Among Us

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Among Us
Cartoon astronauts in spacesuits floating through space. A bright light, a spaceship, and many stars are visible behind them. In front of them is the words "Among Us", with the "A" replaced by an astronaut.
Developer(s)InnerSloth
Publisher(s)InnerSloth
Producer(s)
  • Kristi Anderson Edit this on Wikidata
Designer(s)Marcus Bromander[a][4][5]
Programmer(s)Forest Willard[b][4][5]
Artist(s)Marcus Bromander[a]
Amy Liu[4][5]
Composer(s)Marcus Bromander[a]
EngineUnity
Platform(s)
Release
June 15, 2018
Genre(s)Party, social deduction
Mode(s)Multiplayer

Among Us[c] is an online multiplayer social deduction game developed and published by American[4] game studio InnerSloth and released on June 15, 2018. The game takes place in a space-themed setting where players each take on one of two roles, most being Crewmates, and a predetermined number being Impostors.

The goal of the Crewmates is to identify the Impostors, eliminate them, and complete tasks around the map; the Impostors' goal is to covertly sabotage and kill the Crewmates before they complete all their tasks. Through a plurality vote, players believed to be Impostors may be removed from the game. If all Impostors are eliminated or all tasks are completed, the Crewmates win; if there is an equal number of Impostors and Crewmates, or if a critical sabotage goes unresolved, the Impostors win.

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 August 2020. However, a month later in September, the planned sequel was cancelled, with the team instead shifting focus to improving the original game.

Gameplay

A white-suited astronaut named "Buddy" (the player) is standing in front of an unnamed blue-suited corpse. The room they are in is labeled "Admin". In the hallway, slightly obscured by the sight line mechanic, is a pink-suited astronaut named "Chum". In the upper-left corner of the player's screen there is a fake list of tasks as well as the player's goal: to kill all Crewmates. The player also has the option to Use, Report, Sabotage, and Kill. As the player has just killed, the button is on cooldown and faded.
An Impostor (white) has killed a Crewmate (blue), with another player (pink) having witnessed their death. Because of the game's vision mechanic, the pink player is partially obscured.

Among Us is a multiplayer game, supporting four to ten players. One to three 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: a spaceship (The Skeld), a headquarters building (Mira HQ), or a planet base (Polus).[3][12] Crewmates are given tasks to complete around the map in the form of minigames, consisting of maintenance work on vital systems, such as electrical rewiring and fueling engines. Impostors are given a fake list of tasks in order to blend in with Crewmates, and they have the ability to sabotage the map's systems, traverse vents, identify any other Impostors, and kill Crewmates. If a player dies, they become a ghost; ghosts can pass through walls, but can only interact with the world in limited ways and are invisible to everyone except other ghosts.[13][14] All players, aside from ghosts,[15] have a limited cone of vision, only allowing them to see other players within a certain unblocked distance around them, despite the game's top-down perspective.[16]

The Crewmates win by completing all tasks before being killed or by finding and eliminating all the Impostors. For the Impostors to win, they must either have a sabotage countdown run out or kill enough Crewmates such that the number of Impostors is equal to the number of Crewmates. Ghosts help their living teammates by completing tasks (as a Crewmate) or performing sabotages (as an Impostor). When an Impostor performs a sabotage, either there is an immediate consequence (such as all the lights being turned off or doors being closed) or a countdown begins. In the latter case, if the sabotage is not resolved before the countdown finishes, the Impostors win. Sabotages can be resolved by living players in varying ways depending on which sabotage is performed.[12][13][14]

Any living player who finds a dead body can report it, which halts all other gameplay and calls a group meeting. In the meeting, players discuss who they believe an Impostor based on the evidence surrounding the killing.[13][14] To help determine the identity of Impostors, there are various tracking systems in each map, such as a security camera system in the Skeld,[17] a doorlog in Mira HQ,[18] and a vitals indicator in Polus.[12] If a plurality vote is reached, the chosen person is ejected from the map and dies.[13][14] Living players may also call an "emergency meeting" by pressing a button in the map at any time, except when a sabotage is in progress.[14][19][20] Players communicate in a text chat,[13] but can only speak during meetings, and only if they are alive, although ghosts can speak with one another at any time.[12][14][16] While the game does not have a built-in voice chat system, it is common for players to use external programs such as Discord while playing.[21][22][23] In each game's lobby, various options can be adjusted to customize aspects of gameplay, such as vision range and emergency meetings.[16][24] There are also many cosmetic options, including spacesuit colors, skins, hats, and pets,[25][26] some of which are paid downloadable content.[6][9][16][d]

