Among Us [b] (from English - "Among us") is a multiplayer computer game for social deduction, developed by the American company InnerSloth [3] and released on June 15, 2018. The game is made in a space theme. In it, players are randomly divided into two teams: crew members and traitors.
Among UsDeveloper InnerSlothPublisherlo InnerSloth Announcement DateFebruary 9, 2018 [5] Release DateAndroid, iOS
 June 15, 2018 [1]
Windows
 17 August 2018 [1] Genres indie game, social game Creators Game Designer Markus Bromander [a] [3] [4] Programmer Forest Willard [3] [4] Artists Markus Bromander [a]
Amy Liu [3] [4] Composer
Marcus Bromander [d]
Technical data Platforms
Android
iOS
Windows
Game EngineUnityGame ModeMultiplayerInterface LanguagesEnglish, Russian, Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish and KoreanMedia Download [d] ControlKeyboard, mouse and touchscreenOfficial site (English) анг Media on Wikimedia Commons
In 2018, the game did not receive much publicity, but in 2020, thanks to Twitch and YouTube, it achieved popularity. Due to the increased interest in it, a sequel was announced - Among Us 2. Subsequently, the sequel was canceled on September 23, 2020, the developers decided to develop the original game [12] [13].
Gameplay
Among Us is a top-down third-person game that allows the player to move in all directions. From four to ten players can play in one round. At the start of the game, everyone is secretly assigned the role of a traitor or crew member. Impostor (from English - "Pretender", in Russian translation "Traitor") can hide in the ventilation hatch, arrange sabotages and kill cosmonauts, and traitors cannot kill each other. Their goal is to kill almost all crew members (if there are as many cosmonauts as traitors, then the latter win), or destroy the ship / headquarters / research base (depending on the map) by sabotage. The goal of the astronauts is to complete personal tasks in the form of simple puzzles scattered throughout the map. If all tasks are completed, then the traitors will lose. Also, crew members can achieve victory by eliminating traitors during the vote.
At the scene of the murder, a corpse remains, upon finding which any player can start an urgent meeting, at which, during the discussion, the players figure out the traitor and vote for the suspect. The player who received the maximum number of votes is thrown into space, lava or thrown off a cliff (depending on the map), that is, he dies, but continues the game in the form of an invisible ghost that can continue to perform tasks (or arrange sabotage, if he is a traitor), go through through the walls and watch what is happening, but has no right to vote and communicate with other live players. Players have the right to vote for anyone, even for themselves, or not vote at all, in this case, if more than half did not vote, then no one is eliminated. If all the traitors are killed, the astronauts will win. It is possible to have a discussion even if no one has died, however this function has a limit of use. If a traitor has committed a murder, then the next he can do only after a while.
A traitor can sabotage at any time: lock one of the rooms, turn off the light (narrowing the field of view), disrupt the communication system, start the countdown until the reactor explodes or oxygen leaks. In the event of an alarm, a countdown begins; before it expires, two crew members must simultaneously press special buttons, otherwise the traitors will win [14].
Development, release and popularity
This section is incomplete.
Among Us was inspired by the salon team-based psychological turn-based RPG game "Mafia". The game was originally intended to be a mobile exclusive, with only one map. In June 2018, the video game was released on Android and iOS. Shortly after the release of Among Us, it was played by 30 to 50 players simultaneously [15]. Programmer Forest Willard considered it "not well released," which designer Marcus Bromander said was because his team was "really bad at marketing." After receiving feedback from players, the team decided to add online multiplayer, and later that year, the game appeared on Steam. [4] Support for the game between platforms was made available after release [16]. In 2019, two additional cards were issued [17] [18].
