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Among Us

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Among Us
File:AmongUs CoverArt.jpg
Developer(s)InnerSloth
Publisher(s)InnerSloth
Producer(s)
  • Kristi Anderson Edit this on Wikidata
Designer(s)Marcus Bromander[a][3][4]
Programmer(s)Forest Willard[3][4]
Artist(s)Marcus Bromander[a]
Amy Liu[3][4]
Composer(s)
  • Forest Willard Edit this on Wikidata
EngineUnity
Platform(s)
Release
June 15, 2018
  • Android, iOS
  • June 15, 2018[1]
  • Windows
  • August 17, 2018[1]
Genre(s)Party video game, survival video game
Mode(s)Multiplayer

Among Us[b] is an online multiplayer party game, developed and published by American[3] game studio InnerSloth and released on June 15, 2018. The game has a group of players in a space-themed setting 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 eliminate them while completing tasks around the map, and the Impostors' goal is to kill all Crewmates without being identified.

While initially released in 2018 to little mainstream attention, it received an influx of popularity in 2020 due to many well-known Twitch streamers and YouTubers playing it. In response to the game's popularity, a sequel, Among Us 2, was announced in 2020.

Gameplay

Among Us is a multiplayer game, supporting 4–10 players. 1–3 of these players are randomly selected each game to be Impostors, while the rest are Crewmates. The game can take place on one of three maps, one of them being a spaceship, one of them being a Headquarters building, and one a planet base.[2] Crewmates are given tasks to complete around the map consisting of maintenance work on vital systems, such as electrical rewiring and fueling engines. Impostors are given a fake list of tasks, and have the ability to sabotage the map's systems, traverse vents, identify any other Impostors, and murder Crewmates. If a player dies, they become a ghost; ghosts have the ability to pass through walls, but can only interact with the world in limited ways and are invisible to everyone except other ghosts.[7][8]

The goal of the Crewmates is to complete all tasks before being murdered, with a secondary goal being to find and eliminate the Impostors; the goal of the Impostors is to kill every Crewmate by murdering enough such that the number of Impostor(s) is equal to the number of Crewmate(s), either by directly killing them or through sabotage; the goal of ghosts is to help their living teammates. When an Impostor performs a sabotage, there is either an immediate consequence (such as all the lights being turned off) or a countdown will begin, and the sabotage must be resolved before it finishes, or else all the Crewmates will die. Sabotages can be resolved by Crewmates in varying ways depending on which sabotage is done.[7][8]

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 map, dies, and it is revealed whether or not they were an Impostor.[7][8] Players may also call an "emergency meeting" by pressing a button in the map at any time, though the limit of emergency meetings called by a single person can be adjusted.[9][8] The game can either be played with voice chat[10] or a text chat,[7] wherein players can only communicate during meetings, and only if they are alive, although ghosts can speak with each other.[8] Various customization options to aspects of gameplay, such as vision range and emergency meetings, are available in each game's lobby.[11]

Development and popularity

Among Us was inspired by the real-life party game Mafia, and was initially intended to be a mobile-only local multiplayer game with a single map. In June 2018, the game released to Android and iOS. Shortly after release, Among Us had an average player count of 30 to 50 players simultaneously.[11] Programmer Forest Willard deemed that "it didn’t release super well" which designer Marcus Bromander believed was because the team "[is] really bad at marketing". After receiving feedback from players, the team decided to add online multiplayer, and later that year, a Steam release.[4] Cross-platform play support was available upon release.[12]

According to Willard, the team stuck with the game "a lot longer than we probably should have from a pure business standpoint", putting out regular updates to the game as often as once per week. This led to a steady increase in players, "snowball[ing]" the game into popularity. Bromander stated their ability to do this was due to them having enough savings, allowing them to keep working on the game even while it was not selling particularly well.[4]

The surge in popularity made by content creators online was started in South Korea and Brazil and eventually made its way into the English-speaking world. Bromander stated that Mexico, Brazil, and South Korea are even more popular locations for the game than the United States.[4][13] Twitch streamer Chance "Sodapoppin" Morris was attributed with being the streamer who made the game popular on Twitch in July 2020.[4] Following this, many other Twitch streamers and YouTubers began playing Among Us, and the game's player count quickly rose and eventually peaked to 1.5 million concurrent players.[14][15][16][2] This proved to be a struggle for the game's servers,[2] leading developer InnerSloth to focus on a sequel rather than expanding the original game,[17][18][19][20] although Willard and Liu did work on increasing the maximum playerbase, adding four servers, three regions, and longer game codes to allow for more servers to be supported, allowing room for more than 3 million players at a time.[citation needed]

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".[7] 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."[8] Alice O'Conner of Rock, Paper, Shotgun described the game as "Mafia or Werewolf but with minigames".[21]

Among Us has been frequently compared to Fall Guys, in that both are online party games which became popular during the COVID-19 pandemic.[4][22][23][24] Comparisons have also been made to the film The Thing.[9][25][26] Among Us was played by the U.S. Navy Esports team with player names referencing the n-word and the bombing of Nagasaki, deemed "offensive" and "intolerable" by many viewers.[27][28][29]

