Fall Guys looks all set to be the next big thing. The game’s Creative Director Jeff Tanton took to Twitter to explain how it all came about. He laid out all the dominos that had to fall into place for this game to finally come out.
Fall Guys And Takeshi’s Castle Are Similar For A Reason
Many people have compared this game to Takeshi’s Castle. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Takeshi’s Castle, somehow, it’s a Japanese game show that involves a number of contestants going through an obstacle course. Those who pass the course proceed to the next level, which is a different obstacle course.
Fall Guys operates with the same core loop. Tanton’s tweets show that this isn’t a coincidence, though. During the game’s original pitch, they highlighted the similarities themselves. “I’d loaded the first two slides of the deck with star-wipes into Takeshi’s Castle gifs. I recommend everyone does this even if it has absolutely zero connection to the game you’re pitching – really sets a tone,” he wrote.
Why Do The Playable Characters Look Like Jelly Beans With Legs?
He also spoke about how the game’s playable characters ended up as adorable, bumbling jelly beans. Tanton says that Principal Concept Artist Dan Hoang had simply thrown them in as a placeholder at first. However, the developers soon realised that watching these cute capsules hop around is the focus of the game, not getting through the obstacle course itself.
This is also where they decided to call the game “Fall Guys”. “Our characters that would fail for our amusement, but crucially always get back up again. Always. They would be heroic in their indefatigability,” he wrote.
Fall Guys Was A Proper Team Effort
Tanton then mentioned the contributions of various members of the development team in bringing this game together. He singles out Lead Level Designer Meg Ralph and Client Engineer Alex Whaley among others. Finally, he ended his string of tweets by thanking the players for playing and enjoying their game.
I haven’t played this game personally. However, I can’t imagine that it’s any less fun to play than it is to watch. Besides, it’s always heartwarming to see an underdog success story.
