Among Us is a 2018 online multiplayer social deduction game developed and published by American game studio Innersloth. The game was inspired by the party game Mafia and the science fiction horror film The Thing. The game allows for cross-platform play, first being released on iOS and Android devices in June 2018 and on Windows later that year in November. The game was then ported to the Nintendo Switch in December 2020, and on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S in December 2021. 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. A separate VR version of the game, Among Us VR, was released for Quest 2, SteamVR, and PlayStation VR, developed by Schell Games.
Among Us takes place in a space-themed setting where players look like colourful armless cartoon astronauts; however, since the release of "The Skeld" spaceship, three other maps have been added in later years: the skyscraper "MIRA HQ", the "Polus" planetary station, and "The Airship" (based on Infiltrating the Airship from the Henry Stickmin series, also developed by Innersloth). Each player takes on one of two roles—most are Crewmates, but a small number play Impostors—which does not alter their appearance. The goal of the Crewmates is to identify and eliminate the Impostors, while completing tasks around the map; the goal of the Impostors is to covertly sabotage the mission either by killing the Crewmates before they complete all their tasks or by triggering a disaster that cannot be resolved. But on 2023, the fifth map of the Among Us game, The Fungle was revealed during the Nintendo Direct, which is set to be released in October 2023.
Gameplay
Among Us is a multiplayer game for four to fifteen players (previously four to ten players), although recommended for at least five. Up to three players are randomly and secretly chosen to be the Impostor(s) each round. As of 2021, 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"; or an airship based on Innersloth's Henry Stickmin series called "The Airship".
The Impostor(s) win one of two ways: either by killing most of the crew (to the point that they're equal in number) or by sabotaging a critical system on the map (provided the Crewmates don't resolve it in time). The Crewmates likewise can win one of two ways: either by completing all tasks or by identifying and ejecting all Impostors. Games can also end by players quitting the match if doing so fulfils any win condition (if a Crewmate quits the game, their tasks are automatically considered completed).
At the start of the game, Crewmates are assigned "tasks" to complete around the map (in the form of minigames, mini puzzles, and simple toggles), mostly consisting of maintenance work on vital systems such as fixing wires and downloading data. Impostors are given a fake list of suggested tasks to blend in with Crewmates. However, they cannot legitimately perform tasks and can only pretend to be doing any of the tasks on the ship. Impostors, however, can sabotage vital systems (such as The Skeld's oxygen supply), close the doors to rooms, quickly and covertly travel through the ventilation system (commonly referred to as "venting"), and kill Crewmates when standing near them. To help the Crewmates identify Impostors, there are various surveillance systems on each map, such as security cameras and an admin system on The Skeld, a door log system with sensors in MIRA HQ, and a vitals indicator in Polus. Crewmates may also confirm their identity through "visual tasks" (tasks that have animations which play for other players), which cannot be faked by Impostors.
If a Crewmate is killed or any player is voted out and ejected, they become a ghost. Ghosts can pass through walls, watch other players' activities, and see and chat with other ghosts. Living players have a limited cone of vision; ghosts do not. Moreover, ghosts cannot communicate with living players or be seen by them. Ghosts help their living teammates by completing their tasks (as a Crewmate) or performing various acts of sabotage (as an Impostor).
Any living player may call a group meeting by reporting a dead body, or by pressing the Emergency Meeting button on the map at any time (except during major sabotages, when Emergency Meetings cannot be called, but dead bodies can still be reported). During a meeting, players discuss who they believe is an Impostor based on the available evidence. Impostors can be identified beyond all reasonable doubt if they are seen venting or killing. A player may be suspected for many other reasons though. However, all the players form a sort of jury and must weigh the veracity or value of each other's statements and questions during the meeting. A plurality vote is held, and if a plurality is obtained, the player whom the most crewmates voted is ejected from the map and they become a ghost, unless the majority of the crewmates choose to skip vote or there is a tie vote. Players can communicate in a built-in text chat (with some predefined phrases for phone users), but only during meetings, and only if they are alive (though ghosts can speak with one another at any time). While the game does not have a built-in voice chat system, it is common for players to use external programs such as Discord, or to converse regularly if they are in close physical proximity to one another. In case players can hear each other's voices, the game reminds them to not speak except during meetings.
