Fall Guys was originally going to be called Stumble Chums
If you haven't "bean" playing Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout yet, seriously, where have you been? Mediatonic's squishy battle royale behemoth has climbed the ranks of the gaming world and officially overtaken League of Legends as Twitch's most-streamed game. However, while we're busy playing Hex-A-Gone and The Whirlygig while dressed as a pineapple, T-Rex, or fries, would Fall Guys still be as popular if it was called Stumble Chums?
Fall Guys is literally everywhere right now and has continued to dominate our timelines. With this in mind, Mediatonic creative director Jeff Tanton has gone back to the roots of the game and explained how Fall Guys came to be. As well as revealing his original pitch for a 100-player brawl, Tanton said how the design of the beans evolved and when the team settled on the final name.
At the core of the story was the beans. More than just making the levels the draw to Fall Guys, the beans had to be the heroes of the piece. Looking at Fall Guys now, the beans are still a big pull thanks to their varied outfits. Elsewhere, who can forget the drama surrounding the team colours and that debacle when devs threatened to axe the Yellow Team? Not bad for some bland beans.
Speaking of beans, Tanton said, "They would be heroic in their indefatigability". Watching the beans fall over and get back up was what led to the lightning moment of calling the game Fall Guys. It was here that Stumble Chums and Fool's Gauntlet went out the window. The redesigned beans (and idea to give them bottoms) has given Fall Guys the edge over the competition and also formed part of the recent charity auction where some of the biggest brands out there have bid to see themselves immortalised in the game.
The early days of Fall Guys sounds like it was much more brutal. There was no chance of a respawn, meaning once you fall, you're literally out. A candid Tanton wrote, "Another player knocks you off the tightrope? Too bad, game over". It's far from the idyllic world of today's Fall Guys where a dip into the abyss is only temporary.
As for why Fall Guys was trimmed from 100 players to just 60, Tanton said that when "over a certain size, the games stopped being readable or fun". Looking at how chaotic Fall Guys can sometimes be, it's easy to see why 100 beans bobbing around the screen could've been a migraine-inducing experience.
It's clear the development of Fall Guys was a labour of love. Tanton says the original pitch goes all the way back to January 2018, proving just how far the little game with the big heart has come. The game was pitched to 10 publishers, with Devolver Digital eventually being the final home of Fall Guys. We're betting the other nine are kicking themselves now. The rest - as they say - is history.
Images via Mediatonic
