Summary
- How social deduction games function through clarity.
- We improved clarity by adding new languages.
- Customize your localization at a granular level.
The last thing you want in a game about lying is to look suspicious just because you didn’t understand what exactly was happening.
Forest of Deceit, the social deduction party game created by Ghost Camp and Thomas Mackinnon (The Corridor, It Takes a War) and narrated by Sylvester McCoy (“Doctor Who”, “The Hobbit”) is now localised in six new languages!
When we released Forest of Deceit earlier in the year, one of the most common questions we received was, “Will the game eventually be localised?” This is a feature we really wanted to include, and we’re so happy to be able to say the update is out now.
The new languages included in the update are:
- German
- French
- Spanish
- Brazilian Portuguese
- Simplified Chinese
- Italian
Forest of Deceit is a party game built entirely around conversation and language. In the game, you play with four to eight players (either locally or online via screen share, using your mobile web browsers to control the game) and are trying to guess who amongst the group are “Innocents” or “Traitors”. The fun of the game comes from talking to each other, and so making sure there is as little friction as possible between players understanding the game and being able to communicate their position in it to one another is really important.
For example, if you don’t understand what a specific button does or exactly what your choice in the game means, it could mean you act in a way that leads to you looking far more suspicious than you intended. It’s never fun when you lose due to a misunderstanding rather than your own mistake, so having the game be playable natively in other languages and working closely with translators to make sure Forest of Deceit has been translated accurately was of high importance for us. Making sure the difference is noted between getting lost in the woods randomly and getting forcibly ousted by your friends is quite important, for instance.
Another element of why localising the game was a priority on our end was because for many players, this is the type of game they will want to play with their friends and family. The more people playing the game, the higher the chance someone playing won’t speak English. It’s a bit like having a vegetarian option at a restaurant – it doesn’t just make the restaurant accessible for vegetarians, but also entire groups of people that happen to have a vegetarian in them can enjoy eating together. There might be a group where most people speak English, but they have a friend who only speaks Italian. Not only could they now play the entire game in Italian, if desired they could even set just the main game to English and have only that specific person’s mobile controller in Italian. The game is now much more accessible for that group even though the language barrier only affected one person!
Gaming is better when everyone can play. It costs money and takes time, but we believe localising games to as many languages as possible (especially ones as word-based as ours) is worth it, and makes the space better for everyone.
Forest of Deceit’s localisation update is out now on XBOX Series X|S, XBOX One, and Windows PC. The game supports XBOX Play Anywhere.
Forest of Deceit
PolyCrunch Games
$9.99
A STORM IS COMING
Forest of Deceit is a Jackbox-esque social deduction game for 4 to 8 players. You are part of a group lost in a dark, treacherous forest that seems to go on forever and ever. You can’t find any escape, and there’s a storm brewing on the horizon – a storm so massive that you all will surely perish if you can’t build a solid shelter before it arrives. Every day you explore the forest to gather resources with which to build your shelter. But the forest itself is cursed, slowly driving people into a traitorous madness; it’s surely already got a hold on some of your friends’ minds… or maybe even yours. If you don’t figure out who’s sabotaging the efforts to build a shelter, you all are going to be swept away. On the other hand, if you happen to be the Traitor and they find you, you could get kicked out of the group – for good.
A FOREST OF LIES AND BETRAYAL
From the minds of Ghost Camp and Thomas Mackinnon (creator of THE CORRIDOR and It Takes a War) comes Forest of Deceit, a back-stabbing experience about trying to survive a storm and betraying your friends. With a beautiful hand-drawn art style and a focus on casual play and social interaction, this party game is perfect for all kinds – from teenagers to grandpas, hardcore players to someone who’s never played a game in their life.
Each day, gathering parties are assigned to go deep into the forest for resources. Innocents will try to gather useful resources whereas Traitors will try to hinder the group’s advances with bad resources and try to get other players lost in the accursed woods. When the results of the day’s gathering are revealed, the group can discuss what happened – and after a few days there will even be a daily vote to expel suspected Traitors from the group. If the Innocents can build the shelter in time, they win! If not… it’s a victory for treachery.
Focusing on casual play and social interaction, Forest of Deceit is fun for all kinds of players – from a family experience to group meetings; from non-gamers to hardcore players!
FEATURES
• Gather resources to build a shelter against the upcoming storm. If you are a Traitor, you will try to get other people lost in the forest, and hinder the group’s efforts by collecting bad resources.
• Discuss what happened, and eventually start voting suspect Traitors out. If the Traitors can prevent the Innocents building a shelter in time, they win.
• Create your own house rules: An endlessly replayable party game, with fully customisable game options.
• Use your own phones, tablets, or computers for each player to play right from their very own web browser.
• Fantastic for both local multiplayer and online play. Works great with screen-sharing for online play!
NOTE: No generative AI was used in the making of this game or its associated assets.
