The Insider

Inspiration

This game draws inspiration from Among Us, an online multiplayer social party game that emphasizes keen observation, collaborative thinking, and strategic teamwork. Among Us is highly engaging and "impossible to put down," encouraging players to devise unique strategies based on varying missions, emergencies, and roles. It fosters friendships, connects people online, transcends physical boundaries, and spreads joy.

Personally, I’ve made several lifelong friends through Among Us, which has inspired me to create a similar social party game. My goal is to design a game that brings happiness to players and helps them form meaningful connections, just as Among Us has done for so many.

What It Does

The Insider builds upon the foundation of Among Us but introduces innovative mechanics that create a more dynamic and strategic gameplay experience. There will be 6 Seekers and 2 Insiders in this game. Seekers work to decode 13 password machines scattered across a large map by solving puzzles, while Insiders encode them instantly to sabotage progress. Unlike Among Us, where grouping together is a common strategy, Seekers in The Insider must split up due to strict time constraints and the 100-second automatic re-encoding of machines, forcing multitasking across the map. Furthermore, the 10-second state transition delay for password machines adds suspense, requiring players to infer others' actions by observing past interactions rather than immediate outcomes.

Additionally, The Insider ensures continuous player engagement by replacing elimination with immobilization for voted players, allowing everyone to stay involved. This balancing mechanic provides Insiders opportunities to disguise their actions and exploit the Seekers' need to divide their efforts. The combination of delayed feedback, forced splitting, and observation-based deduction elevates the strategy, making every decision impactful and rewarding. Therefore, I believe that these improvements would result in a more inclusive and suspense-driven gameplay experience that emphasizes teamwork, observation, and deception.

How I Built It

In terms of the techniques, the game integrates a combination of local scripts and server-side scripts to maintain smooth functionality. Local scripts manage individual elements such as player identity, local puzzle interactions, and the voting page. Server Scripts handle tasks like collecting and processing votes, determining voting results, tracking the number of decoded machines in real-time, and broadcasting voting alerts. To create a sense of urgency and immersion, I also implements focused interaction in the game, allowing Seekers to concentrate fully on solving password puzzles as efficiently as possible. This focus gives Insiders an opportunity to "flee" or "hide" from Seekers' view, creating a balanced and fair dynamic. By combining immersive UI design with strategic mechanics and efficient script management, The Insider delivers a dynamic and engaging experience tailored for mobile players.

Challenges I Ran Into

One significant challenge was working with cross-screen UI and related APIs, which are still in early development. These APIs lack complete functionality, causing delays in game development. For instance, when implementing interactive, non-blocking UI components in the format of screen overlay, I discovered that pressable buttons could not be disabled using a binding boolean value. After consulting with TypeScript professionals, we identified this as a bug related to React Native, likely due to the immaturity of cross-screen UI support. This forced me to find alternative solutions for implementing pressable buttons in an interactive, non-blocking way, which was very time-consuming. Additionally, while editing the game, the desktop editor frequently misbehaved. Specifically, when modifying spatial custom UI components that required frequent color updates, the editor initially worked but began failing to reflect new color changes over time. Debugging statements confirmed the scripts were functioning correctly, but the UI did not visually update. Fixing these issues often required exiting and re-entering the environment or manually recompiling all scripts, which was very time-consuming and disrupted progress.

Despite these challenges, I feel a deep sense of accomplishment in overcoming them. Successfully working through these obstacles has boosted my confidence because I can clearly see my growth in this field. These experiences have inspired me to reflect on my critical thinking and problem-solving skills, empowering me to develop innovative solutions and ensure the game runs smoothly despite the potential limitations of the tools and APIs.

Accomplishments That I Am Proud Of

I am proud of successfully designing and implementing a complex game that balances immersive gameplay, strategic depth, and technical innovation. Overcoming challenges like integrating cross-screen UI and resolving bugs in early-stage APIs has not only enhanced my problem-solving skills but also strengthened my confidence as a developer. I’m particularly proud of creating a seamless, interactive user experience that runs smoothly on mobile, incorporating non-blocking UI components, dynamic mechanics like delayed transitions and automatic re-encoding, and fair gameplay features such as immobilization instead of elimination. These accomplishments demonstrate my ability to think critically, adapt to limitations, and deliver a game that is both engaging and technically robust.

What's Next for The Insider

Looking ahead, I plan to further enhance The Insider by refining the gameplay mechanics and expanding its features to increase player engagement. Some of the next steps include improving the stability and functionality of cross-screen UI, incorporating additional puzzles and challenges to diversify the Seeker experience, and optimizing the map design for better balance between Insiders and Seekers. These improvements will help elevate The Insider into a truly polished and unforgettable social party game.

Built With

• metahorizon
• typescript