I recently saw a preview for Dubium, the debut action-social deduction game from Mumo Studio. It’s set in space and sees a crew performing rudimentary repair works on their ship, all while one member goes rogue and tries to kill them all. “Oh, like Among Us?” I blurted out when I heard the premise. I was a little embarrassed - this is a meatier game with more robust mechanics and impressive 3D character models, and it’s not really on to be invited to a private preview and instantly go “ah yeah, it’s like this other, more popular game, aye?”

But I couldn’t avoid it. I mean, space. Maintenance. Crew. Impostor. It’s Among Us. After seeing the full preview - including a few bits that were far more Alien: Isolation than they were sus - I spoke to the developers over email. I had no choice but to ask them if they knew everyone was going to call this triple-A Among Us - the studio is an indie, but the graphics are on the level of Fortnite or Kena - and how they felt about that. Thankfully for me, they were on board with the idea.

Related:“If Dubium is called a triple-A Among Us, it would be very cool,” the developers say. “Dubium can only be called that when it satisfies both the level of perfection to be called triple-A and the popularity of Among Us.”

While development for Dubium and Among Us started at around the same time, it wasn’t until two years after its 2018 launch that Among Us finally began to gain popularity. The Dubium team was deep into the development process by the time Among Us went viral, but there were still lessons to be taken from the sus social deduction hit.

Dubium

“Most games in the world, even triple-A games, are released unpolished to the satisfaction of the masses,” the studio explains. “A process of refining it to the level of the public's demand without compromising the essence is necessary. We think Among Us is a case that has been refined to satisfy the public at some point, although the process is a bit late. Dubium will surely go through that process. We will work hard to make the refining as short as possible.”

Of course, this all means that while the comparison is bound to be made, Among Us was never amongst the inspirations for Dubium. Instead, much more violent games served as muses. “[We were] most inspired by Alien: Isolation and Dead by Daylight,” they explain. “Among Us was a hit during the production phase of Dubium, so I came across it and was surprised by the many similarities.”

These violent delights are a means to a violent end - where Among Us (sorry, but you really can’t avoid it) has murder, it’s mostly a bouncy, cartoonish, colourful romp in space where you’re tasked with emptying garbage chutes and refilling engines. Dubium has maintenance tasks too, but the excitement is heightened by the fact you are constantly armed with a gun, either to defend yourself or to take others out.

Dubium

“Players will have choices about their roles,” the developer says. “In the traditional social deduction game, execution is performed in a one-sided and absolute position in the realm of performance. However, by providing action gunplay, any user can potentially play the role of an executioner. Conversely, you will be allowed not to be powerless from execution. More things could happen.”

This is where Dubium’s extra twist comes in. Once all the tasks have been completed, the crew can escape to safety. However, if you want to grab some extra XP, you’re free to turn on your crew, even if you’re not one of the bad guys - you can kill them all anyway and flee with their XP.

“We want players to experience significant emotional change through playing Dubium,” the devs say. “In that context, we pay more attention to the experience of having to betray the player who gave and received help for their survival at some point, rather than the position of being betrayed.” ‘Blamane's Proposal’, Dubium’s term for when a player switches to the betrayer, offers players the chance to ditch their teammates and go it alone, killing them all for the sake of glory - it means you work together initially, then stab your friends in the back, giving new depth to the standard ‘impostor’ role.

Of course, humans are inherently selfish creatures. If you offer them a chance to betray strangers to aid themselves, won’t they take it every time? The developers think they have enough failsafes to keep things more interesting than that. “The most excellent experience in playing Dubium is ‘Frontier Mission Success’ [when a player - or players - successfully complete the mission and escape],” they say. “We will continue to create content in such a way so that players will agree and feel the same. We believe that players will strive to have the best experience possible, and the selfish play that occurs along the way will naturally become a controllable area.”

Dubium

Each character in Dubium has their own unique ability, but because the devs say “it’s not an action gun game” first and foremost, these abilities don’t harm players - they only help with tasks. Initially, characters start out with tasks that suit them, but over time, they can mix and match.

“The main characters of Dubium are all people who had previous jobs or experience equivalent to work before becoming a Space Frontier,” the devs explain. “We focused on the characters' story; Ryan, a former coroner, can use his gadget to find out which character used the object. With Sobok, a former Hae-nyeo [female diver in Korean], her gadget can [be used to] hold her breath in a place without air for a long time.”

Obviously, in any social deduction game, communication is key. However, to cater to the different languages around the world, players can only communicate in pre-recorded voice lines, which will be translated to each player’s native language in real-time. “The disadvantage [of no text or voice communication] is that it is difficult to communicate accurately depending on the situation if only the preset voice line is used,” the devs admit. “However, in the case of regular games, these systems are provided for the following two reasons. For the first reason, when communicating in Dubium, we didn't want to design it for players to gain or lose the initiative based on the language or language ability players use. The second reason is to help players to be immersed in the game to the maximum level. Suppose there is a voice line necessary for main communication - in that case, we believe that communicating with the voice of a unique character is the best way to maximize the sense of immersion.”

Dubium is scheduled for early access launch on PC in 2022

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