- "Fall Guys is inherently slapstick and radiates a sense of fun, so it was always very important to the team that the world felt physical and that the characters were vibrant and colourful, so this was in our heads from the very start."
- ―Senior designer Anthony Pepper
Fall Guys, also formerly known as Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout, is an online free-to-play platformer battle royale video game developed by Mediatonic and published by Epic Games, which initially released on August 4, 2020, before a wider release on June 21, 2022.
On May 4, 2024, it was announced that Fall Guys and Star Wars would be collaborating to introduce Star Wars content to the game from May 7 to May 20. This new cosmetic content was inspired by the films Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi and featured new costumes of the smuggler Han Solo riding atop the starship Millennium Falcon, the smuggler Chewbacca, the bounty hunter Boba Fett, and a classic stormtrooper. It also included a special celebration featuring the Sarlacc pit and a carbon-freezing chamber.
A second Star Wars collaboration began on July 30 and ran through August 12, 2024. This series of cosmetic content featured characters from the film Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace. It included new costume sets of Sith apprentice Darth Maul, Grand Master Yoda, Queen Padmé Amidala, and the droid R2-D2. Other cosmetic items were also added with similar themes, such as profile banners featuring Maul and R2-D2; as well as an R2-D2 emote and a celebration based on Maul and his double-bladed lightsaber.
Gameplay
- "Falling over is basically [the characters'] superpower. It's what they do best. We had to make sure falling over was always slapstick funny. We were looking at stuff like Takeshi's Castle and Exceed and Wipeout. You're there for the falls. Making sure that ragdolling was working, could work at scale, was a big challenge."
- ―Creative director Jeff Tanton
Beans are the default playable characters of Fall Guys.
Fall Guys is an online free-to-play platformer battle royale.[4] In Fall Guys, players take control of a Fall Guy,[10] also known as a Bean,[11] to compete against other players through multiple rounds of the Blunderdome. The common types of obstacle courses range from races, survivals, hunts, logic puzzles, team challenges, and finals at the end of a show. There are two permanent types of shows players can choose to participate in, Solo and Squad Shows. More modes, playlists, and challenges are also available; however, they are time-limited and may change every week.[10]
Aside from officially made rounds, Fall Guys allows for the community to create and publish their own courses through Creative mode, using the game's massive catalog of assets. Community courses can be included in a featured community playlist based on in-game analytics, such as the amount of plays and playtime; as well as the originality and creativity of the course.[12] While creators are given freedom in designing their courses, moderations and rules are still set to avoid inappropriate behavior.[13] While most modes in Fall Guys are quick and competitive, the Explore mode takes a more relaxed approach to the courses. It allows players to play through an endless run of courses, which they can choose to quit whenever they want. Each round's time limit is extended up to half an hour, giving players the option to finish at a much slower pace. With the mode being endless, Explore implements courses made by the community on Creative mode to help keep players' experience new and fresh.[14]
Fall Guys supports two spendable currencies, Kudos and Show-Bucks. Kudos is a free currency that players can earn by progressing through the seasonal Fame Pass and other in-game events,[15] while Show-Buck is the game's premium currency obtainable via microtransaction; however, a limited amount of Show-Bucks can still be earned freely in the Fame Pass.[16] Both currencies can be used in the in-game shop to purchase the cosmetic items in daily rotation, though the latter currency offers a more premium selection of items.[17] Another type of currency is the Crown, which can be earned by winning shows or completing events. However, Crowns are not a spendable currency; rather, it can be used on the Crown Rank and unlock exclusive cosmetic items as players progress.[17]
Star Wars content
- "Basically nobody knows about [Star Wars: Jedi Temple Challenge], but it's the closest anybody's got to a Star Wars obstacle course thing. I think if I could do anything in the world, I think it'd probably be trying to make Fall Guys do stupid Jedi balancing obstacle courses."
- ―Design lead Joe Walsh, on the potential of a Star Wars crossover
The Star Wars cosmetic items were based on the original trilogy.
