Among Us has been a pop culture phenomenon. The blank-faced astronauts we know and love have found their way onto The Tonight Show, shared impostor vibes with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, pushed limited-time merch capsules with BT21, braved Slime Climb in Fall Guys, and been forever immortalized as a chicken nugget that auctioned for almost $100,000 on eBay. But even with Nendoroid figures and a one-off manga adaptation on the way, developer Innersloth wants to keep things fresh and moving.
“We have always wanted to add things like roles, maps, and a better way to get cosmetics in the game, even before the game blew up,” notes community director Victoria Tran. “We were able to do that in 2021, but the focus for us has always been on improving the game for our players.”
That dedication has always been a driving force behind Among Us. The online multiplayer social deduction game made a quiet debut in summer 2018 and—with the help of YouTubers and Twitch streamers—took home wins for Best Mobile and Best Multiplayer at the 2020 Game Awards.
Innersloth's response? Grow and innovate. The independent studio scrapped its concepts for an Among Us 2 and instead hired new talent to improve the core gameplay, counter spam attacks, upgrade Twitch and Discord mobile connectivity, add some much-needed quality-of-life tweaks, and introduce a new map (The Airship) with 15-player lobbies and an entirely new art style.
The team didn’t stop there. Updates rolled on with bug fixes, six new player colors, and podcasts and panels discussing the importance of creating sustainable, kinder online communities. Then, in November, Emergency Meeting #33 added account linking, achievements, three new Crewmate Roles (Scientist, Engineer, Guardian Angel) and one new Imposter Role (Shapeshifter), and “Cosmicubes”—special cosmetic paths that use in-game currencies such as Beans (free) and Stars (paid) to unlock themed items, like holiday sets and Riot Games’ Arcane bundle.
Introducing features isn’t new, but for a smaller indie studio, it can define their future. Innersloth spent most of 2021 making sure people could play on their preferred platforms, and sure enough Among Us was the 13th most downloaded game on PlayStation last year, despite launching on consoles on December 14.
To find out more, WIRED spoke to Victoria Tran and Innersloth founder and game designer Marcus Bromander about the team’s new beginnings, that Among Us VR reveal, the inspirations behind Roles and Cosmicubes, and why the act of building a connection with those around you can make life worth living.
This Q&A has been edited for both clarity and length.
WIRED: With 2021 being a complete evolution of Among Us with new maps, roles, and even new hires, how much of an overall challenge has it been to experiment and accomplish internal goals while catching up and trying to stay relevant?
Victoria Tran: So much of one! [Laughs] It's one thing to grow as a studio, but another to do it so suddenly and after you thought you were done with the game completely. I think one of the biggest things was we wanted to grow the studio and game as ethically and fairly as possible while facing numerous outside pressures. Everyone has different wants and different priorities, and it's a balancing act that not a lot of people get to see on the outside. That being said, we’re grateful to the Among Us community for the success we've had so far!
With so many new additions, what does an Innersloth team meeting look like? Are there any highlights you can share from the weeks leading up to a new update?
VT: The real question is which one? We do have weekly all-hands meetings currently, and those are catchups between the different areas to make sure we're in sync. Plus, we chat and talk about our imminent, teamwide Beat Saber competition. I can't share too much about what goes on, but the cool thing about a small team is you can regularly see what different groups are chatting about. For example, seeing the artists post concepts they're discussing in a meeting.
Our weekly meetings usually range from 30 minutes to an hour, depending on how many items we need to get through. Usually they're led by our producer, but if others feel the need to chime in with anything they feel is important, then they do. It's just nice as a studio to have some point in time where we can throw jokes around and make connections with each other, especially as a remote team. That being said, we do have an "off-duty" Discord server that we use after hours when we want to play games together or just chat.
What originally inspired the decision to add more roles to Among Us?
VT: This was something Marcus had always wanted to do for Among Us way before it was even released, but it had to be cut because of time and budget constraints. So they have been sitting in his head for a while, and once the game grew a bit larger and we were able to stabilize everything for a bit, it seemed like the perfect time to add some interesting features.
What is the design process like in developing and playtesting new roles, like the Engineer and the Shapeshifter?