Development and release

Early development

Among Us was inspired by the real-life party game Mafia (also known as Werewolf in some areas),[6][28] and was initially intended to be a mobile-only local multiplayer game with a single map.[6] It was released in June 2018 to Android and iOS, under the AppID of "spacemafia".[6][29] Shortly after release, Among Us had an average player count of 30 to 50 players simultaneously.[24] Programmer Forest Willard deemed that "it didn’t release super well" which designer Marcus Bromander believed was because studio InnerSloth "[is] really bad at marketing".[5] The team intended to "[give] up on it several times", but continued work on it due to a "small but vocal player base",[30] first adding in online multiplayer, new tasks, customization options,[30] and later on November 16, 2018 it released on Steam.[5][2] Cross-platform play support was available upon release of the PC version.[31][32]

On August 8, 2019, InnerSloth announced a second map, Mira HQ.[33][34] A third map named Polus was added later that year on November 12, 2019.[33][35] Both maps initially required an additional payment of US$4, however their prices were reduced to $2 on January 6, 2020, and then later made free on June 11, 2020;[36] while the map packs are still available for purchase on all platforms, they no longer provide access to the maps, instead only giving the player the skins that were bundled with the maps.[37]

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's playerbase. 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.[5]

Popularity

Sodapoppin in a purple Twitch hoodie
Twitch streamer Sodapoppin, credited with popularizing Among Us on Twitch
A character sheet for a green-suited astronaut named "Seven"
A character sheet for a fan-made Among Us "crewsona"

While released in 2018, it was not until mid-2020 that Among Us saw a surge of popularity, initially driven by content creators online in South Korea and Brazil. Bromander stated that Mexico, Brazil, and South Korea are even more popular locations for the game than the United States.[5][6] According to Willard, Twitch streamer Sodapoppin made the game popular on Twitch in July 2020.[5] Following this, many other Twitch streamers and YouTubers began playing Among Us, including prominent content creators CallMeCarson, xQc, Pokimane, Shroud, Ninja, and PewDiePie.[38][39][28]

The COVID-19 pandemic was frequently cited as a reason for the popularity of Among Us, as it allowed for socialization despite social distancing.[5][14][40][33] Emma Kent of Eurogamer believed that the release of InnerSloth's The Henry Stickmin Collection also contributed to Among Us' popularity,[38] and PC Gamer's Wes Fenlon believed Twitch streamer SR_Kaif "primed Among Us for its big moment."[28] The game's similarities to other popular tabletop games that had been inspired by Mafia, such as Secret Hitler, was also listed by Fenlon as a reason for the success of Among Us. Some of these Mafia-like games had been previously adapted to computer games, such as Town of Salem and Werewolves Within, but Fenlon saw these as "just add[ing] an online interface for the basic Werewolf rules," whereas Among Us was an entirely new take on the concept.[28]

The game's popularity continued into the following months; in September 2020, the game received more than 100 million downloads,[28] and its player count rose to 1.5 million concurrent players,[3][41] nearly 400 thousand of which were on Steam,[33] then peaked to 3.8 million in late September.[42] This sudden increase in players overloaded the game's server, which according to Willard was "at the time... a totally free Amazon server, and it was terrible," which forced him to work under crunch time to quickly fix it.[30]

During its time of widespread popularity, Among Us was controversially played by the U.S. Navy Esports team, in which players on the stream used in-game names referencing the N-word and the bombing of Nagasaki, deemed "offensive" and "intolerable" by some viewers.[43] In August, InnerSloth also opened a merch store for Among Us.[9][24] The game's popularity inspired many fanarts and internet memes,[17][19][30] as well as a phenomenon of "crewsonas";[26][44] Willard expressed that fan-created content "really is the best part" of making Among Us, with Bromander calling it "my favorite thing to see".[30]

Cancelled sequel and future

In August 2020, the team shifted focus onto a sequel, Among Us 2.[8][9][10][11] During this time, Willard and Amy Liu continued to update Among Us, increasing the maximum playerbase, adding four servers, three regions,[45] and longer game codes to allow for more concurrent games to be supported.[46] On September 23, 2020, the team cancelled the sequel, instead opting to support the original game and add all content intended for the sequel to it instead, due to "how many people [were] enjoying [the original game]".[47][38][48] As InnerSloth deemed the game's codebase "outdated and not built to support adding so much new content," the team plans to rework the game's core code to allow for the new features.[48] The team has announced their plans to fix the game's server issues and widespread cheating problem,[49] as well as improve the gameplay of ghosts,[50] add customizable controls,[51] colorblindness support, a friends system, more player colors, and a new map based on the Henry Stickmin series, of which Bromander is the creator.[47][38][48]

