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Up to 60 players compete in matches with [[Battle royale game|battle royale]]-style gameplay.<ref name="IGN: Review" /><ref name="GameSpot: Review" /><ref name="Push Square: Soapbox" /> [[Player character|Players]], represented as jellybean-like figures,<ref name="PCMag: Review" /> move around a three-dimensional playing field, with additional moves such as jumping, grabbing, or diving to assist gameplay. The aim is to qualify for subsequent rounds by successfully completing each of the randomly selected [[mini-game]]s.<ref name="The Verge: Review" /> Certain mini-games involve running towards a finish line at the end of the map, while others add elements of teamwork.<ref name="IGN: Review" /> On every mini-game, obstacles appear around the map for added complexity.<ref name="Polygon: E3" /> Players who are too slow or who fail certain requirements for a mini-game are eliminated. On the final round, the remaining few players compete in a final match with a randomised mini-game designed for a smaller player size. The winner of the match is the [[Last man standing (video games)|last player standing]].<ref name="GamesRadar+: Tips" />
Up to 60 players compete in matches with [[Battle royale game|battle royale]]-style gameplay.<ref name="IGN: Review" /><ref name="GameSpot: Review" /><ref name="Push Square: Soapbox" /> [[Player character|Players]], represented as jellybean-like figures,<ref name="PCMag: Review" /> move around a three-dimensional playing field, with additional moves such as jumping, grabbing, or diving to assist gameplay. The aim is to qualify for subsequent rounds by successfully completing each of the randomly selected [[mini-game]]s.<ref name="The Verge: Review" /> Certain mini-games involve running towards a finish line at the end of the map, while others add elements of teamwork.<ref name="IGN: Review" /> On every mini-game, obstacles appear around the map for added complexity.<ref name="Polygon: E3" /> Players who are too slow or who fail certain requirements for a mini-game are eliminated. On the final round, the remaining few players compete in a final match with a randomised mini-game designed for a smaller player size. The winner of the match is the [[Last man standing (video games)|last player standing]].<ref name="GamesRadar+: Tips" />


Using an [[in-game currency]], "Kudos", players can purchase cosmetics and emotes for their character to show off in game.<ref name="Push Square: Server issues" /><ref name="Push Square: Review" /> Players obtain Kudos by completing matches and get "Crowns" (the premium currency) by winning.<ref name="Polygon: Kudos" /> Some of the costumes are of characters from different games, such as [[Gordon Freeman]] from the ''[[Half-Life (series)|Half-Life]]'' series or Jacket from ''[[Hotline Miami]]''.<ref name="Kotaku: Costumes" /> The game supports [[microtransaction]]s for the purchase of additional in-game currency.<ref name="Push Square: Review" />
Using an [[in-game currency]], "Kudos", players can purchase cosmetics and emotes for their character to show off in game.<ref name="Push Square: Server issues" /><ref name="Push Square: Review" /> Players obtain Kudos by completing matches and get "Crowns" (the premium currency) by winning.<ref name="Polygon: Kudos" /> Some of the costumes are of characters from different games, such as [[Gordon Freeman]] from the ''[[Half-Life (series)|Half-Life]]'' series or Jacket from ''[[Hotline Miami]]''.<ref name="Kotaku: Costumes" /> The game supports [[microtransaction]]s for the purchase of additional in-game currency; however Crowns are only obtainable by winning.<ref name="Push Square: Review" />


===Minigames===
===Minigames===

Revision as of 17:47, 22 August 2020

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout
Developer(s)Mediatonic
Publisher(s)Devolver Digital
Director(s)Jamie Riding
Producer(s)Alex Ruse
Designer(s)Joseph Walsh
Programmer(s)
  • Joel Herber
  • Rakesh Vangur
Artist(s)Rob Jackson
Composer(s)
  • Jukio Kallio
  • Daniel Hagström
EngineUnity
Platform(s)
Release4 August 2020
Genre(s)Battle royale, platformer
Mode(s)Multiplayer

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout is a 2020 platformer battle royale game developed by Mediatonic and published by Devolver Digital. It was announced at E3 in June 2019 and released on 4 August 2020 for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 4. The game drew inspiration from game shows like Takeshi's Castle and It's a Knockout, and children's playground games like tag and British Bulldog.