During Fall Guys' first Star Wars collaboration, multiple cosmetic items based on the original trilogy, specifically[11] the 1980 film[19] Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back and[11] the 1983 film[19] Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi, were added to the in-game shop. Characters such as[11] the smugglers[20] Han Solo and Chewbacca, with the former riding atop the starship Millennium Falcon,[11] the bounty hunter[20] Boba Fett, and a stormtrooper were available as costume sets. Along with the costumes, two victory celebration sequences based on Solo's carbon-freezing process from Episode V and Fett's fall to the Great Pit of Carkoon from Episode VI were added to the in-game shop as well.[11]
For the second Star Wars collaboration, it featured cosmetic items based on the[21] 1999 film Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace.[19] Characters such as[21] the Sith apprentice[20] Darth Maul,[21] the queen of the planet Naboo[20] Padmé Amidala,[21] Grand Master[20] Yoda, and the droid R2-D2 were added to the in-game shop as costume sets for a limited time. Alongside the costumes, two profile banners featuring Maul and R2-D2, respectively, were added; as well as an emote mimicking R2-D2 and a celebration sequence based on Maul with his double-bladed lightsaber.[21]
Development
- "When we released Fall Guys, we suddenly realised that we had Season 2 to release just two or three months afterwards. And we really didn't have any idea what Season 3 was going to be, let alone Season 4."
- ―Joe Walsh, on Fall Guys' initial unplanned roadmap
In January 2018, the conception of what became Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout first started at Mediatonic. The idea was a 100-player battle royale inspired by the live Japanese game show Takeshi's Castle. The game was initially considered to be named Fool's Gauntlet and Stumble Chums, before landing on Fall Guys later on. During the Game Developers Conference of that same year, Mediatonic pitched the game to ten publishers until Devolver Digital agreed to fund it. The development of Fall Guys then started six months after the initial publishing agreements,[1] using Unity as its game engine.[5]
Fall Guys offers a variety of courses to play through.
During the gaming exhibition[22] E3 2019, Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout was first announced in Devolver Digital's annual pre-recorded game showcase "Devolver Direct."[7] On August 4, 2020, Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout was released on the PlayStation 4 and Steam for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS.[3] It was rated "Everyone" by the ESRB.[6] Following Epic Games' purchase of Tonic Games Group—which included Mediatonic—on March 2, 2021, Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout was no longer published and distributed by Devolver Digital.[2] On June 21, 2022, massive changes and adjustments were made to the game,[4] including currencies, costumes, and seasonal passes.[17] The game became free-to-play for all pre-existing platforms[4] and rebranded itself to Fall Guys, removing its subtitle.[23][24] On the publishing front, the game was delisted on Steam, switching exclusively to the Epic Games Store instead; however, Fall Guys remained available to players who bought the game on Steam prior. Along with the change, the game was also released on the gaming platforms Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 5.[4]
Star Wars cosmetic items were available for a limited time in Fall Guys.
On May 4, 2024, it was announced that a collaboration between Fall Guys and Star Wars titled "Return of the Bean" would be introduced to the game starting on May 7 until May 20 of the same year.[11] However, the in-game news feed and shop countdown stated that the campaign would only last until May 14, 2024,[25] ending much earlier than initially announced.[26][27] Later, on July 26 of the same year, Fall Guys announced its second wave of collaboration with Star Wars, titled "The Phantom Menace." As announced, the Star Wars collaboration was officially released on July 30,[21] lasting until August 12, 2024.[28]
Continuity
- "Chase down rebels for the Empire as part of the Galaxy's clone army"
- ―Fall Guys erroneously described stormtoopers as clones
The description for the stormtrooper costume reads, "Chase down rebels for the Empire as part of the Galaxy's clone army."[29] Given that the costume depicts the classic stormtrooper armor, this erroneously considers the Imperial Stormtrooper Corps at the time this armor was used to be a clone army. By the time of that iteration of stormtrooper armor becoming typical, most stormtroopers were non-clones.[30]
Appearances
| Characters | Organisms | Droid models | Events | Locations |
| Organizations and titles | Sentient species | Vehicles and vessels | Weapons and technology | Miscellanea |
Characters
Organisms
|
Droid models
Events
Locations
Organizations and titles
|
Sentient species
Vehicles and vessels
Weapons and technology
Miscellanea
|
Sources
Notes and references
External links
Official website (backup link)- Fall Guys on Wikipedia
- Fall Guys on the Fall Guys Wiki
- Fall Guys (@fallguysgame) on Instagram (backup link)
- Fall Guys (@FallGuysGame) on Twitter (backup link)
- Fall Guys (@fallguysgame.fb) on Facebook (backup link)
- Fall Guys (@fallguysgame) on TikTok (backup link)
- Fall Guys on YouTube (backup link)
