You are invited to the SpyParty early access beta

Think you can pick out which on-screen avatars represent real people and which are NPCs? SpyParty gives you the opportunity to find out.

It sounds simple, but SpyParty actually comes together as a fairly intense little psychological thriller - one player must blend in with the crowd, acting as much like mindless drone NPCs as possible while following espionage-like orders. On the other side, the in-game sniper's job is to pick out who in the room is real, and who is artificial.

Developed by indie darling Chris Hecker, SpyParty is now open for early beta testing sign-ups. While plenty of gamers have gotten their hands on the title at expos and conventions, the developer explains that he needs more people to play the game for longer periods of time, to "balance and tune the game to the intense player-skill depth I’m striving for".

"For you, it means you finally get to play SpyParty without standing in line at a show," says Hecker. "You can have a real and meaningful impact on the game’s development; you will get to see and feel new features and changes to the game as they happen, instead of just reading about them on the blog or on a news site. I’m pretty sure we are both going to have a blast!"

Unlike typical releases, this will be a paid beta - Hecker's asking for $15 to gain early access to the game. He says: "This will let you play the beta as much as you want as I update it over SpyParty’s development, and also get you a copy of the finished game when it’s released on PC." There may also be other bits and pieces thrown in, but - essentially - you're just buying the game before it's finished, and helping out with bug testing. How nice of you!

Want to sign up? Head over to SpyParty and put your name down, if you're serious. See you there!

You might also see DIYgamer there, with IndieGames in tow.