Gameplay

Up to 60 players compete in matches with battle royale-style gameplay.[1][2][3] Players, represented as jellybean-like figures,[4] move around a three-dimensional playing field, with additional moves such as jumping, grabbing, or diving to assist gameplay. The aim is to qualify for subsequent rounds by successfully completing each of the randomly selected mini-games.[5] Certain mini-games involve running towards a finish line at the end of the map, while others add elements of teamwork.[1] On every mini-game, obstacles appear around the map for added complexity.[6] Players who are too slow or who fail certain requirements for a mini-game are eliminated. On the final round, the remaining few players compete in a final match with a randomised mini-game designed for a smaller player size. The winner of the match is the last player standing.[7]

Using an in-game currency, "Kudos", players can purchase cosmetics and emotes for their character to show off in game.[8][9] Players obtain Kudos by completing matches and get "Crowns" (the premium currency) by winning.[10] Some of the costumes are of characters from different games, such as Gordon Freeman from the Half-Life series or Jacket from Hotline Miami.[11] The game supports microtransactions for the purchase of additional in-game currency; however Crowns are only obtainable by winning.[9]

Minigames

The majority of the gameplay in Fall Guys comes from joining a match to play a series of mini-games. Besides the final rounds, which are variants of the main categories built for a smaller group of players, mini-games are categorised into four major sections: races, survival, hunting, and logic. Most mini-games feature obstacles that regularly rotate perpendicular to the ground, such as a rotating platform or a permanently placed large rotating hammer. Platforms may alter the positioning of the player by either following gaming physics or by collapsing. Certain mini-games include elements of teamwork.[12]

Race-based mini-games involve players charging towards the finish line.[6] Once a specified number of players pass the finish line, all remaining players are eliminated.[6] Throughout the obstacle course, numerous permanent obstacles stand in the way, slowing the advancement of reaching the finish line. Large moving obstacles tend to follow against the direction of the finish line, temporarily stopping players who collide against them. Interactable platforms often provide an extra challenge to navigating along the obstacle course. Checkpoints exist across the obstacle course to provide players with another chance to continue the obstacle course.[6]

In survival-based mini-games, players must stay alive for as long as possible until specific conditions are met. Players become automatically eliminated if they fall off the main course or fall into pink slime. Obstacles regularly move around or change as time passes by. Players move around or jump to avoid falling out of the playing field. IGN describes the "Roll Out" mini-game as "the classic log rolling survival game" where surviving long-term on a continuously rolling obstacle course is necessary, while they describe the mini-game "Block Party" as a timed obstacle course where players must escape "certain doom".[13]

During team matches, each group of players are evenly distributed into equal groups and must work together to work towards a common goal, and the group with the lowest score by the end of the round is eliminated.[14] Some of them are variants of existing mini-games, such as "Team Tail Tag", whereby the eliminated team is the team with the fewest numbers of tails by the end of the time limit. Kotaku notes how the combination of the "frustrating grab controls" and the dependence of teammates of variable behaviour makes it difficult to advance through the "Team Tail Tag" mini-game.[15]

Once a certain number of players remain, the final round is played. Each final round mini-game features a unique game format using existing elements of other mini-games.[6] The winner of the match is the last player standing.[7]

Development and release

The conception of Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout began when Mediatonic was discussing another project in January 2018.[16] One member, lead designer Joe Walsh, made a throwaway comment that it reminded him of game shows such as Takeshi's Castle and Total Wipeout. From there, he went on to create a pitch document for what would become Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout.[17] Originally titled Fools' Gauntlet, Walsh's pitch featured 100 players competing in a battle royale composed of physical challenges.[18] Creative director Jeff Tanton, while initially skeptical that creating another battle royale game would be successful, was quickly convinced of the game's potential, and forwarded Walsh's pitch to Mediatonic's founders.[16] Tanton and Walsh then began working on a pitch deck for the game. For the pitch deck, principal concept artist Dan Hoang created images featuring colorful, bean-shaped characters racing on an obstacle course in the sky. Tanton explained that Hoang's character designs helped shift the focus of the game away from the obstacle course itself, to the characters.[19][20] With the pitch deck completed, Tanton pitched the game to 10 different publishers at the 2018 Game Developers Conference. After Devolver Digital agreed to publish the game, development began six months later.[16][19]

