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Among Us[d] is a 2018 online multiplayer social deduction game developed and published by American game studio Innersloth. It was released on iOS and Android devices in June 2018 and on Windows in November 2018, featuring cross-platform play between these platforms. The game was also ported for the Nintendo Switch in December 2020, and has planned releases for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S in 2021. The game was inspired by the party game Mafia and the science fiction horror film The Thing, and since the release of its first map, The Skeld, three other maps were added, those being MIRA HQ, Polus and The Airship. The Airship's design is based on Infiltrating the Airship from the Henry Stickmin series, another video game series developed by Innersloth. A fifth map is currently in development and will be released in a future update.
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.[e] The goal of the Crewmates are 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 by calling an emergency meeting (except during a crisis) or reporting a dead body. Crewmates win if all Impostors are ejected or all tasks are completed, whereas Impostors win if there is an equal number of Impostors and Crewmates, or if a critical sabotage goes unresolved.
While the game was initially released in 2018 to little mainstream attention, it received a massive influx of popularity in 2020 due to many well-known Twitch streamers and YouTubers playing it. The COVID-19 pandemic has also been credited to the growth of the game. The game received positive reviews from critics, being praised for its gameplay and setting, although it was criticized for its technical issues. 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 its focus to improving the original game. Merchandise based on the game, such as toys, shirts, etc., were announced and released. Among Us has also inspired internet memes and achieved a very large following online.
Gameplay
Among Us is a multiplayer game for four to fifteen players.[8] Up to three players are randomly[9] chosen to be the impostor(s) each round. A round can take place on one of four maps: a spaceship called "The Skeld"; a headquarters building called "MIRA HQ"; a planet base called "Polus";[10] or "The Airship", which is based on Innersloth's Henry Stickmin series.[11][12]
At the start of the game, Crewmates are assigned "tasks" to complete around the map in the form of minigames, consisting of maintenance work on vital systems such as fixing wires and downloading data.[13] Impostors are given a fake list of tasks to blend in with Crewmates. However, they cannot legitimately perform tasks. Impostors can sabotage vital systems (such as the ship's oxygen supply), covertly travel through vents, and work with other Impostors to kill Crewmates. If a player dies, they become a ghost. Ghosts can pass through walls, spectate other players, and chat with other ghosts.[14] Living players have a limited cone of vision,[15] but ghosts do not have this limitation.[16]
Ghosts help their living teammates by completing their tasks (as a Crewmate) or performing sabotages (as an Impostor).[10] The Impostors win when they kill enough Crewmates to be equal in number, or when the Crewmates fail to resolve a major sabotage.[14] The Crewmates win by completing all tasks, or by identifying and ejecting all Impostors.[10] Games can also end by players quitting the match if doing so fulfills any win condition (if a crewmate quits the game, their tasks are automatically considered completed).[17][18]
To help the Crewmates identify Impostors, there are various surveillance systems on each map, such as security cameras system on The Skeld,[19] a doorlog in MIRA HQ,[20] and a vitals indicator in Polus.[10] Crewmates may also confirm their identity through visual tasks, which cannot be faked by Impostors.[21] Any living player may call a group meeting by reporting a dead body, or by pressing the Emergency Meeting button at any time (except during major sabotages, when Emergency Meetings cannot be called, but dead bodies can still be reported).[14][22][23]
During a meeting, players discuss who they believe is an Impostor based on the available evidence. A plurality vote is held, and the chosen player is ejected from the map and they become a ghost.[13][14] Players can communicate in a text chat,[13] but only during meetings, and only if they are alive (though ghosts can speak with one another at any time).[10][14][15] While the game does not have a built-in voice chat system, it is common for players to use external programs such as Discord.[24][25][26]
In each game's lobby, various options can be adjusted to customize aspects of gameplay, such as player movement speed, the allowed number of emergency meetings, number of tasks, if there will be visual tasks,[27] or whether or not an impostor is revealed after being voted off.[28] There are also many cosmetic options, including spacesuit colors, skins, hats, and pets,[29][30] some of which are paid downloadable content.[f][2][4][15]
Development and release
Early development
| 2018 | iOS/Android release |
|---|---|
| Windows 10 Release | |
| 2019 | "MIRA HQ" release |
| "Polus" release | |
| 2020 | macOS release |
| Nintendo Switch release | |
| 2021 | PC Xbox Game Pass release |
| "The Airship" release | |
| PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S release |
Among Us was inspired by the live party game Mafia,[2][32] and science fiction horror film The Thing.[33] The idea for the concept was originally given by Marcus Bromander, co-founder of Innersloth, who had played Mafia since he was a kid. In the original game, function cards were dealt and players wandered around a house, aimlessly, while another person secretly killed the players, drawing a finger around their neck. Most of its mechanics were still present in Among Us, but the team wanted to "alleviate the need to create an interesting home model and have someone wandering around in a boring environment". So, they decided that the game would be space themed and also added tasks, which, according to Forest Willard, programmer at Innersloth, "changed several times during development".[33][34]