Notes

  1. ^ a b Better known as "Puffballs United".[2]
  2. ^ Stylized as Among Us! on the iOS App Store[5] and named Space Mafia in its Google Play URL.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b "PC and Online Released! - Among Us by Innersloth". itch.io. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d Lugris, Mark (September 9, 2020). "InnerSloth's Party Game Among Us Reaches 1.5 Million Simultaneous Players". TheGamer. Retrieved September 9, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. ^ a b c d "About". InnerSloth. Retrieved September 9, 2020.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Grayson, Nathan (September 8, 2020). "Among Us' Improbable Rise To The Top Of Twitch". Kotaku Australia. Archived from the original on September 9, 2020. Retrieved September 8, 2020.
  5. ^ "‎Among Us!". App Store. Retrieved September 13, 2020.
  6. ^ "Among Us - Apps on Google Play". play.google.com. Retrieved September 13, 2020.
  7. ^ a b c d e Pearson, Craig (August 27, 2020). "Among Us has made a lying murderer out of me". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Archived from the original on September 9, 2020. Retrieved September 8, 2020.
  8. ^ a b c d e f Lau, Evelyn (September 8, 2020). "'Among Us': what to know about the online survival game that's all about deceit". The National. Archived from the original on September 9, 2020. Retrieved September 8, 2020.
  9. ^ a b Marshall, Cass (September 11, 2020). "Why Among Us' Emergency Meeting is the big social media mood". Polygon. Retrieved September 13, 2020.
  10. ^ Hou, Philip (August 28, 2020). "Among Us: Tips and Tricks for New Players". CBR. Archived from the original on September 9, 2020. Retrieved September 8, 2020.
  11. ^ a b Joseph, Funké (September 4, 2020). "Why Among Us Became One of the Biggest Games on Twitch Two Years After Release". Paste. Archived from the original on September 9, 2020. Retrieved September 8, 2020.
  12. ^ Matthews, Emma (September 10, 2020). "How crossplay works in Among Us". PC Gamer. Retrieved September 15, 2020.
  13. ^ Carless, Simon (September 10, 2020). "Behind the dizzying ride to the top for Among Us". Gamasutra. Retrieved September 16, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  14. ^ Macgregor, Jody (September 9, 2020). "Multiplayer space mystery Among Us hits 1.5 million simultaneous players". PC Gamer. Retrieved September 12, 2020.
  15. ^ O'Connor, Alice (September 8, 2020). "Among Us had 1.5 million people playing at the same time this weekend". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved September 12, 2020.
  16. ^ Bailey, Dustin (September 7, 2020). "Among Us reaches 1.5 million concurrent players". PCGamesN. Archived from the original on September 9, 2020. Retrieved September 8, 2020.
  17. ^ Manson, Leonard (September 4, 2020). "Among Us 2 confirmed for PC and mobile; first details". Somag News. Archived from the original on September 4, 2020. Retrieved September 8, 2020.
  18. ^ Perrault, Patrick. "Among Us 2 Announced". TechRaptor. Archived from the original on September 9, 2020. Retrieved September 8, 2020.
  19. ^ Brian, Renadette (August 19, 2020). "Among Us 2 Announced Following First Game's Huge Surge In Popularity". Game Rant. Archived from the original on September 9, 2020. Retrieved September 8, 2020.
  20. ^ "Among Us 2 - Among Us by Innersloth". itch.io. Retrieved September 9, 2020.
  21. ^ O'Conner, Alice (September 8, 2020). "Among Us had 1.5 million people playing at the same time this weekend". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Archived from the original on September 9, 2020. Retrieved September 8, 2020.
  22. ^ Grimm, Peter (September 7, 2020). "Among Us Hits Impressive Concurrent Player Milestone". Game Rant. Archived from the original on September 9, 2020. Retrieved September 8, 2020.
  23. ^ Baird, Scott (September 7, 2020). "Fall Guys Is Number One On Steam's Bestselling List For Fifth Week In A Row". TheGamer. Archived from the original on September 9, 2020. Retrieved September 8, 2020.
  24. ^ Matthews, Emma (August 25, 2020). "Why Among Us is the best game to watch on Twitch right now". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on September 9, 2020. Retrieved September 8, 2020.
  25. ^ Rothery, Jen (August 26, 2020). "The best games like Among Us: seven of the top social deduction and imposter games". PCGamesN. Retrieved September 14, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  26. ^ Smith, Callum (September 8, 2020). "Is Among Us on console for PS4 and Xbox One? Why the game is so popular now". HITC. Retrieved September 14, 2020.
  27. ^ Lemon, Jacon (September 13, 2020). "US Navy's Twitch account criticized for streaming games with offensive player names". Newsweek. Retrieved September 15, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  28. ^ "A U.S. Navy Twitch Stream Included Jokes About Nagasaki and the N-Word". www.vice.com. Retrieved September 15, 2020.
  29. ^ Marchetto, Claudia (September 14, 2020). "Among Us: la Marina americana lo gioca su Twitch usando nickname razzisti ed è bufera". Eurogamer.it (in Italian). Retrieved September 15, 2020.
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