Social deduction games have exploded in popularity with people of all ages following the breakout success of 2018’s Among Us. These games have existed for almost 40 years though, starting out as simple social games designed in the 1980s.

Dmitry Davidoff developed the first social deduction game called Mafia in 1986 while working at the psychology department of Moscow State University in the Soviet Union. Davidoff was working part time teaching psychology to high school students, he developed the game to help teach them about psychological concepts. The first games were played in classrooms in the spring of 1987. The game continued to develop, finding its way across the USSR’s education system to be played in summer camps and libraries. The game quickly became popular, spreading across Europe, sometimes called City of Palmero or Werewolf.

Many variations with different rules and roles have been created and distributed over the years. The game’s simplicity allows for many things to be changed or modified to suit the needs of players in different situations. All versions of the game however are based on an informed minority attempting to eliminate an uninformed majority, while the majority seeks to reveal the identity of the minority. The additional roles have been attributed to Andrew Plotkin, a game designer who created the first version of Werewolf.

The game has been the center of many mathematical studies, with probability of victory being examined. It is notable for being difficult to simulate, given the ability of players to lie and attempt to deceive one another.

While Among Us is perhaps the best known example of a digitized version of Mafia, it was by no means the first computer game to be made out of the genre. A modification for the 2006 game Garry’s Mod called Trouble in Terrorist Town often just shortened to TTT or Triple-T is a variant on the game. TTT notably does not feature a separate voting phase, allowing players to act independently to one another in eliminating those who seem suspicious.

Among Us in 2018 would once again thrust social deduction games back into the public consciousness. Seeing widespread attention on social media and the internet. Among Us allows players to complete various tasks while imposters attempt to eliminate the crew of a spaceship, the crew wins when all tasks are completed, while imposters win when the crew is eliminated.