InnerSloth has considered releasing the game to consoles such as PS4 and Xbox One, but encountered a problem in implementing player communication, as standard text-based or voice-based chat seemed unusable. They considered a system similar to the "quick comms" system from Rocket League, as well as the possibility of developing an entirely new communication system for the game. As of September 2020, it is currently unknown what state the development of the ports is in, though they are at least considering making them.[21][22]

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".[13] 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."[14] Alice O'Conner of Rock, Paper, Shotgun described the game as "Mafia or Werewolf but with minigames".[52] Andrew Penney of TheGamer said the game was "worth it for the price" and that "who you play with dictates how fun the game is.[16]

Among Us has been frequently compared to Fall Guys, as both became popular as party games during the COVID-19 pandemic;[5][23][51] the developers of the games have both positively acknowledged each other on Twitter.[53][54] Comparisons have also been drawn between the two games' avatars, which have been said to look like jelly beans.[55][56] Among Us has also been compared to The Thing,[19][57] Town of Salem,[28][57] Werewolves Within,[28] and Secret Hitler.[28]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c Better known as "Puffballs United".[3]
  2. ^ Better known as "ForteBass".[6]
  3. ^ Stylized as Among Us! on the iOS App Store.[7] When discussing its sequel, the game has been given the retronym of Among Us 1 by the game's developers as well as several news outlets.[8][9][10][11]
  4. ^ Both the free mobile version of Among Us and the paid PC version have paid DLC. For the PC version, however, some of the mobile version's DLC is included in the standalone game.[27][6]

