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Among Us

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Among Us
A sans-serif logo. The "A" in "Among Us" is replaced with one of the game's cartoon astronaut characters.
Developer(s) InnerSloth[1][2]
Publisher(s) InnerSloth
Designer(s) Marcus Bromander[lower-alpha 1][4][5]
Programmer(s) Forest Willard[lower-alpha 2][4][5]
Artist(s) Marcus Bromander[lower-alpha 1]
Amy Liu[4][5]
Composer(s) Forest Willard[lower-alpha 2][7]
Engine Unity[8]
Platforms
Release date(s)
June 15, 2018
Genre(s) Party, social deduction[8]
Mode(s) Multiplayer[8]

Among Us[lower-alpha 3] 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, in which players each take on one of two roles, most being Crewmates, and a predetermined number being Impostors.[lower-alpha 4]

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 of their tasks. Players suspected to be Impostors may be eliminated via a plurality vote, which any player may initiate at any time. Crewmates win if all Impostors are eliminated or all tasks are completed; Imposters win if there is an equal number of Impostors and Crewmates, or if a critical sabotage goes unresolved.

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, Among Us 2 was announced in August 2020. However, the planned sequel was canceled a month later and the team shifted their focus to improving the original game.[1][2] Among Us has inspired internet memes and achieved a large following online.[1][2]

Gameplay

File:AmongUsWhiteKillBlue.png
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 for four to ten players. One to three players (depending on what the host selected) are chosen to be the impostor(s) each round. A game can take place on one of three maps: a spaceship called "The Skeld", a headquarters building called "Mira HQ", or a planet base called "Polus".[3][16]

At the start of the game, 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 engine refueling. Some other tasks are downloading data, cleaning air filter, emptying trash, swiping a card, med bay scan, and some others. Impostors are given a fake list of tasks to blend in with Crewmates, although they are unable to actually complete any task. Impostors can sabotage vital systems, covertly travel through air vents, and work with other Impostors to kill Crewmates. If a player dies, they become a ghost. Ghosts can pass through walls, are invisible to everyone except other ghosts, and are limited in their capacity to interact with the world; however, they must still complete their tasks.[17][18] All players except ghosts[19] have a limited cone of vision, only allowing them to see other players within a certain unblocked distance around them.[20]

The Crewmates win by completing all tasks, or by identifying and eliminating all Impostors. The Impostors win when the number of Impostors is equal to the number of Crewmates, or when a sabotage countdown reaches zero. 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 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.[16][17][18] Games can also end by players quitting the match if doing so fulfills any win condition; a player quitting is equivalent to them being eliminated, and a Crewmate quitting leads to their tasks being considered completed for the total.[21][22]

To help the Crewmates identify Impostors, there are various surveilance systems in each map, such as a security camera system on The Skeld,[23] a doorlog in Mira HQ,[24] and a vitals indicator in Polus.[16] Any living player may call a group meeting by reporting a dead body, or by pressing a button in the map at any time (except when a sabotage is in progress).[18][25][26] This halts all other gameplay. In the meeting, players discuss who they believe is an Impostor based on the available evidence.[17][18] A plurality vote is held, and the chosen player is ejected from the map and dies.[17][18] Players can communicate in a text chat,[17] but only during meetings, and only if they are alive (though ghosts can speak with one another at any time).[16][18][20] 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.[27][28][29]

In each game's lobby, various options can be adjusted to customize aspects of gameplay, such as the vision range of the Crewmates and the Impostors, and the allowed number of emergency meetings.[20][30][31] There are also many cosmetic options, including spacesuit colors, skins, hats, and pets,[32][33] some of which are paid downloadable content.[lower-alpha 5][6][13][20]

Development and release

Early development

Among Us was inspired by the live party game Mafia,[6][35] and was initially intended to be a mobile-only local multiplayer game with a single map.[5] Originally, the game had no audio to avoid revealing hidden information in a local setting.[lower-alpha 6][7] Designer Marcus Bromander paused development on InnerSloth's other game, The Henry Stickmin Collection, in order to build Among Us' first map, The Skeld.[7] The game was released in June 2018 to Android and iOS under the AppID of "spacemafia".[6][36] Shortly after release, Among Us had an average player count of 30 to 50 concurrent players.[30] Bromander blamed the game's poor release on InnerSloth being "really bad at marketing".[5] The team nearly abandoned the project multiple times, but continued work on it due to a "small but vocal player base",[37] adding in online multiplayer, new tasks, and customization options.[37] The game was released on Steam on November 16, 2018.[5][10] Cross-platform play was supported upon release of the Steam version.[38][39]