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout began its initial prototyping process with a small team, growing to 30 people during development.[21] In an attempt to remain faithful to the game shows they were inspired by, as well as differentiate themselves from first-person-shooter battle royale games, Mediatonic's focus was on gameplay variety. By presenting the player with several, randomized rounds of game modes, Mediatonic hoped to recreate the experience of being on a game show.[21] To help keep the "spirit of playground games and game shows", Mediatonic created an internal rule that game modes needed to be explained in three words.[21] Over time, the game underwent numerous other changes. The player count was decreased from 100 to 60, as the games "stopped being readable or fun" when there were too many players competing.[22] The game also went through name changes, going from Fools' Gauntlet to Stumble Chums to Fall Guys.[22]

It's a Knockout, a game show that forced its contestants to dress up in oversized costumes, inspired the idea that the characters should "have that element of being completely uniquely, badly designed for the task that we were gonna put them through".[17] The ragdoll physics were implemented on purpose, because Mediatonic did not want them to be like "hyper athletic Ninja Warrior characters" and because "falling over is funny".[17] According to Walsh, striking the right balance between funny ragdoll collisions and game performance was critical, because "as soon as you lose the ragdoll-ness of the character, you lose the comedy".[21] The character designs were inspired by the look of vinyl toys.[23]

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout was announced at E3 in June 2019[6] and was released on 4 August 2020 for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 4.[24] Prior to release, it was announced that Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout would be free for PlayStation Plus members during the rest of August.[25]

On 12 August 2020, Mediatonic had announced their first major update would be arriving on the next day, as well as announcing that they promise additional content would be added in the future.[26] On 17 August 2020, the developers announced that they would be making custom skin for a brand for whoever donated the most money to the charity SpecialEffect.[27]

Reception

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator website Metacritic.[28][29]

Tom Wiggins of Stuff magazine praised the game, calling it "Super Monkey Ball for the Fortnite generation".[41]

The weekend before release during a closed beta, Fall Guys briefly became the most watched game on Twitch as well as the sixth-best-selling Steam game where it was available for pre-order.[42]

