If you have been on social media any time since August 2020, chances are your feed is filled with memes about two games in particular: Fall Guys and Among Us. These two games, with oddly similar looking characters, have become immensely popular recently, growing a noticeable internet presence and large player base seemingly out of nowhere. Where did these games come from? Why are these games, made by relatively small teams, becoming more of a cultural staple than most recently released big name titles?

In the case of both Among Us and Fall Guys, it’s clear that the current pandemic is a major reason for the success of these titles. With most people being stuck at home, not having enough opportunities to interact with friends, multiplayer games that facilitate that interaction have been increasing in popularity. Games like Animal Crossing, Fortnite, Jackbox, and others with multiplayer support have become a go-to medium for having fun with friends while remaining socially distant. With this recent demand for more multiplayer titles, more and more game developers are realizing the benefits of promoting older multiplayer titles to a wider audience, or creating new titles from scratch.

And now enter Fall Guys, the first of the two games starring bean-shaped humanoids to have made it big this year. Due partially to the already massive fanbase surrounding battle royales, Fall Guys, developed by Mediatonic and published by Devolver Digital, is a notable outlier in comparison to most games in the battle royale genre. While most popular battle royales are a part of the shooter genre, Fall Guys is unique in that it completely strays away from that genre, with its gameplay being more similar to the television series Wipeout. The gameplay is well known for being positively chaotic, with the cutesy and colorful visual style adding to the experience. This game was a big hit almost instantaneously, becoming one of the most popular games to stream on Twitch almost overnight. For many people, Fall Guys was a breath of fresh air, a battle royale game for people who don’t usually like battle royales.

More recently, another game has been hitting it big: Among Us. Among Us, developed and published by InnerSloth, is a multiplayer murder mystery, with one to three players in a room serving as an “imposter” among a group of astronaut crewmates. The goal of the imposters is to kill as many people on board the map of choice without getting caught in the process. Recently, the game has become heavily popular among Twitch streamers and let’s-play Youtubers, bringing the game’s attention to a larger audience than ever before. Some people might be quite shocked, however, to learn

that Among Us isn’t new. The game was originally released in 2018. The recent success, while mostly due to the popularity with streamers, might also be because of another game published by InnerSloth.

The Henry Stickmin Collection, developed by PuffballsUnited, is a full collection of every game in the Henry Stickmin series of flash games, and also includes a brand new installment in the series to further encourage fans and newcomers alike to purchase the game. The collection released in early August, with the hype prior to its release being commonplace on social media. It’s safe to say the attention that the Henry Stickmin Collection received is likely a major reason why Among Us was able to amass such a large audience randomly in August, despite how long it had been since its original release. People who were fans of Henry Stickmin were likely curious of what other games InnerSloth had published, drawing more mainstream attention to a previously hidden gem. Many references to the Henry Stickmin series are littered around Among Us, particularly in the form of hats, pets, and some small easter eggs within maps. It has also been revealed in a blog post in September that a new fourth map is being added to Among Us themed off the Henry Stickmin series.

Many indie games get pushed under the rug in favor of titles by more major, well known developers, so seeing indie projects making mainstream success is very exciting. In general, it’s safe to say we are living in the age of indie games. Games like Undertale, Five Nights at Freddy’s, and Minecraft all had small, humble beginnings, before suddenly becoming cultural phenomenons. It’s always exciting to see new indie titles hitting a level of success they couldn’t have possibly predicted, and I, for one, hope to see this trend continue.