Development began in November 2017.[34] The game was initially intended to be a mobile-only local multiplayer game with a single map.[35] Bromander paused development on Innersloth's other game, The Henry Stickmin Collection, in order to build Among Us' first map, The Skeld.[36] When they began developing the first map, they intended that the ship was always in crisis and that the Impostors could do tasks. However, they found this setup "stressful" and decided that it "[wouldn't leave] much time for detective work and informed meeting conversations".[33][34] Willard described playtesting as painful and frustrating, as the game would break down during sessions forcing him to send playtesters new builds off of Google Play. The team tested the game with 8 of their friends and never tested the game with 9 or the maximum of 10 players.[36] The game was developed using the Unity engine.[37]
The game was released in June 2018 to Android and iOS under the AppID of "spacemafia".[2][38] Shortly after release, Among Us had an average player count of 30 to 50 concurrent players.[27] Bromander blamed the game's poor release on Innersloth being "really bad at marketing".[35] The team nearly abandoned the project multiple times, but continued work on it due to a "small but vocal player base",[39] adding in online multiplayer, new tasks, and customization options.[39] The game was released on Steam on November 16, 2018.[35][40] Cross-platform play was supported upon release of the Steam version.[41][42] Originally, the game had no audio to avoid revealing hidden information in a local setting,[g] and Willard mixed sounds from numerous sound packs to compose the SFX during the game's Steam release.[36]
On August 8, 2019, Innersloth released a second map, MIRA HQ,[43][44] a "tightly packed headquarters roughly the size of The Skeld." A third map, Polus, was added on November 12, 2019 and is set in a research station.[43][45] The fourth map, the Airship, was released on March 31, 2021 and is based on a location in the Henry Stickmin universe.[11][12] MIRA HQ and Polus originally cost players US$4 via in-app purchase. Their prices were reduced to US$2 on January 6, 2020, then made free on June 11, 2020.[46] 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.[47]
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, causing the game's player base to snowball. Bromander attributed this to the studio having enough savings to keep working on the game even while it was not selling particularly well.[35]
Popularity
Initial spike in popularity
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.[35][2] According to Willard, Twitch streamer Sodapoppin first popularized the game on Twitch in July 2020.[35] Many other Twitch streamers and YouTubers followed suit, including prominent content creators xQc, Pokimane, Shroud, Ninja, and PewDiePie.[48][49][32]
The COVID-19 pandemic was frequently cited as a reason for the popularity of Among Us, as it allowed for socializing despite social distancing.[35][14][50][51][52][53][43] Emma Kent of Eurogamer believed that the release of Innersloth's The Henry Stickmin Collection also contributed to awareness of Among Us,[48] and PC Gamer's Wes Fenlon credited Twitch streamer SR_Kaif for "prim[ing] Among Us for its big moment." 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.[32] Along with Fall Guys and the Jackbox Party Packs, Among Us provided a narrative-less experience that helped to avoid the "cultural trauma" of the pandemic, according to M.J. Lewis of Wired.[54]
Continued popularity
The game's popularity continued into the following months. YouTube reported that videos about Among Us were viewed 4 billion times in September 2020,[55] and TikTok videos related to Among Us had over 13 billion views in October 2020.[56] YouTuber CG5 wrote a song based on the game in September 2020, titled "Show Yourself", and gained over 60 million views in 4 months.[57] In September 2020, the game exceeded 100 million downloads[32] and its player count rose to 1.5 million concurrent players[1][58] (nearly 400 thousand of which were on Steam),[43] then peaked at 3.8 million in late September.[59] 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 quickly, under crunch time, to resolve these issues.[39]
In August, Innersloth opened an online store for Among Us themed merchandise.[4][27] The game's popularity inspired many original songs, fanarts and internet memes,[19][22][39][60] Willard expressed that fan-created content "really is the best part" of making Among Us, and Bromander called it "my favorite thing to see".[39] The game popularized the slang word "sus" (meaning "suspicious or suspect"),[61][62][63][64] which had been used as a slang term before the game's release.[65]
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.[66] 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 2020 United States presidential election, drawing almost 700,000 concurrent viewers on Twitch.[67][68][69][70]
The game also received several mods made by the community, which added new roles, game modes, cosmetics, etc.[71] Among Us was also featured in Twitch Rivals 2020, an online gaming tournament which was held on December 4, 2020.[72] During the event, players were able to receive an exclusive pet called "Glitch Pet", which is the Twitch logo.[73]
Canceled sequel and ongoing updates
