Fans of Werewolf, (aka Mafia, Witch Hunt, Assassin, Crime Syndicate, Detective, etc.), have probably all found themselves in a situation that was ripe for an epic gaming session, only to discover they didn’t have their deck of cards, this very thing lead the creators of HereWolf to create something so they always have a deck handy. Everyone nowadays is likely to have a smartphone, so virtual cards were the obvious solution.
For those not familiar with Werewolf, the goal of the game depends on the role you are secretly assigned; villagers are trying to identify and kill the werewolves, and the werewolves are snacking away on the villagers, one by one each night. Villagers make more or less un-educated guesses about who the werewolves are among them, while a single player assigned to be the seer is able to make one guess each night (round) and have their guess secretly confirmed or denied by the game moderator. In each round, the werewolves kill one villager in the night, and during the day one player is chosen by a vote of survivors and killed as a suspected werewolf (guilty or not). Game play progresses until the villagers kill all the werewolves, or the werewolves equal the remaining villagers and overrun them.
HereWolf was designed to take the basic gameplay experience and make it digital. However, unlike other digitized versions of popular card or board games, HereWolf still requires players to be in the same physical space—after all, live social interaction is one of the key game-play mechanics in a game like this. Someone organizes a game and other players are able to claw their way in (literally clawing the screen of their iPhone, iPod, or iPad to join), instantly and easily, everyone who claws in at that time/from that location is able to play a game of HereWolf.
HereWolf needs a minimum of seven co-located players and a one moderator to play a game. This requirement makes HereWolf stand out among other mobile apps, but fans of Werewolf and other similar games would be the first to tell you that more players can make for a much more fun game-play session. With that in mind, there is no limit on the number of players who can join a game using the HereWolf app, but the sweet spot is 12-18 players.
While there are no physical cards necessary to play HereWolf, the interface for the app harkens back to the game’s card-based roots and includes original artwork for each of the digital cards. The app also features control functions for the moderators to kill off the victims and immersive sound effects to create ambience.
There are, of course, plans to develop an Android version ASAP and to create supplemental cards to expand game-play options as well as different flavors (Mafia et. al.). The designers of HereWolf have built in the additional functionality to keep track of game-play statistics to know when, where, how and with whom you played. It will allow players to network with one another after the games are completed. People who play games of this nature at conventions or other types of social gatherings will love it. Viewing tracking stats and connections will be available in the next version, hopefully with an Android release.
So what are you waiting for? Round up a group of your iPhone owning friends, download the FREE app and start up a game of HereWolf!