References

  1. ^ a b InnerSloth (August 17, 2018). "PC and Online Released! - Among Us by Innersloth". Itch.io. Archived from the original on September 21, 2020. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
  2. ^ a b InnerSloth (November 8, 2018). "Among Us Out of Beta and Pricing - Among Us by Innersloth". Itch.io. Archived from the original on September 6, 2020. Retrieved September 27, 2020.
  3. ^ a b c Lugris, Mark (September 9, 2020). "InnerSloth's Party Game Among Us Reaches 1.5 Million Simultaneous Players". TheGamer. Archived from the original on September 21, 2020. Retrieved September 9, 2020.
  4. ^ a b c d "About". InnerSloth. Archived from the original on September 21, 2020. Retrieved September 9, 2020.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Carless, Simon (September 10, 2020). "Behind the dizzying ride to the top for Among Us". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on September 21, 2020. Retrieved September 16, 2020.
  7. ^ "Among Us!". iOS App Store. Archived from the original on September 21, 2020. Retrieved September 13, 2020.
  8. ^ a b InnerSloth (August 18, 2020). "Among Us 2 - Among Us by Innersloth". Itch.io. Archived from the original on September 21, 2020. Retrieved September 9, 2020.
  9. ^ a b c d 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.
  10. ^ a b Perrault, Patrick (August 18, 2020). "Among Us 2 Announced". TechRaptor. Archived from the original on September 9, 2020. Retrieved September 8, 2020.
  11. ^ a b 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.
  12. ^ a b c d Matthews, Emma (September 15, 2020). "Deceive your friends with these sneaky Among Us tips". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on September 21, 2020. Retrieved September 16, 2020.
  13. ^ a b c d e f 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.
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h 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.
  15. ^ Paez, Danny (September 16, 2020). "3 'Among Us' ghost tips to help your team win from beyond the grave". Inverse. Archived from the original on September 21, 2020. Retrieved September 16, 2020.
  16. ^ a b c d e Penney, Andrew (September 16, 2020). "Among Us Review: A Perfect Way To Ruin Your Friendships". TheGamer. Archived from the original on September 21, 2020. Retrieved September 16, 2020.
  17. ^ a b Marshall, Cass (September 21, 2020). "Among Us fans are calling everything 'pretty sus,' and it keeps working". Polygon. Archived from the original on September 24, 2020. Retrieved September 26, 2020.
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  19. ^ a b c Marshall, Cass (September 11, 2020). "Why Among Us' Emergency Meeting is the big social media mood". Polygon. Archived from the original on September 21, 2020. Retrieved September 13, 2020.
  20. ^ Marshall, Cass (September 18, 2020). "New Among Us players keep accidentally outing themselves as aliens". Polygon. Archived from the original on September 21, 2020. Retrieved September 19, 2020.
  21. ^ a b Winslow, Jeremy (September 18, 2020). "Among Us PS4, Xbox One Port More Complicated Than You Think". GameSpot. Archived from the original on September 21, 2020. Retrieved September 19, 2020.
  22. ^ a b Paez, Danny (September 17, 2020). "'Among Us' dev offers disappointing update on progress for Xbox, PS4 ports". Inverse. Archived from the original on September 21, 2020. Retrieved September 19, 2020.
  23. ^ a b 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.
  24. ^ a b c 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.
  25. ^ Wilde, Tyler (September 24, 2020). "How to customize your character in Among Us". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on September 27, 2020. Retrieved September 28, 2020.
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  27. ^ Cuevas, Zackery (October 2, 2020). "All the differences between the PC and mobile versions of Among Us". Android Central. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
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  30. ^ a b c d e Campbell, Amy (September 22, 2020). "Among Us Devs Have Created a Gaming Phenomenon, Albeit Two Years After It Launched". Escapist Magazine. Archived from the original on September 24, 2020. Retrieved September 24, 2020.
  31. ^ Power, Tom (September 16, 2020). "Is there crossplay in Among Us?". Gamepur. Archived from the original on September 24, 2020. Retrieved September 21, 2020.
  32. ^ Matthews, Emma (September 10, 2020). "How crossplay works in Among Us". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on September 21, 2020. Retrieved September 15, 2020.
  33. ^ a b c d Coto, Adrian (September 21, 2020). "Among Us Surpasses PUBG With Almost 400,000 Concurrent Steam Players". Screen Rant. Archived from the original on September 24, 2020. Retrieved September 21, 2020.
  34. ^ InnerSloth (August 8, 2019). "MIRA HQ Launched! - Among Us by Innersloth". Itch.io. Archived from the original on September 21, 2020. Retrieved September 16, 2020.
  35. ^ InnerSloth (November 12, 2019). "Polus Map Launched! - Among Us by Innersloth". Itch.io. Archived from the original on September 21, 2020. Retrieved September 16, 2020.
  36. ^ InnerSloth (January 6, 2020). "Among Us and Innersloth in 2020 - Among Us by Innersloth". Itch.io. Archived from the original on September 24, 2020. Retrieved September 27, 2020.
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  39. ^ Zheng, Jenny (September 21, 2020). "Among Us Is Even More Popular Than You Think Right Now". GameSpot. Archived from the original on September 23, 2020. Retrieved September 24, 2020.
  40. ^
  41. ^
  42. ^ Lugris, Mark (September 29, 2020). "Among Us Had 3.8 Million Concurrent Players Last Weekend". TheGamer. Archived from the original on October 1, 2020. Retrieved October 1, 2020.
  43. ^
  44. ^ Lopez, Michael (September 28, 2020). "Among Us Fans Are Making Their Own Unique "Crewsonas"". TheGamer. Archived from the original on October 1, 2020. Retrieved September 29, 2020.
  45. ^ Willard, Forest (September 1, 2020). "Among Us Beta 2020.9.1 :: Among Us General Discussions". Steam Community. Archived from the original on September 21, 2020. Retrieved September 18, 2020.
  46. ^ Willard, Forest (September 10, 2020). "Servers Update (2020.9.9 beta) :: Among Us General Discussions". Steam Community. Archived from the original on September 21, 2020. Retrieved September 18, 2020.
  47. ^ a b
  48. ^ a b c InnerSloth (September 23, 2020). "The Future of Among Us". Itch.io. Archived from the original on September 24, 2020. Retrieved September 23, 2020.
  49. ^ Grayson, Nathan (October 2, 2020). "Among Us Has A Cheating Problem". Kotaku. Retrieved October 4, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  50. ^ Paez, Danny. "'Among Us' developers promise to fix the most boring part of the game". Inverse. Retrieved October 7, 2020.
  51. ^ a b Liao, Shannon (September 26, 2020). "Among Us, a murder mystery set in space, is the latest multimillion dollar craze in video games". CNN. Archived from the original on September 27, 2020. Retrieved September 27, 2020.
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  53. ^ Fall Guys [@FallGuysGame] (September 23, 2020). "This is actually true
    We love Among Us 😍"     (Tweet) – via Twitter.     {{Cite tweet}}: |date= / |number= mismatch (help)
  54. ^ Forest Willard [@forte_bass] (September 23, 2020). "This is horrifying.
    I love it"     (Tweet) – via Twitter.     {{Cite tweet}}: |date= / |number= mismatch (help)
  55. ^ Fairfax, Zackerie (September 27, 2020). "A Fall Guys X Among Us Crossover Could Happen (& It Just Makes Sense)". ScreenRant. Retrieved October 4, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  56. ^ Harris, Iain (October 1, 2020). "Someone has modded Among Us's Red into Left 4 Dead 2, naturally". PCGamesN. Retrieved October 4, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  57. ^ a b

External links

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