Marcus Bromander: We wanted to start off the first release with four different roles to make it more of an impactful and exciting update. We decided to mix in some simple roles with some more complex ones. We usually start with a base-level idea, like allowing crewmates to use vents or giving the impostor the ability to disguise. From there, we conceptualize the basic way it would work. This would be things like new mechanics needed, which new art assets would be needed, and trying to predict any problems that might arise. After that, we start implementing them and testing to see how it plays, as this will sometimes shake out unforeseen issues.
We added a time limit to how long Engineers can be in vents because it’s a very strong tool for information gathering if a crewmate can just sit and watch in a vent, something we didn’t think of at first. We do weekly playtests to see how things are feeling and how additional features work, as well as general bug testing. There were no gameplay elements cut from this Roles update.
What were some of the main inspirations behind Cosmicubes?
MB: The goal with Cosmicubes was to take something like a battle pass and make it a lot more interesting. The first attempt was a linear system that branched into short paths every once in a while. Then we decided to just go a bit deeper and make it a full grid. The Sphere Grid system in Final Fantasy X was one of the big inspirations for it. We’d love to do a big indie Cosmicube in the future with tons of big and small indies. Final Fantasy would be pretty cool too. And … any game that I really like. Hit me up Sakurai!
One of the greatest aspects of Cosmicubes is that they open the door for more collaborations while addressing the licensing side of partnerships and the other costs associated with live servers, wages, and boba tea. Did the team have any fears about introducing new currencies and paid cosmetics this far into Among Us?
VT: Oh for sure. It's weird looking at your game and going, “Well, I guess we need to actually make money to maintain this.” We wanted to make sure it didn't affect gameplay and it was a fair practice for our community, so this took a while to develop as we went through every “what if” situation. We didn't want people to feel like they had to play the game every single day or trick them into purchasing anything. So we went into this cautiously, and I think it worked out!
Given the success of the Arcane partnership and other titles such as Fall Guys, should developers be more open to collaborations with each other rather than copying ideas to reinforce competition within the industry and other communities?
VT: I mean, yes and no. Competition is good! We want that—it breeds innovation and makes things more fun and ethical for everyone. There's just a difference between being inspired by another game versus straight-up cloning it for a money grab. But working with and honoring each other's work is also good. Collaborations are a ton of fun for everyone involved, and like most things in life, a balance between competition and collaboration is the way to go.
What initially inspired Among Us VR? And what does the team at Innersloth hope to accomplish or expand on in the VR space in the year to come?
VT: Wouldn't it be cool to actually feel like you were playing in space and being accused of murder? Some would say being accused of murder is not fun, but I say don't knock it until you try it. Since Among Us is such a social game, it really felt like being in VR would raise the stakes and be another place that friends and family could gather to yell at each other. We just hope that we can bring the game of Among Us to everyone's preferred platform—the more the merrier!
Given your own experiences from the past 18 months, how important is mental health to Innersloth and the Among Us team? And does the studio currently have any plans to raise awareness or show support for other programs in the future?
VT: Extremely. We'd like to start raising more awareness for various causes in the future, but in the interest of our own mental health, we've also had to take things one step at a time. There’s a ton of things being thrown at us any given day, so we want to give this the space it needs. We've quietly donated to causes, but it'd be really cool to do something bigger. Plans in the making!
What's the biggest life lesson you have learned this past year? And what steps have you or the team taken to improve on your mistakes and grow as individuals?
VT: Trying to burn yourself out to keep other people happy is not how it works. The success of Among Us was wonderful and we're grateful for it, but it was terrifying having millions of people continually asking you for an update, new maps, new roles, new cosmetics, and telling you their priority is the most important thing, etc. Someone once described that kind of scenario as feeling like building a plane while flying it—except you didn't expect the plane to take off and you've overbooked the flight. And it was also supposed to land yesterday.
We wanted to show everyone that we cared about what they wanted, so we worked extra hard to try and get things out while also trying to balance growing as a larger studio and all of the legal and administrative work that comes with that. It was exhausting, and as a team we're trying to move away from that. The demands are there and we'll work on them, but not at the expense of the people behind the game!
With it now being on all of the major platforms, what do you hope fans can take away from Among Us in the coming months and throughout the rest of 2022?
VT: That no matter what's going on in the world, having a time and space where you can gather with friends and family is worth it. Connections with others are what make life worth living, and if our game is what helps facilitate that, then we're happy to be a part of it. Also: Trust no one.
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