Yesterday, a new game mode was introduced to Fortnite that is probably super familiar to a lot of players out there. It's called Fornite Imposters and it seems to take a lot of, let's just say "inspiration," from Among Us. It features near identical gameplay mechanics. The game's setting is almost identical as well As we pointed out in that original article, the developers of Among Us say that were not contacted by Epic Games in any capacity for the creation of this new mode.
The Among Us developers, Innersloth, do not have a patent on the gameplay for Among Us. Innersloth purposely did not patent the gameplay mechanics of Among Us because, as the co-founder of the studio said, it doesn't lead to a healthy game industry. Furthermore, placing a patent on game mechanics isn't exactly common. There are some exceptions here and there, such as when Warner Bros. put a patent on the Nemesis AI system used in Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor.
Finally, the core idea behind Among Us didn't really originate with Among Us. However, there are a number of elements that are similar or just outright identical between Among Us and Fortnite Imposters and it's those similarities that the Among Us devs take issue with.
Programmer Gary Porter points out some of the similarities between Fortnite's Loop Control map and the Among Us map named Skeld.
Community Director for Innersloth, Victoria Tran, notes that it would have been "really cool to collab." She continues on to note that while game mechanics shouldn't be hoarded, changing themes or terminology a bit in Epic's offering would've gone a long way.
This wouldn't be the first time Epic Games just lifted a game idea wholesale. Fortnite, as it exists today, as almost exclusively a battle royale experience, came about only due to the popularity of PUBG. Epic Games hastily put together a battle royale mode mere months after PUBG entered into Steam Early Access and found massive success. PUBG early access having started in March 2017 and Fortnite Battle Royale coming in September 2017.
Fortnite actually began as a cooperative tower defense mixed with plenty of third-person shooting. It tasked up to four players with fighting off zombie-like foes and defending an area. Players would gather resources and materials around the environment in order to build up their base defenses, including being able to craft traps. This mode, which came to be known as Fortnite: Save the World, was constantly delayed and eventually just abandoned by Epic as Fortnite Battle Royale continued to grow.
