DEMON BLUFF IS ADDICTING.
If you enjoy Mafia/Werewolf but lying stresses you out, this game is probably for you.
Daniel loves games.
We watched this year's Summer Game Fest together but I dropped off after the main award show. However, Daniel will catch all the showcases, such as Women-Led Games, which was where he learned about Demon Bluff by UmiArt.
"Demon Bluff" title image, sans title. (Source)
Backstory
About a week ago, Daniel was sitting in his usual gaming spot, playing this virtual card game on the TV. As I walked by, he casually mentioned that I would probably like this game, because it's just like Werewolf except you don't have to lie; you just need to find the perps. I shrugged it off and went about my merry way.
When it comes to games, I usually enjoy social simulation "cozy" games (e.g., Animal Crossing: New Horizons, The Sims 3, Tomodachi Life), or roleplaying games (e.g., Witcher 3 or the main Pokémon games).
Sidenote
Daniel's always trialing new games from his Steam wishlist so it's become background noise to me. However, on occasion I'll passively watch him play from the couch until I get invested in the story. That's how I got into Death Stranding, but for "scarier" games like Control or Echo, I'm satisfied with just being the audience.
The game
"The cards lie." (Source)
Demon Bluff is a "single player social deduction or roguelike* card game." I've never ventured into this genre before, but growing up I played a lot of Mafia with my friends, so I understood the premise quite well.
* A "roguelike" game means that you start over from 0 when you die.
How I played "Mafia" in my youth
First, we choose a narrator.† This person isn't an active player and will narrate the actions of the game. We would then get pieces of paper that correspond to the number of players. These papers determined your role, which you kept secret.
† I always volunteered to be the narrator to avoid having to be the mafia and lie, or be an innocent villager and have to defend myself. (And become offended when I'm wrongfully accused). Both options were always stressful to me.
Blank papers □ mean they are simply townspeople.
A black dot ● meant you were the killer, aka mafia‡.
‡ We usually played in a smaller group of around 5 people, so there was usually one killer. But in larger groups, it would make sense to have at least 2 mafia who could then work together.
There was also the role of doctor ✚ and sheriff ☆.
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The narrator starts the game by announcing that its night and everyone closes their eyes. They then tell the mafia to "wake up" (i.e., open their eyes). The mafia must silently choose to kill a player. Then the mafia goes to sleep and the "doctor" wakes up. The doctor chooses to "save" a player (they can also choose to save themselves). The doctor goes to sleep, and finally the "sheriff" wakes up. The sheriff chooses to "catch" the mafia. This is all done in secret, so people with an active role try to be as silent as possible, because any small noise or movement could give away their position.
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The narrator then announces that its morning, and spins a story about how Person A was minding their own business when they were killed in some tragic way. Now, if the doctor was successful, this person's life could be spared, and if the sheriff was successful, the mafia could be caught and the town is saved. (This usually doesn't happen within the first round.)
Next, the narrator asks the townsfolk to discuss who the mafia is. This is the "fun" part, because everyone comes up with an alibi and starts accusing everyone else. The round ends when the villagers determine who they think the mafia is. That person is then killed¶, and the town goes to sleep.
¶ The "dead" can watch the game silently (it's also fun to see who the actual mafia is), but they can't influence the players in any way.
This is when they learn whether their accusations were correct or not. If the mafia is correctly determined, the narrator still goes through the list (mafia/doctor/sheriff wake up, etc. for dramatic purposes), and then reveals the next morning whether the town was saved or not.
The game goes on until either the mafia is caught or the entire town is killed, and thus the mafia wins.
Werewolf
Later when I moved abroad, I learned that there was a card game called "Werewolf." The gameplay was exactly the same, except there were actual playing cards with even more roles, such as "The Seer," who could wake up and pick a player and find out of they are good or evil. I'm less familiar with this game as I've only played it a few times and preferred the simplicity of Mafia.
As mentioned, what I didn't like about Mafia/Werewolf was having to lie or defend myself, and somehow this anxiety grew as I got older. The last time I played was in Germany two years ago, and I almost felt like crying lol because I got the role of werewolf twice and this dude kept shouting at me and misgendering me. After that, I decided that I should retire from playing such a game.
Until now.
With Demon Bluff, you get all the benefits without the social anxiety.
Some potential roles available in the Demon Bluff demo. (Source)
I should add that we've only been playing the DEMO version and have already clocked in around 17 hours of gameplay. We've unlocked all the cards available for the demo, which is 1/3 of the total. And while this is a single-player game, sometimes Daniel and I play it together, because it's fun to discuss who we think could be a demon or minion.
Right, I should probably explain a bit about how Demon Bluff differs from traditional Werewolf/Mafia.
Since you're not IN the game yourself, all the cards have roles. There are three main categories:
- Demon/Minion—Disguises themselves as a villager/outcast. Always evil and must be killed
- Outcast—Neutral but can lie and always registers as "evil" to villagers; however they aren't evil, so if they are killed (and not a demon in disguise) you will lose health points
- Villager—They have their specific traits, but if they become "corrupted" by evil, they will lie, and if you kill them, you lose health
A round is determined by how much health you have. You always start at 10 points. If you kill the wrong card, you can lose up to 5 points§. So technically, you only have two chances to get it right.
§ There are some cards that differ from the general rule. For example, if you kill "The Bombardier" and its not a demon in disguise, you will lose 10 HP at once.
This is a general overview of how the game works. I'm leaving out a lot of details because I don't understand them completely.
There still isn't an official release date for the main game, but the demo is quite robust and you can still have a lot (17+ hours) of fun. Go download Demon Bluff right now!