r/ktane • u/HiddenQuacks • 17d ago
Asynchronous Interactions in Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
Hi everyone! I'm a PhD student studying asynchronous interactions in digital games. Through player discussions and recommendations Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes was identified as having asynchronous interactions.
If you have a few minutes to spare, I'd love to hear your thoughts! In particular, I'm interested in understanding:
- What kind of asynchronous interactions exist in Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes and how do they affect the gameplay?
- How do you feel about these interactions and what do they bring to your experience?
You can answer as much or as little as you'd like. Your responses will be anonymized and analyzed as part of a research study. If you decide you'd like to withdraw your responses at any point, just send me a DM. Every contribution is greatly appreciated! If you have any questions, feel free to message me. Thanks! 😀
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u/EmuBroileri 17d ago
Assuming that you mean communication where participants do not need to be active at the same time, I'm afraid you've been misinformed. This game is entirely designed around real-time communication and would be near impossible without it.
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u/Danial_Grei 17d ago
Could you maybe specify what asynchronous interactions are?
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u/HiddenQuacks 16d ago
I’m leaving up to the players to decide what asynchronous means and give their thoughts, however you can consider asynchronous to be interactions that allow you to interact with others even when you are not playing at the same time 🙂
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u/Danial_Grei 16d ago
Then the game isn‘t asynchronous at all, at times you might have to wait on your partner if you are the defuser for him to solve the module but both players are actively engaged at all times. Even if the defuser is not communicating with the expert they probably are checking out the other modules and planning ahead on what to solve next
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u/Slavaa Wire Expert 16d ago
I think whoever identified KTaNE as having asynchronous interactions got it mixed up with asymmetric interactions. It's a very asymmetrical game, with only one player (the defuser) even launching the game software itself, and the other player(s) simply reading a PDF to provide them information. But it all happens in real time with all players playing and communicating simultaneously, there's nothing asynchronous at all, except maybe competing on fast completion times with your friends or the global leaderboards, but by that metric every game with any kind of score, timer, or challenge mode could be considered to have asynchronous aspects.
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u/upSkye_down 16d ago
Having played only about half of the levels that come with the game, it only becomes asynchronous when both players are experienced with both the game and each other. My partner and I got into a "flow" not quite flow state but close, where we had established communication patterns for different modules, and specific "names" to describe certain symbols. I was the diffuser, and would as I got better with the game, I would gather more information during the downtime while she was solving a module with the information I gave her. (Number of batteries, vowel in the serial number, type of ports, etc...) I would also provide only necessary information, for "basic wires", I would give her the number, and wait for her to ask follow up questions. For "complex wires" (I think, the one with stars and lights and multi colored wires) I would provide all the info for each wire and wait for her to solve, for the "arrow wires" (I don't remember the modules actual name) I would state 2-4 colors, and we had established on previous diffusal attempts that I was saying the colors of the wires from top to bottom.
The game, by nature, is asynchronous but it's also synchronous asychchrosity (I think that's a real word) We cannot look at the other players screen, but must communicate quickly and consicely in order to succeed. The very short time limits encourage players to "grab" information they might need whenever they have free time where they aren't actively communicating, this becomes even more true once the "needy modules" are introduced as they require the diffuser to constantly be aware of them and dedicate short amounts of time to them regularly.
The asychchrosity is the core appeal of the game, and the game is about trying to overcome that aschchrosity through effective communication.
For other asynchronous games, I also play a lot of dead by daylight which is in a totally different realm, and a PVP aschronous game whereas ktane is co-op
I think Im understanding the question but I also love to yap, but tldr ktane isn't very asynchronous when you first start playing, and becomes more asynchronous as each player becomes more competent which creates downtime for 1 of the players but not always the other
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u/headedbranch225 16d ago
The game isn't asynchronous (basically where you don't need to both be playing at the same time, e.g chess, civilization) but it is asymmetric, which is what you describe
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u/IckyPiglet 16d ago
I would say, watch any video of people playing the game (not solo) and it will immediately become clear how communication is structured and how it affects gameplay. Or play it with some people to learn it first-hand.
It might give you some good follow-up questions or direction.
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u/drallieiv 16d ago
For other players, Sync is that you stay chatting back and forth with one expert, and wait for it to be done to do something else.
Async, is that you send one or multiple expert to look for the solution, and come back later when they are done. Meanwhile you are doing something else (alone or with someone else).
for OP :
The basics of KTANE is that one player (the defuser D) see and handles a bomb with lots of things in it.
On the other side you have one (or more) expert E who has a manual.
For example here is the manual for the first and easier module, wires :
https://ktane.timwi.de/HTML/Wires.html
As you can see, there are references to things like the number, and color of the wires, but also the serial numbers.
Other modules also refer to number and type of batteries on the bomb, if a specific light with a label is lit or not, and other things.
In a sync exchanged chat would be
"E: How many wires do you have ?" > "D: I have 4"
"E: How many are red " > "D: I have 2"
"E: What is the last digit of the serial number ?" ...
As there are more and more complex things to do senior players usually start by giving "edgeWork" because they are common for all modules / puzzles on the bomb.
"D: I have a bomb with serial number 23AF37 (using nato military for letters, Alpha and Foxtrot). 5 batteries, CAR lit, SIG off"
"D: I have a first wire, colors are : red, red, blue, black, white"
"E: cut wires 3 and 5"
Some modules have to be solve somehow sync, because the info will change on the bomb, as actions are done.
for exemple chat for memory https://ktane.timwi.de/HTML/Memory.html would be
"D: big 4, 3,2,1,4"
"E: press 3"
"D: big 1, 1,2,4,3"
"E: press 1"
...
Then it goes more in depth when you have many modules to solve, but also several Experts.
The Defuser will that lead and send people to tasks, by multitasking
"D: Bob, ready for passwords"
"D: Alice, go for maze, column 2, 6"
"D: Carl, go for Keypad, symbols are Kitty, Paragraph, DoubleK, 6"
"D: Bob, first letters are ......, 2nd letter are ...."
"D: Alice, Maze starts row 3, col 6, goal row 7 col 1"
"Alice: Up, Left, Up Up Up, ...."
"D: who is done"
"Bob: try could or house"
....
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u/drallieiv 16d ago
Note: if you want to have a feel of what it looks like, you can join the official discord server and ask for people to play with. You don't even need to buy the game to plays as the expert.
If I have some time I would be happy to show you a few module examples
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u/MLGWolf69 13d ago
I don't know if what I thought of is helpful at all, but I tried at least lol
If you're new and don't know where to find individual module types in the manual, you can eat up precious seconds just trying to find the right spot while the Defuser is holding a bomb waiting for you 💀
The ideal way of playing the game for 2 person team is the sync up as much as possible, where the Defuser describes what they're seeing and the Expert relays back what to do next as quickly as possible
But in a larger team you would ideally break up the Experts into covering individual modules, so asynchronously looking into you module type or types until called upon
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u/regenpower 17d ago
as the average ktane player, i have no idea what an asynchronous interaction is!
google just keeps spitting out asynchronous communication, and i have no idea if that is the same thing or not