Among Us

Among Us
Developer(s)	InnerSloth
Publisher(s)	InnerSloth
Producer(s)	Kristi Anderson
Designer(s)	Marcus Bromander
Programmer(s)	Adriel Wallick Forest Willard
Artist(s)	Amy Liu Marcus Bromander
Composer(s)	Forest Willard
Engine	Unity
Platform(s)	Android Microsoft Windows iOS
Release	June 15, 2018
Genre(s)	Party video game, survival video game
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

Among Us is an online multiplayer party game developed by InnerSloth and released on June 15, 2018. The game has a group of players aboard a spaceship each take on one of two roles, most being Crewmates, and some being Impostors. The goal for the Crewmates is to identify the Impostors and eject them from the ship while maintaining the ship's functions, and the the Impostors' goal is to kill all Crewmates without being identified. While initially released in 2018 to little mainstream attention, the game received an influx of popularity in 2020 due to many well-known Twitch streamers playing it. A sequel was announced in 2020, in response to the original's popularity.

Gameplay

Among Us is a multiplayer game, supporting 4-10 players. 2 of these players are randomly selected each game to be Impostors, while the rest are Crewmates. The goal of the Crewmates is to discover the two Impostors and eject both of them off the ship before being murdered or sabotaged; the goal of the Impostors is to kill every Crewmate, either by having only one Crewmate left, or by sabotaging the ship's systems before they are fixed; as a dead Crewmate, the player becomes a ghost with limited influence on the ship, whose goal is to help their living Crewmates. Crewmates are given tasks to complete around the ship; failing to do these tasks can result in the death of the Crewmates. Impostors are given a fake list of tasks, have the ability to sabotage the ship's systems, traverse vents, and murder Crewmates.

If a player finds a dead body, they can report it, which will lead to a group meeting where players discuss who they believe an Impostor is, based on the evidence surrounding the murder. If a majority vote is reached, the chosen person is ejected from the ship and it is revealed whether or not they were an Impostor. Players may also call an "emergency meeting" by pressing a button on the ship at any time. The game can either be played with voice chat or a text chat, wherein players can only speak to each other during meetings, and only if they are alive.

Reception

Craig Pearson of Rock, Paper, Shotgun found playing as an Impostor "a lot more fun" than playing as a Crewmate, which he called "exhausting". In reference to the game's popularity among streamers, Evelyn Lau of The National said "Watching the reactions of people trying to guess who the imposter is (and sometimes getting it very wrong) or lying terribly about not being the imposter is all quite entertaining."

Popularity

After release, Among Us had an average player count of 30 to 50 players simultaneously. In 2020, this increased to 1.5 million concurrent players, which proved to be a struggle for the game's servers, leading developer InnerSloth to focus on a sequel rather than expanding the original game. The sharp increase in popularity years after release was attributed to Twitch streamers who had begun streaming the game en masse.