Imposterus is a fast, one-phone party game where everyone knows the secret word — except one player. That player is the impostor. Players give short clues, read reactions, argue, and vote. The goal isn’t just to win, but to create tension, laughter, and those silent moments when everyone suddenly looks at the same person.

This project was built as part of the Anything Hackathon (https://www.anything.com/hackathon), with a strong focus on speed, clarity, and real social interaction.

Most impostor and spy-style party games lose energy before they even start. They require explanations, have too many rules, and aren’t designed for a simple one‑phone experience. The first round feels confusing instead of exciting.

We designed Imposterus to remove that friction.

No tutorials. No setup. No overload of mechanics.

Just one phone, one word, and one player who doesn’t know it.

The game is built around people, not systems. Tension comes from body language, hesitation, confidence, and silence — while the phone stays minimal so the room can be loud.

Before building, we looked closely at existing games in the genre.

We reviewed games like Spyfall, Who Is the Spy, party variants, word‑based impostor apps, and even polished experiences like Splash. While they create fun social tension, most of them require explanations, add unnecessary roles, or aren’t designed for a true one‑phone flow. Some feel repetitive after a few rounds, others slow the game down before it even starts.

The key takeaway was simple: many games add complexity where party games actually need speed.

We brainstormed many ideas early on:

Multiple impostors

Extra roles

Advanced scoring

Longer sessions

Then we cut most of them.

Hackathon constraints forced clarity. We followed one rule:

If it slows down the first round, it doesn’t ship.

We wanted Imposterus to feel playful but suspicious, warm but tense.

Using Flora and Midjourney, we explored:

Color palettes (deep reds, warm shadows)

Mood and lighting

Character concepts

This is where Lupik, the elf mascot, was born. The elf theme allowed expressive faces and a light fantasy tone without making the game feel aggressive or dark.

We designed the core flow in Figma, focusing on:

Zero learning curve

One-screen clarity

Thumb-friendly interactions

Fast pass-the-phone motion

Then we used Anything for wireframing and building screens. Once the initial style was defined, Anything helped generate new screens that stayed visually consistent, allowing us to iterate on flow without constantly redesigning UI.

Player setup

Role assignment

Clue round

Discussion

Voting

Reveal

We added categories to increase replayability and subtle animations to build tension — but never enough to distract from faces and reactions.

A big part of why Imposterus moved so fast from idea to a working product was Anything.

Instead of spending hours recreating layouts, components, and consistency between screens, we focused on defining the style and flow once, and then let Anything generate the rest of the app following that visual direction.

Anything helped us:

Rapidly turn wireframes into real app screens

Keep visual consistency across the entire app

Iterate on UX without redesigning everything from scratch

Reduce overthinking and decision fatigue during the hackathon

Once the first screens were aligned with our style guide, the rest of the screens followed naturally. This allowed us to spend more time improving gameplay, categories, animations, and the demo instead of fighting UI structure.

Anything — app creation and screen generation

Flora — visual exploration and moodboarding

Jitter — animation and demo video creation

For the demo, we focused on emotion rather than explanation.

Using Flora for visual exploration and Jitter for motion, we created short cinematic scenes built around silence, suspicion, and release. If someone understands the game without reading text, the demo succeeds.

The app was ready for App Store submission much faster than expected, largely because Anything reduced friction during development.

Imposterus isn’t about game winning and competition — it’s about tension, laughter, and shared moments.

Building it reminded us why we love shipping under pressure with clear constraints.