Innersloth’s Among Us Story: On Guard is both an expansion of the Among Us universe and an excuse to keep developers on payroll.
Best known for the viral hit Among Us, Innersloth scaled up dramatically following the game’s explosion in popularity in 2020, growing its staff from a small core team to a squad of roughly 30 full-time devs. But as the hype around Among Us subsided into more of a steady plateau, Innersloth management started to look for more projects to fill its expanded teams’ free time — hence the inception of Among Us Story: On Guard, according to members of the game’s development team whom GamesBeat spoke to during a demonstration at Summer Game Fest 2026 in Los Angeles earlier this month.
“It’s been nice, because we had to scale up quite a bit to handle Among Us at its height,” said Innersloth lead Unity programmer Adriel Wallick during the demo session. “Now that — not that it’s died down, but it’s not quite as intense — we’ve been able to split off and make some really nice, tight teams to work on new things.”
Of Innersloth’s 30-person development team, 12 staffers were dedicated to the production of Among Us Story: On Guard, which the company announced at Summer Game Fest. The game is a simulated murder mystery that takes place within the broader Among Us universe — although this does not necessarily put Among Us Story: On Guard in an exclusive category of games. According to Innersloth senior game designer Carol Mertz during the demo session, Innersloth considers all players’ Among Us experiences to be part of the game’s wider canon.
“We see every single Among Us game, even in the multiplayer, as canon,” Mertz said.
The game features a different art style than its predecessor, with more of a paper cut-out feel that Mertz said was the brainchild of Innersloth art director Hannako Lambert.
“She really wanted to explore the idea of still having a familiar feeling that was evocative of Among Us, but allowed them to experiment a little — allowed it to also be expressive in a way that says, ‘this is the Among Us you know and love, but it’s also not the same thing,’” Mertz said.
Mertz and Wallick credited Innersloth writer Trick Weekes for the unique, quippy humor of Among Us Story: On Guard. The demo experience was chock-full of fun written lines and easter eggs — too many to get through during the 20-minute session. Weekes is a veteran game writer who worked on titles like Mass Effect and Dragon Age during a 20-year stint at BioWare; their high level of experience reflects the general pedigree of the Among Us Story: On Guard team, with an animator from the team behind Cuphead and Mertz herself, who cut her teeth at Exploding Kittens before joining Innersloth to work on Among Us Story: On Guard. Innersloth co-founder and Among Us creator Forest Willard served as the director on the project.
“Honestly, the whole team is amazing,” Wallick said. “They’ve done such a good job of being able to put together a team that is both very good at the things they do, but good at a lot of other things as well.”