On August 8, 2019, InnerSloth announced a second map, Mira HQ.[40][41] A third map, Polus, was added later that year on November 12.[40][42] Both maps were initially paid DLC costing US$4, however their prices were reduced to $2 on January 6, 2020, then made free on June 11, 2020.[43] While the map packs are still available for purchase on all platforms, they now only provide the player the skins that were bundled with the maps.[44]

According to programmer Forest 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, snowballing the game's player base. Bromander attributed this to the studio having enough savings to keep working on the game even while it was not selling particularly well.[5]

Popularity

Initial spike in popularity

File:Sodacrop.png
Twitch streamer Sodapoppin, credited with popularizing Among Us on Twitch

While Among Us released in 2018, it was not until mid-2020 that it saw a surge of popularity, initially driven by content creators online in South Korea and Brazil. Bromander stated that the game is more popular in Mexico, Brazil, and South Korea than the United States.[5][6] According to Willard, Twitch streamer Sodapoppin first popularized the game on Twitch in July 2020.[5] Many other Twitch streamers and YouTubers followed suit, including prominent content creators xQc, Pokimane, Shroud, Ninja, and PewDiePie.[45][46][35]

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][18][47][40] Emma Kent of Eurogamer believed that the release of InnerSloth's The Henry Stickmin Collection also contributed to awareness of Among Us,[45] and PC Gamer's Wes Fenlon credited Twitch streamer SR_Kaif for "prim[ing] Among Us for its big moment."[35] Fenlon also praised Among Us for improvements over other popular tabletop games that had been inspired by Mafia, such as Secret Hitler. He said other video game adaptation of Mafia such as Town of Salem and Werewolves Within were "just add[ing] an online interface for the basic Werewolf rules," whereas Among Us is as an entirely new take on the concept.[35]

Continued popularity

File:AmongUs CrewsonaSeven.png
A character sheet for a fan-made Among Us "crewsona"

The game's popularity continued into the following months. YouTube reported that videos about Among Us were viewed 4 billion times in September 2020,[48] and TikTok videos related to Among Us had over 13 billion views in October 2020.[1] In September 2020, the game exceeded 100 million downloads[35] and its player count rose to 1.5 million concurrent players[3][49] (nearly 400 thousand of which were on Steam),[40] then peaked at 3.8 million in late September.[50] The sudden increase in players overloaded the game's server, which according to Willard was "a totally free Amazon server, and it was terrible." This forced him to work under crunch time to quickly resolve these issues.[37]

In August, InnerSloth opened a merch store for Among Us.[13][30] The game's popularity inspired many fanarts and internet memes,[23][25][37][51] as well as a phenomenon of "crewsonas".[33][52] Willard expressed that fan-created content "really is the best part" of making Among Us, and Bromander called it "my favorite thing to see".[37] The game popularized the slang word "sus" (meaning "suspicious"),[2][53][54][55] though contrary to popular belief, the word had been in use long before the game's release.[56]

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. The stream was deemed "offensive" and "intolerable" by some viewers.[57] In October 2020, U.S. Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar streamed the game alongside several other prominent streamers such as Pokimane and Hasan Piker as a way to encourage people to vote in the upcoming Presidential election, drawing almost 700,000 concurrent viewers on Twitch.[58][59][60][61]

Amid its popularity, InnerSloth 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, the state of the development of the ports is unknown beyond the fact that InnerSloth is still considering them.[27][28]