Sales

Within 24 hours of release, the game had drawn over 1.5 million players.[43] On 10 August 2020, Devolver Digital announced that the game had sold 2 million copies on Steam.[44] During the first day of release, it was reported that the servers for Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout unexpectedly overflowed due to popularity.[1][8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Cardy, Simon (7 August 2020). "Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout Review". IGN. Archived from the original on 8 August 2020. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  2. ^ a b Barbosa, Alessandro (7 August 2020). "Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout Review - Jelly Bean Gladiators". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 10 August 2020. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  3. ^ Tailby, Stephen (11 August 2020). "Soapbox: Fall Guys Is Finally a Battle Royale I Actually Want to Play".
  4. ^ "Fall Guys (for PC)". PC Magazine. 14 August 2020. Archived from the original on 14 August 2020. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  5. ^ Sottek, T. C. "Fall Guys is the feel-good game of the summer". The Verge. Archived from the original on 9 August 2020. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  6. ^ a b c d e f "Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout is a colorful battle royale with a twist". Archived from the original on 7 February 2020.
  7. ^ a b "Fall Guys tips: How to beat all 24 rounds and win the Episode crown". GamesRadar+.
  8. ^ a b Tailby, Stephen (14 August 2020). "Fall Guys Awards Special Costume and Kudos as Thanks for Bearing with Server Issues". Push Square.
  9. ^ a b c Croft, Liam (6 August 2020). "Fall Guys Review (PS4)". Push Square. Archived from the original on 8 August 2020. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
  10. ^ Ramos, Jeff (5 August 2020). "Fall Guys guide: How to gain Kudos and Crowns". Polygon. Archived from the original on 7 August 2020. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  11. ^ Walker, Ian (13 August 2020). "Free Costume Ensures Fall Guys Remains Full Of Pricks". Kotaku.
  12. ^ Parkin, Jeffrey (5 August 2020). "Fall Guys guide: Tips and strategies for every game type". Polygon. Archived from the original on 7 August 2020. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  13. ^ Graeber, Brendan (11 August 2020). "Fall Guys: Over 100 Essential Tips to Survive Every Round". Archived from the original on 11 August 2020. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  14. ^ "Review: 'Fall Guys' is a party game built for the coronavirus pandemic". The Mercury News. 11 August 2020. Archived from the original on 12 August 2020. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  15. ^ Zwiezen, Zack (11 August 2020). "Fall Guys' Mini-Games, Ranked". Kotaku.
  16. ^ a b c Wakeling, Richard (21 August 2020). "Fall Guys Was Pitched To 10 Publishers Before Devolver Digital Picked It Up". GameSpot. Retrieved 21 August 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  17. ^ a b c Fall Guys: Behind the Stumbles Part 1 – What is Fall Guys?. Devolver Digital. 17 February 2020 – via YouTube.
  18. ^ Marshall, Cass (20 August 2020). "Fall Guys' pitch doc reveals alternate takes on the iconic beans". Polygon. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  19. ^ a b Saed, Sherif (21 August 2020). "Fall Guys was pitched to ten publishers before Devolver picked it up". VG247. Retrieved 21 August 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  20. ^ Walker, Ian (20 August 2020). "Fall Guys Was Almost Called Stumble Chums". Kotaku. Retrieved 21 August 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  21. ^ a b c d Takahashi, Dean (29 July 2020). "Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout — How Mediatonic crafted a cute battle royale". VentureBeat. Retrieved 21 August 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  22. ^ a b Yin-Poole, Wesley (21 August 2020). "Fall Guys was once called Fool's Gauntlet, Stumble Chums". Eurogamer. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  23. ^ Fall Guys: Behind the Stumbles 3 – Dress for Success. Devolver Digital. 25 May 2020 – via YouTube.
  24. ^ Pearson, Craig. "There are no more obstacles to playing Fall Guys, because it's out now". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Archived from the original on 4 August 2020. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
  25. ^ "PlayStation Plus Games for August 2020 Are Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered and Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout". IGN. 27 July 2020. Archived from the original on 27 July 2020. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  26. ^ Tailby, Stephen (12 August 2020). "Fall Guys Gets New Final Round Tomorrow as Part of a Big Update". Push Square.
  27. ^ "Battle of the Brands". Twitter. FallGuysGame. 17 August 2020. Retrieved 19 August 2020.
  28. ^ a b "Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout for PC Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 9 August 2020. Retrieved 6 August 2020.
  29. ^ a b "Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout for PlayStation 4 Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 8 August 2020. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  30. ^ Devore, Jordan (6 August 2020). "Review: Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout". Destructoid.
  31. ^ Tack, Daniel (7 August 2020). "Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout". Game Informer.
  32. ^ Tamburro, Paul (5 August 2020). "Falling with a complete lack of style". GameRevolution.
  33. ^ Delaney, Mark (6 August 2020). "Fall Guys review: "There's litle standing in the way between Fall Guys and world domination". GamesRadar+. Archived from the original on 8 August 2020. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
  34. ^ Fritsch, Manuel (8 August 2020). "Fall Guys macht im Test viel Spaß und trotzdem zu wenig". PC Games (in German).
  35. ^ de Indee, L'avis (5 August 2020). "Test : Fall Guys : Un battle royale très accrocheur mais un peu léger côté contenu". Jeuxvideo.com (in French). Archived from the original on 6 August 2020. Retrieved 6 August 2020.
  36. ^ Livingston, Christopher (8 August 2020). "Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout review". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on 9 August 2020. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  37. ^ Dammes, Matthias (7 August 2020). "Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout im Test - Noch nie hat Battle Royal so viel Spaß gemacht". PC Games (in German).
  38. ^ "Fall Guys review – it's bean fun". PCGamesN.
  39. ^ Stuart, Keith (5 August 2020). "Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout review – raucous, ridiculous fun". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 9 August 2020. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  40. ^ McCarthy, Caty (6 August 2020). "Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout Review: Falling With Style". USgamer.
  41. ^ Wiggins, Tom (12 August 2020). "Drop everything and download: Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout". Stuff.
  42. ^ Macgregor, Jody (27 July 2020). "Fall Guys was the top game on Twitch during its beta weekend". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on 4 August 2020. Retrieved 6 August 2020.
  43. ^ Kerr, Chris (5 August 2020). "Fall Guys attracts 1.5 million players within 24 hours of launch". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 5 August 2020. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
  44. ^ Minotti, Mike (10 August 2020). "Fall Guys sells 2 million copies on Steam in under a week". VentureBeat.
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