Impostors is a new game mode in Fortnite where ten players are pitted against each other and tasked with finding the impostors before they’re killed, all while completing various objectives around a fixed map. Sound familiar? Apparently, it hits a little close to home for the creators of the hit indie title Among Us, many of whom took to Twitter to express their disappointment in Epic appearing to blatantly rip off their design. While Fortnite’s Impostors game mode does have a few differences, many of the game’s mechanics seem almost copy-pasted into the game down to its “Trust Nobody” slogan and title.
For example, both games feature a facility in which the 10 players must complete assignments. If an agent is killed, those who found the body can report it and teleport everyone to the Bridge, exactly how both Among Us and Impostors work. Players can also choose to “Force a Discussion” and vote possible Impostors out for “ejection” in both titles.
These terms, which are used in the official Fortnite announcement page, mirror the exact terms used in Among Us. This has led many fans of the series as well as its own developers to comment on Epic’s blatant plagiarism. Innersloth co-founder Marcus Bromander said “We didn’t patent the Among Us mechanics. I don’t think that leads to a healthy game industry. Is it really that hard to put 10% more effort into putting your own spin on it though?”
We didn’t patent the Among Us mechanics. I don’t think that leads to a healthy game industry. Is it really that hard to put 10% more effort into putting your own spin on it though?
— Puff (@PuffballsUnited) August 17, 2021
Innersloth community director Victoria Tran also stated that “it would’ve been really, really cool to collab.” Soon after, she criticized Epic by saying the studio should have used “different themes or terminology … at the very least” to make things more interesting.
like game mechanics fine, those shouldn’t be gatekept, but at the very least even different themes or terminology makes things more interesting?
— Victoria Tran (@TheVTran) August 17, 2021
Unfortunately, there’s not much that the Among Us devs can do against Epic, nor to its franchise-juggernaut Fortnite and the new Impostors mode. Similar to Tran, Innersloth developer Adriel Wallick expressed sadness at the fact that Innersloth was still a relatively small indie studio, stating it was “just another fun reminder of how tiny we all really are.” As Bromander notes, Innersloth doesn’t own the rights to any of the game mechanics and therefore has no legal recourse to take action.
This isn’t even the first time Epic has done this, either. Last year, the company released a limited-time game mode named “The Spy Within” with the same exact mechanics, though that was a limited-time-mode, and Impostors seems to be here to stay. At this point, I don’t think anyone could seriously state that Among Us didn’t influence the Fortnite Impostors mode, considering so many of the similarities (and blatant copied terms and mechanics). The irony is that this is the same large company with the ability to add popular crossover characters and figures that is currently embroiled in a battle with Apple over monopolistic big business overreach that squashes and fails to credit small creators.
[Source: Kotaku]
