Secret Hitler: Designing Conflict & High-Tension Moments

This 2017 GDC design postmortem from 'Secret Hitler' co-designer Mike Boxleiter goes over the initial design process, pitfalls and dead ends which were overcome in the iteration process and the final marketing push that helped the game succeed on Kickstarter.

GDC talks cover a range of developmental topics including game design, programming, audio, visual arts, business management, production, online games, and much more. We post a fresh GDC video every weekday. Subscribe to the channel to stay on top of regular updates, and check out GDC Vault for thousands of more in-depth talks from our archives.

Follow us on Twitter

Check out our Facebook page for GDC exclusives

[justinbeynon]

There's not been a single instance of anyone I've played with who said they did not enjoy this game afterwards.

[mattdeluccia]

This game is amazing. My only criticism is that you need 5 players to play, which is more than most board games.

I won as Hitler twice last night. In the first game, a liberal screwed up his interrogation, making everyone think he was Hitler. We had fascist presidents in the next two turns, so we got 2 more fascist policies and killed the other liberals. We then proceeded to vote against every president-chancellor combo in hopes that the card flip would be fascist and it was. In the 2nd game, I pulled the bold strategy of outing the other fascist with interrogation. On the next turn everyone trusted me, so they made me chancellor.

[hamiltonnewhart]

I hard disagree that you "cannot be good at secret hitler." It's all about psychology and reading people (body language, tone of voice, etc.). Some people are just going to be naturally good at it.

[Talon]

Very cool game. Sadly have never played myself but what I saw from the Co-optional Lounge it's amazing.

[oopsy]

In regards to the secret role question
If you want a good hidden role game check out town of Salem. I'm sure you can get some good design ideas cool features and ideas.

[Dayvit]

9:00 agree on failing first mission, it can be pulled off. take the win when you can. Even if you pass the first mission, others will still think maybe you're a secret baddie, so you have nothing to gain.

[suraphelbergammann]

This game is so awesome! We play it all the time. And yes, it is much better than werewolf . :D

[Cerealbox]

I'd love if someone better at probability than me could come up with a good reason why 6:11 works so much better than 6:12.

[singsingthinking]

I want to play it but I have no friends

[chernkiatpoh]

Avalon is still better in term of difficulty, I know somebody will disagree because when I bought this in the past I feel like it definitely better than Avalon, but after a lot of playing people just say they got 3 fails, but I found a way to identify good guys, if they tell you they buried one success and pass you a success and fail to test what team are you in, 80% of the times they are good, because psychological speaking, bad guys feel guilty buried good card, they dun want to get themselves being suspicious

[Oak__]

The guy comparing trump needs more stats in perspicacity

[mrcoffee]

It's too bad that you can't buy the original game here in Germany only fake copies. Even it's really popular over here. I love it!

[tomjensen]

Space Station 13 - Great hidden role PC game which is online and multiplayer (and top down 2D...)

[swcarbon]

I made a 18 part secret hitler strategy guide for new to intermediate players.

[clementfitoussi]

Steven Lumpkins asked a question! I recognized his voice!

[rattenkollektiv]

When u activate ur Hearthstone secret_irl

[jonwarland]

If you say the word hitler your video gets unmonetised. At this rate you'll be paying youtube.

[onerandomperson]

I was playing this today, and I was hitler. I thought that two of our best players were on my team because they were being very helpful and creating chaos, which led to me winning within 5 minutes. The best bit? Neither of those players were on my team, but had just not believed I would be hitler twice in a row, and the fascists on my team did very little, but we didn’t need to.

[samroper]

Enjoyed this until that really polarising question about Trump .-.

[BADCFFEE]

this game is pretty much a clone of other stuff like Avalon or The Resistance, they talk about it like it was something hard to design, it's stuff that you can do in few hours in a jam, and still loose as there's nothing original about it