With its being a game of social deduction, knowing who's who in Among Us is critical - yet a recent bug was preventing this for some people, turning the game's iconic spacemen into pink polygons. Gamers who were suffering from the issue should finally be able to play following a recent software update. For those who need to know, InnerSloth does have an explanation for what's going on.
The glitch first began impacting people a little over a month ago, and appears to have been triggered by Among Us' Airship update, or at least coincided with it. This bug affected all aspects of the game where crewmates are present - even its menu screen, which temporarily resembled a pink version of Asteroids. Subsequent patches didn't fix the flaw, although InnerSloth was able to trace it to Google-based devices, ruling out the other platforms the game is available on.
The bug has been further narrowed down to Android, and should be completely remedied as of Among Us 2021.5.10, InnerSloth explains in a new blog post. By extension it should be solved on Chromebooks, which mainly run Chrome OS but can load Android apps through the Google Play Store. Previously, InnerSloth mentioned both Android and Chromebook devices as potential culprits, though of course there's no ChromeOS client so far. The company is still at work on Xbox and PlayStation ports due later in 2021 - the latter getting custom Ratchet & Clank cosmetics. There's no word on whether Xbox players will be getting the same favor. So, how likely is it that these strange pink blobs will return in a future update?
What Broke Inside Among Us' Graphics & Will It Happen Again?
To date, the company also hasn't provided a technical explanation for why characters would be corrupted but not environments or the user interface. One possibility is the way Android renders or layers animations - most of Among Us' graphics are static, but crewmates are layered on top and in constant motion, often with custom hats, skins, and pets in tow. A simple mistake in rendering calls might have broken transparency or other effects.
In fact, InnerSloth is in the process of transitioning to both a cleaner art style and a new animation system in Among Us, the latter of which is mostly intended to make things easier on developers. Among Us' production team remains under 10 people despite a surge of popularity in 2020. The forthcoming animation update could hypothetically break graphics again - although that's unlikely if the root of the issue has been identified. Other planned changes include new crewmate colors, new meeting screens, and a higher 15-player lobby cap. Because of this, it's always possible a future update could bring the pink blobs back to Among Us on Android.
Source: InnerSloth