Cancelled sequel and planned updates

In August 2020 the team shifted focus onto a sequel, Among Us 2.[12][13][14][15] During this time, Forest Willard and Amy Liu continued to update Among Us, increasing the maximum playerbase, adding four servers and three regions,[62] and implementing longer game codes to support more concurrent games.[63] On September 23, 2020, the team cancelled the sequel, instead opting to add all content intended for the sequel to the Among Us, due to "how many people [were] enjoying [the original game]".[64][45][65] However, InnerSloth deemed the game's codebase "outdated and not built to support adding so much new content", so the team plans to rework the game's core code enable adding new features.[65]

The team subsequently announced their plans to fix the game's server issues and widespread cheating problem,[66][67][68] as well as add a system for banning disruptive players.[69] In October 2020, colorblind support for the "wires" task arrived to the Among Us beta on Steam, as well as some previously unannounced lobby customization options.[70][71] As-of-yet unimplemented features include improving gameplay for ghosts,[72] adding customizable controls,[73] a friends system, more player colors, and a new map based on the Henry Stickmin series.[64][45][65][69]

October 2020 hacks

In mid-October 2020, a hacker known as "Eris Loris" began targeting mainly North American servers. Several players on the Among Us subreddit and Twitter reported this player hacking their lobbies and spamming in-game chat with promotions for his YouTube channel, links to his Discord server, and controversial political messages.[74] Eris Loris also threatened to personally hack players that refused to subscribe to his YouTube channel. The Discord server has been found to contain large amounts of NSFW content such as racist language, gore, pornography and images depicting animal abuse.[75]

A Eurogamer report form October 23, 2020 features an interview with the person claiming to be Eris Loris, conducted via the Discord server from one of the links provided in the hacked games. In the interview, Loris claims he created the bot responsible for the hacks "in only six hours", and had enlisted up to 50 volunteers to form a botnet which boosted the strength of their attacks. Loris claimed that the hack impacted 4.9 million players in 1.5 million games. He also added that the hacks were part of a publicity stunt to influence players to vote for Donald Trump in the upcoming U.S. presidential election.[75]

Innersloth added an in-game message warning players about the hacks on October 22,[75] and released a statement on Twitter the next day. They said they were "super aware" of the hacking issue, and stated that an "emergency server update" will be pushed out to combat the hacks. They encouraged players to stick to private games and to avoid playing on public ones until the update was released.[76] The team plans to address the hacking vulnerabilities as part of the planned overhaul for the game.[66][67][68]

Reception

Reception
Review score
Publication Score
Game Informer 8/10[77]

Associated Press noted the game was the most downloaded app on the iOS App Store for both iPhones and iPads in October 2020.[78] Craig Pearson of Rock, Paper, Shotgun found playing as an Impostor "a lot more fun" than playing as a Crewmate, which he called "exhausting".[17] 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."[18] Alice O'Conner of Rock, Paper, Shotgun described the game as "Mafia or Werewolf but with minigames".[79] 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."[20]

Among Us has been frequently compared to Fall Guys, as both became popular as party games during the COVID-19 pandemic;[5][29][73] the developers of the games have both positively acknowledged each other on Twitter.[80][81] Comparisons have also been drawn between the two games' avatars, which have been said to look like jelly beans.[82][83] Among Us has also been compared to The Thing,[25][84] Town of Salem,[35][84] Werewolves Within,[35] and Secret Hitler.[35]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Better known as "Puffballs United".[3]
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Better known as "ForteBass".[6]
  3. ↑ Stylized as Among Us! on the iOS App Store.[11] 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.[12][13][14][15]
  4. ↑ Although the term used by the game is "Impostor", "Imposter" is also a correct term.
  5. ↑ 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.[34][6]
  6. ↑ For example, the sound of an Impostor killing a Crewmate could reveal to other Crewmates who the Impostor was.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  47. ↑
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  48. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  49. ↑
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  57. ↑ * Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  64. ↑ 64.0 64.1
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  65. ↑ 65.0 65.1 65.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  66. ↑ 66.0 66.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  67. ↑ 67.0 67.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  68. ↑ 68.0 68.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  69. ↑ 69.0 69.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  70. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  71. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  72. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  73. ↑ 73.0 73.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  74. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  75. ↑ 75.0 75.1 75.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  76. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  77. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  78. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  79. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  80. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  81. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  82. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  83. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  84. ↑ 84.0 84.1
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

Further reading

  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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