In August 2020, the team shifted focus onto a sequel, Among Us 2.[3][4][5][6] During this time, Forest Willard and Amy Liu continued to update Among Us, increasing the maximum player base, adding four servers and three regions,[74] and implementing longer multiplayer codes to support more concurrent games.[75] On September 23, 2020, the team canceled the sequel, instead opting to add all content intended for the sequel to the original Among Us, due to "how many people [were] enjoying [the original game]".[76][48][77] However, Innersloth deemed the game's codebase "outdated and not built to support adding so much new content", so the team made plans to rework the game's core code to enable adding new features.[77]
The team subsequently announced their plans to fix the game's server issues and widespread cheating problem,[78][79][80] as well as add a system for banning disruptive players.[81] In October 2020, colorblind support for the "wires" task was added to the Among Us beta on Steam, as well as some previously unannounced lobby customization options.[82][83] As-of-yet unimplemented features include improving gameplay for ghosts,[84] adding customizable controls,[85] a friends system, a fifth map, new game modes, and new roles.[76][48][81][86][87]
In mid-February 2021, the game added a feature called Quickchat, which replaces the standard chat interface with a series of preset phrases that players must pick from. Players under the age of 13 are required to use Quickchat, but those over 13 are also allowed to use Free Chat, which allows them to type original messages.[88][89]
First announced at The Game Awards 2020, the Airship map was released on March 31, 2021.[11][12] The Airship features multiple floors, contraptions, tasks, and "more."[90][91] In addition, Game Awards presenter Geoff Keighley's face was added as a skin. The map itself is based upon the Henry Stickmin's Toppat Clan Airship.[92] Innersloth also stated that the map would be free to all players.[93][12] It also features a skin bundle that includes Henry Stickmin-themed cosmetic that can be bought on Steam.[12]
The accounts system was implemented along with the update, and it allows players to report players that are not following Innersloth' Code of Conduct in order to make the game a welcoming and respectful place. Punishment ranges from temporary to a permanent ban. They also stated that reports would be viewed manually and not by bots, that account creations would be required if players want to use Free Chat or to customize their nicknames, and that people under the age of 13 would need their parents' permission to create an account. A friends system and the ability to link to multiple accounts would be added somewhere in the future.[94][95]
Innersloth later revealed on the game's official Twitter account a new color to the game, Rose, which was included in the game's next update along with five other colors: Coral, Tan, Gray, Maroon, and Banana, which were revealed during Summer Game Fest on June 10, 2021 alongside other upcoming content, including a fifth map, new Hide & Seek game mode, and new roles such as Sheriff and Scientist.[86][87] The new colors, along with 15 player lobby support, new meeting screen and revamp at the game's design, was released on June 15, 2021, during the game's 3rd anniversary.[8]
Console releases
Amid its popularity, Innersloth considered releasing the game to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles, but encountered a problem in implementing player communication, since 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.[24][25] Versions of the game for Xbox consoles were later announced.[96]
Among Us was released for the Nintendo Switch on December 15, 2020, the same day it was announced during Nintendo Direct Indie World showcase. The Switch version supports cross-platform play with the mobile and Windows versions.[97] This port was published by Play EveryWare.[98] Upon release, the Switch version had an exploit to access The Airship prior to its official release in early 2021.[99] The exploit was fixed two days after release in the Switch version's first update.[100][101] Currently, all the game's downloadable content is unavailable on Switch, although the team stated that it will be added in some point.[102]
On the same date as the announcement of The Airship, it was announced that Among Us will be available in Xbox Game Pass for PC at "some point in the not-too-distant future," as quoted from Shacknews.[103] The game is also planned for release on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S in 2021.[104] During the Xbox Indie Showcase, it was announced that it would include the new "Airship" map.[105] Innersloth stated that as the game is coming to other consoles, it is facing several approval processes.[98] Releases of Among Us for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, supporting cross-platform play with existing versions, were announced in April 2021 with an unspecified released date; players on these consoles will get an exclusive Ratchet & Clank cosmetic.[106]
October 2020 and January 2021 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.[107] 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 offensive content, such as racist language, gore, pornography and images depicting animal abuse.[108]
A Eurogamer report from October 23, 2020, features an interview with a 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 2020 United States presidential election.[108]
Innersloth added an in-game message warning players about the hacks on October 22,[108] 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" would 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.[109] The team plans to address the hacking vulnerabilities as part of a planned overhaul for the game.[78][79][80]
At the end of January 2021, players reported on Twitter the return of Eris Loris' hack attack, which is now distributing Among Us hacks and cheats.[110]
Reception
| Aggregator | Score |
|---|---|
| Metacritic | PC: 85/100[111] Switch: 79/100[112] |
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| 4Players | 68/100[113] |
| Game Informer | 8/10[114] |
