Fall Guys stop existing when they stop competing, says senior designer
Fall forward
"The first one pager we put together for Fall Guys was basically gifs of Takeshi's Castle, and basically it was like 'Gang Beasts + Mario Party + Battle Royale'. I'm not joking, it wasn't really much more than that that got the game signed".
I'm watching an interview with Fall Guys senior designer Joe Walsh, and it's almost as lovely as the game wot he helped make. Hearing him talk about the (deserved!) meteoric success of Mediatonic's bean 'em up is a treat, but it's also neat to hear him talk about what lies ahead.
There's loads I want to pick out, but you could just, like, watch the full interview with MinnMax:
Walsh says the team spent the first year in development praying that no-one else at E3 would announce something similar, because it seemed like such am obviously good idea. An understandable concern.
We already knew this was the case, but he says new maps are a big priority. "The demand for new shit has gone through the roof... the appetite for new things is voracious, and more than we could have anticipated". He mentions how they might re-purpose levels that don't stand the test of time, but proper new newness is definitely a big focus.
He does make a pained face when the interviewer brings up a level editor, mind. Again, we already knew they'd said adding a level editor will be a longer and trickier process than people might expect, but it's still interesting to hear his comments:
"We have to be careful because making these maps is one thing, but playtesting them is another", he says. "That's fine if you're making a StarCraft map and you just need to grab one of your buddies, but not a lot of us have 59 friends at anyone time, so we need to think about what that ecosystem looks like. How do we curate things? If we put 59 people into a level and it's rubbish, we have a bit of a responsibility as developers to make sure that level's good".
I take his point, but I'd love to see them flag that and let the community do playtests. Offloading work to players is usually something I'd be wary of, but I'd be amazed if there weren't enough people who'd regard trying out potentially bad maps as a fun game in and of itself. I sure would.
They cover loads I haven't mentioned here, and the MinnMaxShow has handily provided timestamps for everything you might be interested in. They talk about the studio's surprisingly interesting history, catering to competitive beans, and lessons other devs might learn. There's also a peek into the lore, if that's your jam.
"Fall Guys exist in this world to compete, they're full of enthusiasm and quests for glory - but they pop into existence, compete, and then they go forever. "We didn't really give more thought to it that because it seemed a little pretentious, and now suddenly all these questions are starting and... who knows!"
All this delights me, and I said as much in my Fall Guys review - although I do crave the variety discussed above. I'm excited to see where it goes.
You can grab Fall Guys from Steam for £16/$20/€20.