Not many games blow up two years after launch like Among Us did. Developer Innersloth could never have imagined the game rising to popularity in such a dramatic fashion. However, when success hits you out of the blue, you have to capitalize on it, that was a process that the small team of developers couldn’t seem to adjust to.
As reported by Kotaku, Amy Liu, an artist among other things at the three person studio spoke with YouTuber Anthony Padilla about how the work culture changed after the game soared to popularity.
“Among Us going viral, it was just like, ‘OK, this is my life,’” said Liu. “The pressure to get things done quickly was really high. September to December, we’re talking to Xbox, PlayStation. They were gonna try to get Among Us on these platforms, which usually takes many months—like, half a year to a year. We were like, ‘Three months! We’re gonna try that.’”
“I definitely burnt out,” they said with teary-eyes. “It was tough because during all of this, we weren’t able to see friends and family. Being so tired from working, I couldn’t even go visit my family during covid and had to spend holidays alone...That was definitely the hardest time.”
Game designer Marcus Bromander also spoke to Padilla and mentioned the criticism that came with the game’s popularity. While the game was doing well, all eyes were on Innersloth’s small team, who’d face criticism even for the tiniest thing like changing a font.
“There was a while at the beginning of the year,” said Bromander, “when a lot of the negative comments were really starting to get to me, and—combined with the overwhelmed feelings—I was just like, ‘I don’t even want to work on this anymore. I’m done.’”
Programmer Forest Willard explained that the game’s relatively simplistic art style and gameplay mechanics brought players to think that new content and updates would be easy to put out. “Trying to one-up yourself while catching up, these things all take time,” said Willard. “And when you’re under hundreds of millions of [peoples’ worth] of pressure, they don’t understand that it takes months. The server issues should be fixed tomorrow, adding new stuff should be next week—it’s so easy [to them]. It’s a lot of pressure. It’s overwhelming.”
Among Us has definitely been one of the great video game stories in recent history; a two year game gaining unprecedented popularity out of nowhere.
At E3 2021, the game announced that new 15 player lobbies will be coming soon. A new Hide and Seek mode was also revealed during the showcase. It featured a player wandering around in the dark trying to spot other players. The game is also getting new roles, like Scientist and Sheriff, and new cosmetics, while Coral, Rose, and Maroon skins were revealed. The Geoff Keighley mask, which made its debut last year as a limited time item, is also returning.
The E3 showcase also mentioned that achievements will be added to the game as well as a new map.