👉 Among Us 3D: Gesture System
The Gesture System is foundational for expression in Among Us 3D.
I identified that non-verbal communication was important to our PC users, and built the Gesture System to enable moments like this:
Goals
Our goal was communication parity between PC and VR users by providing non-verbal methods of expression. We wanted to inspire emergent social behaviors like mimicry, or leader-follower dynamics.
The initial prototype needed to be lightweight and provable within a single sprint. The prototype also needed to be deep and addicting enough to warrant additional client budget as part of client negotiations, otherwise it wouldn’t get made.
Why?
Voice chat in Among Us 3D feels zero-sum, just like it does on Zoom. If more than one person speaks at a time, communication becomes a challenge to follow. By providing non-verbal methods of communication, we allow users to express themselves and agree or disagree without talking over each other.
Proximity voice chat is one of the core value propositions of Among Us 3D. Users should not find that core value proposition frustrating to engage with.
Among Us also has a very wide fan base. Core user segments like women are often more comfortable using alternative modes of communication like text or emotes in online games. Additionally, a large % of our child audience will be allowed to play by their parents, but only with voice chat turned off.
How?
Running tests with our prototype, we found that users did not expect feature equivalence with the VR game, but instead wanted comparable parity. Said another way, they didn’t desire the flexibility that VR provided to perform any gesture at any angle– instead, they preferred a suite of 1-5 good, accessible options for gestures that allowed them to easily communicate.
Users primarily valued three things out of this system:
- Speed, for comedic timing
- Clarity of Animation
- Fidget Mechanics
For UI scope reasons (Our UI is not allowed any transparency) I looked at references from other games where speed of selection was paramount, mainly TF2.
Result
Over 90% of our PC users regularly engage with this system. Qualitatively, the words most associated with this system are “Funny,” “Comedic,” and “Useful.”
I’m also very happy with the way this system has performed as a fidget mechanic, and the emergent ways users have started using the system as a “talking stick” to pass around voice chat rights.
We were very close to not shipping this system with the game, and I’m glad I was able to identify a core user need, and align our stakeholders around adding budget for it to the contract.
John Blau 