| IGN | 9/10[116] |
| Jeuxvideo.com | 14/20[115] |
| Nintendo Life | 8/10[117] |
Among Us was well received by critics. On the aggregator website Metacritic, the PC port received a 85 of 100 score based on 9 critic reviews, while the Nintendo Switch version received a 79 of 100 score based on 8 critic reviews, both them indicating "generally favorable reviews".[111][112] It was also considered as one of the "Best PC Games for 2018", being ranked 17th, and as the "#38 Best Discussed PC Game of 2018".[118][119] Since December 2020, IGN considered it as one of 2020's best reviewed games so far.[120]
Elliott Osange of Bonus Stage considered that the game is "silly fun", but felt that is more fun "to be an Impostor".[121] Craig Pearson of Rock, Paper, Shotgun had the same opinion, 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 impostor is (and sometimes getting it very wrong) or lying terribly about not being the impostor is all quite entertaining."[14] Alice O'Conner of Rock, Paper, Shotgun described the game as "Mafia or Werewolf but with minigames".[122] 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."[15] L'avis de Tiraxa of Jeuxvideo.com praised the game's Freeplay mode, which offers newer players "to browse the map alone to accomodatte the places", as they would need to play several games in order to "perfect their strategies".[115]
Leana Hafer from IGN stated in her verdict on the game: "I don't have any sus that this will be the last game of its breed to make a splash, since we’re already seeing its influence on even mega-games like Fortnite". As a negative point, she pointed out some technical problems, such as the difficulty of finding rooms that aren't already full or are a long way from getting there. She also lamented the lack of "mechanic to punish players who rage-quit when they don't get to play as impostor, or are caught dead to rights in the middle of a murder".[116] Tiraxa of Jeuxvideo.com was more critical to the game, which lamented the lack of an incremented voice chat into the game, the server bugs, which "[prevents] some from joining the party, in a totally unexplained way", the public servers with strangers, as she considered it "less entertaining" than private servers with friends, and the large development progress, considering that the game has a "bit of a way to go before it reaches its full potential".[115] The mobile version of the game, although being free-to-play, was criticized. Osange of Bonus Stage called the presence of ads and in-app purchases of cosmetic changes that are mostly available for free on the PC version "nonsense". He also called the PC version "stable" but also stated that the Android version is "a device-by-device situation".[121]
The Nintendo Switch version received some criticism. William Antonieli of Insider said that the Switch controls give "many tasks a satisfying game response". However, he also stated that most of the tasks could be "done quickly with the Switch's touchscreen control", which can only be used when the console is in handheld mode. He noted that many of the game's tasks are difficult to complete using a gamepad, which is required when the console is connected to a larger screen, and considered this version "inferior" to the PC and mobile versions.[123] He also stated that the communication system is "frustrating", as using the joystick to select letters is "slow", and said the fact that the game has support for multiplayer across multiple platforms gives Switch players "immediate disadvantage".[123] PJ O'Reilly of Nintendo Life noted that the Switch lacked much of the additional content available on other platforms, such as skins, which he called a "shame".[117]
Among Us has been frequently compared to Fall Guys, as both became popular as party games during the COVID-19 pandemic;[35][26][85] the developers of both games have positively acknowledged each other on Twitter.[124][125] Comparisons have also been drawn between the two games' avatars, which have been said to look like jelly beans.[126][127] Among Us has also been compared to The Thing,[22][128] Town of Salem,[32][128] Werewolves Within,[32] and Secret Hitler.[32]
Sales
As of September 2020, Steam Spy estimated that the game had more than 10 million owners on Steam.[129] The Associated Press noted the game was the most downloaded app on the iOS App Store for both iPhones and iPads in October 2020.[130] According to SuperData Research, the game had roughly 500 million players worldwide as of November 2020, with the free-to-play mobile version accounting for 97% of players and the buy-to-play PC version accounting for 3% of players, though it was the buy-to-play PC version that generated 64% of the game's gross revenue.[131] Among Us became one of the best selling games of 2020 on Steam, being listed on the platinum category on "The Year's Top 100" list.[132][133] The Nintendo Switch version's launch sold 3.2 million digital units in December 2020, making it the highest-earning version of the game for the month and one of the best-selling games on the Nintendo Switch.[134][135]
Among Us was offered as a free game on the Epic Game Store during one week in May 2021. Its average daily player count jumped from around 350,000 players in the weeks before to over 2 million players during the giveaway.[136]
Awards
| Award | Date of ceremony | Category | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Golden Joystick 2020 | November 24, 2020 | Breakthrough Award | Won | [137] |
| The Game Awards 2020 | December 10, 2020 | Best Mobile Game | Won | [138][139] |
| Best Multiplayer Game | Won | |||
| Steam Awards 2020 | January 3, 2021 | Labor of Love Award | Nominated | [140][141] |
| Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards | March 13, 2021 | Favorite Video Game | Won | [142] |
| Webby Awards 2021 | Breakout of the Year | Won | [143] |
I love this game....
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