Kanda Shoichi Joins a Ten-Player Meccha Chameleon Hide-and-Seek Event Across Seven Maps

NIJISANJI — Kanda Shoichi of Nijisanji took part in a ten-player round of Meccha Chameleon, a hide-and-seek game in which hiders paint themselves to look like objects in the scenery, on a stream that ran about two hours on Thursday. A fellow game streamer organized the event, and the group ran it with house rules: two hunters and eight hiders, with the hunters taking turns on a platform so no one was picked twice in a row.

The rules changed as the rounds went on. Ammunition limits were switched off for the hunters. A forced taunt that gives away a hider’s position began at one-minute intervals, was cut to 30 seconds after the first round and to 25 seconds at the Penguin Hotel map. After the first round, when several hiders ran out of time to finish painting, the group set aside three minutes of drawing time before the hunters were released. A missed-sightings ranking tracked how long hiders stayed in a hunter’s view without being found, and one hider reached 2,300 points, which the participants called the day’s high.

“Every time, I’m really looking forward to playing with a lineup like this, so I hope to enjoy it and play through to the end today.” — Kanda Shoichi, introducing himself

The group played seven maps, including a museum, Kyoto, a shopping mall, a deep-sea stage, a crossover map based on the game 8-Ban Exit, the Penguin Hotel and an art museum. In Kyoto, one hider was found directly overhead, painted as a night sky. In the deep-sea stage, hiders turned into fish, and the participants said the hunters struggled. On the 8-Ban Exit map, the participants said there was almost nowhere to hide and several were found quickly. Kanda took a turn as a hunter in the second museum round and again in the second deep-sea round.

For the final round on the art museum map, the hunters’ wait was lengthened by 30 seconds so hiders could finish detailed paint jobs, and many kept painting after the round began. Afterward the participants went back through the finished disguises, and several said they had not been able to tell where some hiders were.

Once the others had left, Kanda said he had wanted to try a new way of hiding but ended up against a wall again, and that he wanted another go at the art museum map. He said new maps had been added since he last played, and mentioned a custom map system said to be in the works. He said he expected to be out on Friday and would not stream, with the next stream possibly on Saturday.