Confused by the colorful astronaut costumes this past Halloween? The bright yellow and green spacemen are from Among Us, an online multiplayer game popular among students.

The free mobile game was released in June 2018. Since then, the game has grown in popularity including at Calvin. Played on a spaceship-themed map, the game can accommodate up to 10 players; one to three of the players are imposters and the rest are crewmates. You are unaware of everyone’s identity except your own. 

The crewmates attempt to complete tasks around the ship while the imposters attempt to kill the crewmates. Whenever someone dies, all the players meet to discuss who they believe is guilty of the killing. Each game takes about 5 to 10 minutes.

The game resembles the popular party game Mafia. Senior Molly VanderWerp called it Mafia updated with “a little cute space crafty server.” 

Because of strong similarities between the two games, playing Among Us brings back old memories for junior Joshua Smits.

“Among Us reminds me of when I was a kid playing Mafia with my family,” Smits said. 

Although the game is similar to Mafia, it also attracts non-Mafia fans. Senior Simon Post said he never really liked Mafia because the only way to figure out if someone killed someone is by reading the person or just blindly guessing. In Among Us, Post says, “if someone sees something doing something bad, then they can report it or they can lie.” 

Students have discovered that Among Us is a convenient way to connect and socialize with friends and peers during the current era of social distancing and quarantining. You can play with others instantly; all you have to do is text a code to the group chat and then everyone can quickly and easily join the game. 

When several of his friends were quarantined, Smits played Among Us with them as a way to pass the time. 

“We would usually hop on a skype or a team’s call, so we would all be talking to each other while playing the game,” Smits said. 

Senior Darian Seale says that the game is “super accessible” due to its simplicity, understandability, and ease of gameplay. “It draws in people that wouldn’t normally play games,” he said.