Early development {{Multiple image |total_width=300
Among Us was inspired by the live
party game Mafia, 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. 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, The fourth map, the Airship, was released on March 31, 2021, and is based on a location in the
Henry Stickmin universe. 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 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. During this time, 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 announced that they abandoned development of the sequel in favor of reworking the original game's codebase, which they described as "outdated and not built to support adding so much new content", so the team made plans to rework the game's core code to enable adding new features.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. 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 text messages. First announced at
The Game Awards 2020, the Airship map was released on March 31, 2021. 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. 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. 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 third anniversary. On November 9, 2021, a major update was released that introduced four new roles (Shapeshifter, Engineer, Scientist, and Guardian Angel), achievements, a level system, controller support, custom keybinds, visor cosmetics, cosmetic bundles called "Cosmicubes", various in-game currencies, and a major revamp to the in-game store, which also reveals the names of the costumes. On March 31, 2022, a friending system was added, which allows players to see who they recently played with, send and receive friend requests, send and receive lobby invites, as well as the ability to block people. On June 21, 2022, the game was patched to include colorblind text. At
The Game Awards 2022 on December 8, 2022, it was announced that the Hide & Seek mode would be released the following day. During a
Nintendo Direct on September 14, 2023, the fifth map, "The Fungle", was announced. It was released on October 24, 2023. On March 25, 2025, Innersloth released an update that improved matchmaking, alongside a collaboration with
Sega's
Like a Dragon series, returning a favor where a Crewmate was featured in
Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble, also developed by
Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio. On September 10, the Detective and Viper roles were introduced.
Console releases 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.
Among Us was released for the
Nintendo Switch on December 15, 2020, the same day it was announced during an
Indie World showcase. The Switch version supports cross-platform play with the mobile and Windows versions. This port was co-developed by PlayEveryWare. 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.
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 support cross-platform play with existing Windows, Switch, and mobile versions. Unique to the
PlayStation ports are special customization options based on
Ratchet and Clank from
Insomniac Games's
eponymous series under license from
Sony Interactive Entertainment. Unique to the
Xbox ports is a skin based on
Master Chief from the
Halo series under license from
Microsoft. Physical releases for consoles were available in Europe the same day, while North American physical releases were released in January 2022.
Among Us VR During
The Game Awards 2021, a standalone VR version titled
Among Us VR was announced. Co-developed by
Schell Games, Innersloth, and Robot Teddy, the game was released on November 10, 2022, for the
Meta Quest 2 and Windows via
Steam, with a PlayStation 5 version via
PlayStation VR2 planned for the future.
Among Us VR features similar gameplay to the original game, but is played from a first-person perspective. Several of the original game's tasks were recreated, alongside new ones. At the time of release, the only level in the game is The Skeld 2; further content updates are planned, though no details have been announced. ==Reception==