‘Among Us’ concept art: What the InnerSloth game almost looked like

Among Us has taken the internet by storm – because of this the brightly colored oval shaped crewmates have stolen hearts despite their simplistic design. The ability to customize your little solid color blob makes them all the more endearing. From bush hats to caution signs to chef’s hats to plungers you can create a cute character or a downright weird one – a little something for everyone.

The 2D game is simple in design and easy to pick up, making it a game anyone can pick up. It also provides enough freedom for players that it feels like there are an endless possibility of things which can happen.

Recently one of the developers of Among Us took to Twitter to share some concept art with fans (courtesy of AAA Game Art Studio) and to explain why they made their design choices.

There really is something to having a character with such simple designs.
It allows nearly anyone to be able to draw the character and express themselves through it. It's been so cool to see this happening with the Among Us crewmates.

— Puff (@PuffballsUnited) October 7, 2020

Simplistic

@PuffballsUnited on Twitter points out something that seems to hold true. He says that having simplistic character designs allows them to feel accessible, and also makes it so that people who really like the characters can easily draw them – even if they don’t have much artistic ability.

The developer points out this was also the thought process behind the beloved pink blob Kirby – and we all know how popular & ingrained in pop culture Kirby is. We thought about this point for a bit and quickly realized this was also the exact thought process behind the very geometric designs on the show Phineas and Ferb. The show runners wanted kids to be able to draw their favorite characters.

Funnily enough, @PuffballsUnited later tweeted in the thread, “When I designed the crewmate I never really thought about this. I just have a simple art style to begin with haha!” It turns out his art style is perfect for winning hearts over.

By the way, this is literally the only concept art of coming up with the crewmate design. We settled pretty fast. pic.twitter.com/D4n6wuveDC

— Puff (@PuffballsUnited) October 7, 2020

Very little concept art

The developer then shared a single image on Twitter with six different designs – well if you want to be really specific, more like three and a half different designs & then two more fleshed out versions of one specific design.

We have a bowling ball with legs, the oval with legs we all know & love, and then a hilariously pointy guy who looks like he could use his own hands to stab you in the back – no knife required.

Personally, we’re loving the pointy star man, the idea of those running around on The Skeld, maybe just bouncing from leg to leg without a real walk cycle, is about to send us into tears we’re laughing so hard. The internet has already taken to calling this discarded design Patrick Star.

Hi there! I actually drew some fanart of these concepts, whaddya think? pic.twitter.com/oc8862gejA

— DrawBotOfficial🆖 (@RealDrawbot) October 7, 2020

Loved by all

The two discarded concepts of tiny bowling ball boy and pointy star man have garnered almost as much love as the official Among Us crewmate design. The concepts even garnered their own fanart.

At this point, we’re kind of hoping one of the dev team’s updates for the game will eventually give us different body shapes as a cosmetic for the game because we love the idea of being able to choose any and all of these. Though, we’re not sure if baby ball would accidentally provide some kind of strategic advantage as he takes up less room, which means he might be harder to spot running from a body.

Then again, the devs could just keep the rotund design, but size him up to match the others.

T-POSE CREWMATE T-POSE CREWMATE pic.twitter.com/FKEYXRIj9K

— bishop (@mikan_irl) October 7, 2020

Feeling this energy

We’re really vibing with this person’s enthusiasm for the star-dude. Our mutual love for this design really does seem to prove the simple characters rule. Somehow it makes them extra lovable.

Everybody is going crazy over patrick star, but look at this little buddy!!!! He's too cute:) reminds me a bit of Mike wazowski pic.twitter.com/6AJbhmeQFN

— Ilse🌼 (@justanerd4) October 7, 2020

Ball boy

She’s right, he is a bit Mike Wazowski-esque. Put him in the lime green suit and this design could most definitely pass as Mike Wazowski’s baby.