try buying a phone, filling it with malware, and mailing it to the company to attack their Wi-Fi.
    • Drones. Because of course.
  • Learn the ins and outs of software security.
    • Open-source Slang software can be audited by players for security holes…
      • … but even proprietary software can be fuzzed.
    • Security holes can be found as random world events, in which case they’ll be publicized.
      • Or they can be found by another player, in which case, they can do what they please…
    • Be careful with software you find out in the game world. You never know what kind of backdoors it might contain.

As we’ve mentioned before, our ability to level Spycursion up to 100 depends entirely on you. If you’d like to help with that, please start by joining our mailing list! You should see a subscription form at the bottom of this post.



A Few Tracks From The Soundtrack of Spycursion

We’ve shared a few of the visual aspects of Spycursion, but not the soundscape. That’s why we’re super excited to share with you three tracks from Spycursion’s soundtrack.

These awesome tracks are just a few of the tunes that will permeate your not-so-legal adventures in a dystopian future run by corporations.

Check them out. We hope to share more with you in the future!

Created by the wonderful Vanja Mihajlovic – https://soundcloud.com/vanjamihajlovic



Say Hello To Dan!

Hi, I’m Dan. I’m from the UK. I’m also Spycursion’s Community  Manager/PR man/Scott’s partner-in-crime.

I’m a freelance games journalist by day, and Spycursion Community Manager by night (although it doesn’t always work out that way). I studied a bit of PR at University so I’ve been eager to get some experience ever since. That’s when Scott’s endeavor landed on my lap.

I found his project and saw that he was looking for a PR/Community Manager/person to run Spycursion’s social media accounts. Spycursion seemed like a uniquely fascinating game, and I’ve always had a soft spot for cyberpunk fiction and hacking aesthetics (although I know nothing about coding!) so I applied for the job. I got the position, and now, several weeks later, here I am writing about myself on our shiny, new revamped blog.

Even though we’ve still got a long way to go, it feels like we’ve come a long way already. Rebooting Defun Games’ social media efforts and getting the word out about this weird and wonderful game has been super exciting. Although we’re starting from scratch, the feedback we’ve already received has been amazing.

We have some big things planned for Spycursion and I am genuinely super excited to be part of this project. I hope you enjoy what we’ve got in store, and I hope you’ll join us on this journey.

 



Traveling the (Game) World

Take a look at the following screenshot:

An aerial view of a city in Spycursion

This is an aerial view of a city from an early development build of Spycursion. (In other words, the details may change, but this is the general aesthetic.) It represents one city, out of several cities that will make up the urban game world of Spycursion. We plan to scale the number of these cities based on player base and story needs, but will probably start with five or six.

Each city will vary a bit in size and what it contains; we aren’t ready to show the building interiors yet, but our goal is that every building you see will be explorable — nothing that’s just “filler.” Among some of the purposes these buildings might serve in the game:

  • Bank
  • Internet cafe
  • Library
  • Electronics store
  • Corporate office
  • Datacenter
  • Police station
  • Your apartment!
  • Others we’d like to keep secret… for now.

Your game character will roam this world, making mayhem, stealing secrets, avoiding the law… and remember, this is only Spycursion’s “physical” world. We’ve barely gotten started on showing you the digital one!