Fall Guys

Did You Know?

• In the Explore and Creator Spotlight modes, up to 20 players can play continuous creative levels, earning 5 crown shards per completed level.
• Season 4: Creative Construction introduced the first collaboration Fame Pass with Final Fantasy XIV, themed around the Warriors of Light.

Game updates

New content is delivered through updates, which can introduce tools, modes, bug fixes, and Fame Passes. Since 16 August 2023, Mediatonic moved away from Seasons to more frequent updates. Season 2 added banners, nicknames, and the Game Selector. Season 3 introduced the Crown Rank system and Prime Gaming exclusive rewards.

Season 4 added daily challenges and Crown Shards, with a mid-season update enabling custom shows. Season 5 added limited-time events and Duos/Trios shows, later redesigning the main lobby. Season 6 brought cross-progression, cross-play, and the Sweet Thieves mode. Season 1: Free for All introduced Show-Bucks and the Bean Hill Zone collaboration level with Sonic the Hedgehog, which was removed on 5 March 2024.

Season 2: Satellite Scramble added Treat Thieves, a Halloween version of Sweet Thieves. Season 3: Sunken Secrets added dive sliding, Time Attack, and reduced the maximum lobby size from 60 to 40 players. The Power Party Update introduced power-ups and the Discovery tab for Creative levels. The Survival Update added Survival-type level creation. The Fall Forever Update added the Piggyback mechanic and Explore and Knockout modes.

Development

The concept began in January 2018 when Mediatonic discussed another project, and lead designer Joe Walsh drew inspiration from game shows like Takeshi's Castle and Total Wipeout. Originally titled Fools' Gauntlet and later Stumble Chums, the pitch featured 100 players in a battle royale of physical challenges. Creative director Jeff Tanton was initially sceptical but became convinced, and with Walsh created a pitch deck. Principal concept artist Dan Hoang designed colourful bean-shaped characters, shifting focus from the obstacle course to the characters.

Tanton pitched the game to 10 publishers at the 2018 Game Developers Conference; Devolver Digital agreed to publish six months later. Development began with a small team, growing to 30 people. Initial progress on mini-games was slow, but a turning point came when the team established pillars such as ensuring a mini-game was "50-50 chaos and skill" and that a level had to be "different every time." Mediatonic focused on gameplay variety, aiming to recreate the experience of being on a game show.

An internal rule required game modes to be explained in three words. The player count was decreased from 100 to 60 because overpopulated games became unreadable or unfun.

Release

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout was announced at E3 in June 2019 and released on 4 August 2020 for PlayStation 4 and Windows. The medieval-themed second season launched on 8 October 2020. In August 2020, Bilibili announced a mobile version for China, but the deal expired in 2022 and Epic took over. Versions for Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X were announced in February 2021 for summer 2021, then delayed to late 2021, and again to 2022.

In March 2021, Epic Games bought Mediatonic and Tonic Games Group, focusing on cross-platform compatibility. On 18 November 2021, Mediatonic announced that Epic Games accounts would be required in season 6 for cross-platform progression. On 22 February 2022, an update added Lobbies and Friends lists using the Epic Overlay system. On 15 March 2022, Mediatonic announced a new launcher for PlayStation players, required from 5 April 2022; the old launcher shut down on 9 May 2022. The new launcher offered a free Pink Shark costume.

Reception

Fall Guys received generally favourable reviews on Metacritic. Tom Wiggins of Stuff called it "Super Monkey Ball for the Fortnite generation." Mercury News praised its "controlled chaos," combining elements of Fortnite and Mario Party in a way suited to the coronavirus age. Ollie Toms of Rock, Paper, Shotgun praised its creative, family-friendly approach and the diversity of seasonal content, noting that ragdoll physics could be both exciting and frustrating.

During a closed beta the weekend before release, Fall Guys became the most-watched game on Twitch and the sixth-best-selling Steam game. It has been frequently compared to Among Us, as both grew popular during the COVID-19 pandemic and feature similar bean-like characters. The addition of Squad Mode in Season 4 was positively received, with Kotaku highlighting its emphasis on teamwork. Sweet Thieves was also well received; Destructoid called it "the most fun I've had with Fall Guys in forever." A clone game called Stumble Guys was released for mobile on 23 September 2020 and became popular.