Since Among Us became a runaway hit, developer Innersloth has been working to keep the game relevant with various updates and improvements. Those efforts culminated in March's Quickchat and Airship updates, but these were only the beginning of Among Us' 2021 changes, according to Innersloth.
The Among Us Airship update was certainly the most significant of the previous additions, introducing not just its large namesake map but new crew tasks and the option of picking a starting room. Innersloth also added ladders and moving platforms for the first time, along with an assortment of free and paid cosmetic upgrades. For its next Among Us update, the company is going to address two big player demands.
The first is a "full art style revamp," according to a recent Innersloth blog post. While it's not clear just how dramatic this change will be, Among Us has sometimes been criticized for having a crude look, and, to that end, the art is getting "cleaner lines." Internally, Innersloth is preparing an "easier animation process," as well, which may be vital, given how many cosmetics have unique animations. Custom-making each one is undoubtedly time-consuming for a small developer.
How Among Us' Gameplay Will Be Upgraded In The Next Updates
Among Us is also getting bigger lobbies, allowing for up to 15 players. The relative emptiness of Airship was recently criticized by Twitch star Pokimane, who noted this makes it hard to watch other players and, by extension, gauge if they're Impostors. In fact, the new player cap is bigger than the 12 Pokimane suggested, which might enable even bigger maps down the road. The developer is also promising "more frequent, transparent updates," enhanced by the addition of two new programmers at Innersloth. Players should theoretically see not just faster releases but explanations of the work and logic behind them, which should keep Among Us changes from ballooning out of control.
At some point in 2021, Among Us will come to Xbox One and Series X/S, including via Game Pass. There's no firm date for the Xbox port, though, and there's been no word at all on a potential PlayStation version. The latter does seem inevitable; it may be that Innersloth is just prioritizing Xbox coding, for the time being.
Source: Innersloth