The fall doc’s pitch doc shows that alternatives are taking over the iconic bones

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout is a smash hit, featuring the chubby jelly bean Battle Royale game take over social media and streaming platforms. On August 20, Mediatonic creative director Jeff Tanton posted an extensive Twitter thread allowing him to see the scene doc and development process Fall Guys. It’s worth checking out the whole thread for a look at early level designs like Fall Mountain, but there are some nice facts about the titular Guys that stood out.

The original pitch was for a 100-player game called Fools’ Gauntlet. This of course changed before launch. When the games were at 100 players, it quickly became unclear and difficult to read what was happening. Another change was the name, which went through a few more iterations, including Stumble Chums.

The pitch and prototypes also made it clear that the beans would be the hero of the story. They are persistent little warriors, shaking each other for a chance at that golden crown, no matter how often they fall, or are spit in the face of a giant banana, or find themselves thrown from a platform, or are accidentally dragged into mud .

Over time and iteration, the playable beans were slapped into their present state. Two large choices that were apparently pivotal added faces to voluminous mass, and gave them butts. Tanton briefly discusses the challenges in making the falling and stumbling animations as sweet as possible in the thread.

The design worked clearly. Currently, brands are fighting it through charity auction to put their own costume into play, with the bids entering the hundreds of thousands. It is clear that these small beans hit the mark.