In November 2021, additional roles were made available to players extending beyond the standard Crewmate or Impostor roles. Crewmates can also be Engineers, Scientists, or Guardian Angels. Engineers allow Crewmates to travel through vents like Impostors can, albeit to a limited capacity. Scientists can check vitals at any time to see if any player has been killed recently. Crewmates who become Ghosts can become Guardian Angels, which can temporarily protect living players from being killed. Impostors likewise can be Shapeshifters, allowing them to temporarily morph into other players.
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", or whether or not an Impostor is revealed after being voted off. There are also many cosmetic options, including spacesuit colors, skins, hats, and pets, some of which are paid downloadable content.
Development
Among Us was inspired by the live party game Mafia, and the science fiction horror film The Thing. 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".
Development began in November 2017. The game was initially intended to be a mobile-only local multiplayer game with a single map. Bromander paused development on Innersloth's other game, The Henry Stickmin Collection, in order to build Among Us' first map, The Skeld. 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". 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. The game was developed using the Unity engine.
The game was released in June 2018 to Android and iOS under the AppID of "spacemafia". Shortly after release, Among Us had an average player count of 30 to 50 concurrent players. Bromander blamed the game's poor release on Innersloth being "really bad at marketing". The team nearly abandoned the project multiple times, but continued work on it due to a "small but vocal player base", adding in online multiplayer, new tasks, and customization options. The game was released on Steam on November 16, 2018. Cross-platform play was supported upon release of the Steam version. Originally, the game had no audio to avoid revealing hidden information in a local setting, and Willard mixed sounds from numerous sound packs to compose the SFX during the game's Steam release.
On August 8, 2019, Innersloth released a second map, MIRA HQ, 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. The fourth map, the Airship, was released on March 31, 2021, and is based on a location in the Henry Stickmin universe. 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. 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. 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.
In August 2020, the team shifted focus onto a sequel, Among Us 2. During this time, Forest Willard and Amy Liu continued to update Among Us, increasing the maximum player base, adding four servers and three regions, and implementing longer multiplayer codes to support more concurrent games. 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]". 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. The team subsequently announced their plans to fix the game's server issues and widespread cheating problem, as well as add a system for banning disruptive players. 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. As-of-yet unimplemented features include improving gameplay for ghosts, adding customizable controls, a friends system, a fifth map, and new game modes.
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. First announced at The Game Awards 2020, the Airship map was released on March 31, 2021. The Airship features multiple floors, contraptions, tasks, and "more". In addition, Game Awards presenter Geoff Keighley's face was added as a skin. The map itself is based upon the Henry Stickmin series's Toppat Clan Airship. Innersloth also stated that the map would be free to all players. It also features a skin bundle that includes Henry Stickmin-themed cosmetic that can be bought on Steam.
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. 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. 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.
On July 7, 2021, Innersloth released a minor update that adds a new task, "Clean Vent", which involves the Crewmate cleaning a specific vent, preventing Impostors from using it. On November 9, a major update was released that introduced four new roles, achievements, a level system, and an in-game store. During The Game Awards 2021, Among Us VR was announced for SteamVR, PlayStation VR, and the Meta Quest 2, developed by Schell Games.
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. Versions of the game for Xbox consoles were later announced.
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. This port was published by Play EveryWare. Upon release, the Switch version had an exploit to access The Airship prior to its official release in early 2021. The exploit was fixed two days after release in the Switch version's first update. Currently, all the game's downloadable content is unavailable on Switch, although the team stated that it will be added in some point.
Among Us was released digitally for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S consoles on December 14, 2021, along with its release on the Xbox Game Pass for console. These versions will support cross-platform play with existing Windows, Switch, and mobile versions. Unique to the PlayStation ports are special customization options based on Ratchet & Clank. Physical releases for consoles will be available in Europe the same day, while North American physical releases will be available in January 2022.
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. 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.
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.
Innersloth added an in-game message warning players about the hacks on October 22, 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. The team plans to address the hacking vulnerabilities as part of a planned overhaul for the game. At the end of January 2021, players reported on Twitter the return of Eris Loris' hack attack, which is now distributing Among Us cheats.
In GameToons
Among Us Logic is the second series made by GameToons and is arguably it's most popular. It revolves around Player trying to win even a single game.