Bringing 'sus' vibes to a new perspective with Among Us VR

gamedeveloper.com:

If there was one game that defined the pandemic era of gaming, it was Innersloth's Among Us. A multiplayer murder mystery where space-faring scientists had to find a killer in their confined spaceship, it became a massive hit during the 2020 lockdown, when people were stuck in-doors and craved a fun and inventive way to interact in an online game. For a game that was originally released in 2018 to little fanfare, the massive, unexpected resurgence in 2020 led to a new lease on life for the game, becoming a must-play for anyone looking for an exciting way to cast doubt and pit online players against one another playfully.

With the massive success of Among Us, Innersloth has expanded the game in big ways, including a trip into VR made by co-developer Schell Games. At a special panel at GDC 2023, senior production manager Jennifer Rabbitt, principal game designer Shawn Patton, and senior game designer Michal Ksiazkiewicz spoke about the challenges of remaking a runaway success from a perspective that puts you directly in the mystery.

"[Developing for] VR is no easy feat, even with an established IP like Among Us," said Rabbitt. This notion underscored the general theme of the panel. The jump to VR was not only an entirely new perspective for Among Us's 2D top-down perspective, but it also led to a rethinking of how specific actions and visual elements that players were familiar with had to be designed for the Oculus Quest 2 and other VR devices. Jennifer Rabbitt started off the panel with a candid look back on the lead up to the announcement and release of Among Us VR. Starting with 11 devs in-house at Schell Games, the dev team eventually grew to over 40, including staff from Innersloth and outside vendors to support the