Fall Guys
Fall Guys (formerly known as Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout is a free-to-play platform battle royale game developed by Mediatonic and originally published by Devolver Digital for the PlayStation 4 and Windows. It was acquired by Epic Games and subsequently made free-to-play on 21 June 2022 and released on additional platforms including Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S, with full cross-platform play support among all platforms. As part of the transition, the game adopted a paid battle pass system for its monetisation. On 16 August 2024, the game was released on mobile via the Epic Games Store, worldwide on Android and only in the European Union on iOS.
The main game involves up to 32 players who control bean-shaped characters and compete against each other in a series of randomly selected mini-games, such as obstacle courses and survival challenges. Players are eliminated as the rounds progress until, eventually, the last remaining player or team is crowned the winner. There are also many other modes, such as Explore, with different game rules and player counts. The game draws inspiration from game shows like Takeshi's Castle, It's a Knockout, Total Wipeout, and playground games like tag and British Bulldog.
Fall Guys received generally positive reviews from critics for its chaotic gameplay and visual appearance. The game was a commercial success, selling more than 10 million copies and attracting more than 50 million players after the game went free-to-play.
Gameplay
In the standard "Classic" and "Knockout" modes, up to 32 players compete in matches with battle royale style gameplay. Players, represented as jellybean-like figures, move around in a three-dimensional playing field, with abilities such as jumping, diving, dive sliding, piggybacking, and grabbing. Players can also use power-ups in select levels, which grant players unique abilities for either a limited amount of time or until the round ends. The aim is to qualify for subsequent rounds by successfully completing each of the randomly selected mini-games, many of which have randomly selected variations. There are currently seven different types of levels in Fall Guys; Course, Survival, Points, Team, Logic, Invisibeans, and Final.The winner of the Final level is usually the winner of the match, except in Squads based modes where the winning player scores the victory for their whole team.
In the "Explore" and "Creator Spotlight" modes, up to 20 players can play continuous creative levels until they choose to finish. Players are able to skip levels and load into the next once qualified, earning 5 crown shards per completed level.
Currency
Using an in-game currency, "Kudos", players can purchase single cosmetics, nameplates, nicknames, patterns, faceplates, and colours, for their character to show off in-game. Players obtain Kudos by playing the game or progressing in the Fame Pass. Players receive crowns by winning a match. Crowns were a premium currency until 21 June 2022, whereas they now count towards Crown Rank.Season 1: Free for All added a premium in-game currency called "Show-Bucks", which can be used to purchase full costumes, premium colours, patterns, faceplates, emotes, celebrations and unlock a "supercharged" version of the Fame Pass. Players are only able to obtain Show-Bucks through the Fame Pass or by purchasing them via microtransactions.
New costumes are regularly added to be bought in the store. Some are characters from different video games and media franchises, such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Doom, Ratchet & Clank, Among Us, ''Astro's Playroom, Hatsune Miku, SpongeBob SquarePants, Hello Kitty, Tomb Raider, Pixar, Marvel, Disney, Final Fantasy'', and others.
Fall Guys Creative
Season 4: Creative Construction added a level editor titled Fall Guys Creative. It allows users to create rounds with various obstacles and objects. Players can choose between making Course, Survival, or Points based rounds. There is a budget of 2500 points, which limits how many objects a round can contain. Players can submit their rounds and can share their rounds to others via share codes. Creative-made rounds can appear in the Discovery tab or the Explore mode.Game updates
New content is added to the game through updates. These can bring new tools, modes, bug fixes and Fame Passes. This has been present since 16 August 2023, when Mediatonic announced that they were moving away from Seasons to instead deliver more frequent updates.Season Updates
Season 2 added banners, nicknames, and the ability to choose different shows with a different selection with the Game Selector.Season 3 added the Crown Rank system. The same season added Prime Gaming exclusive rewards which only accessible if the user had an Amazon Prime subscription.
Season 4 added a basic daily challenge system. It also added the "Crown Shards" currency. In a mid-season update, they added to ability to host custom shows.
Season 5 added limited time events, and Duos/Trios shows. Later in the season, the main lobby was redesigned.
Season 6 added cross-progression, cross-play, and a game mode called Sweet Thieves, where one team is invisible while the other team is not. The invisible team needs to bring sweets to the goals while the other team tries to prevent them by using the grabbing mechanic to capture the Thieves and put them in a jail. A button can be pressed every 30 seconds to remove the jail barrier.
Season 1: Free for All introduced Show-Bucks and added Bean Hill Zone, the first collaboration level, with Sonic the Hedgehog. On 5 March 2024 the level was removed from the game, including 'The Vault' show, for unknown reasons.
Season 2: Satellite Scramble added a Halloween-exclusive game mode called Treat Thieves, a Halloween themed version of Sweet Thieves, containing unique different gimmicks such as wormholes.
Season 3: Sunken Secrets added dive sliding and a Time Attack show. The maximum lobby size was decreased from 60 to 40 players for faster queue time. The same season also added 'The Vault', which features all levels regardless of vaulted status in one show, only available in Custom Games.
Season 4: Creative Construction added Fall Guys Creative, alongside a revamped Fame Pass system to replace the previous Season Pass.
Post Season Updates
The Power Party Update introduced power-ups. The same update also added the Discovery tab, a new tab in the Show Selector that shows Creative levels. Every few hours it refreshes with new levels.The Survival Update added the ability to create Survival-type levels in Creative.
The Fall Forever Update added the 'Piggyback' mechanic. The same update also added the Explore and Knockout modes.
The Scrapyard Stumble Update added the ability to create Points-type levels in Creative, along with many items to score points. This includes the Rubber Chicken power-up, which can be used to break or move destructible and physics objects.
The November Update added the Creator Spotlight mode, which refreshes on a consistent two-week basis and features specific creator-made levels approved by Mediatonic.
The Ranked Knockout Update introduced the eponymous Ranked Knockout mode. Players must place well in Knockout games, in order to achieve the Superstar rank and earn the highest rewards in each eight-week cycle.
The Yeetropolis Update brought back the ability to earn Kudos at the end of games, a feature absent since Season 1: Free for All.
As of November 2025 all Classic levels have been unvaulted and are available to play in the core shows.
Fame Pass
The Fame Pass is an optional purchase that gives players extra cosmetics and in-game currencies. Before Season 1: Free for All, the Fame Pass only had 40 tiers and was completely free. Season 4 increased the path to 50.Starting in Season 1: Free for All, the renamed 'Season Pass' was extended to 100 tiers with only half of the rewards being free. Season 2: Satellite Scramble added 100 extra tiers to the Season Pass, offering mostly crown shards and 3 bonus costumes.
Season 4: Creative Construction changed the game's live service model, offering multiple 'Fame Passes' over the course of the season. These passes would have 40 main tiers, with the rest of the 100 tier pass consisting of bonus costumes and crown shards. The same season also introduced the first collaboration Fame Pass with the game Final Fantasy XIV, featuring rewards themed around the Warriors of Light.
After the discontinuation of seasons, Fame Passes would remain constant, but were extended from 100 to 160 tiers. The March '24 Fame Pass was then extended to 300 tiers, but only 70 consisted of proper rewards. The May '24 Fame Pass and subsequent Fame Passes were decreased to just 70 tiers.
Seasons
Up until 16 August 2023 Fall Guys operated under a seasonal content cycle, which were major updates to the game that each had a unique theme and added new content. Seasons lasted for several months, and introduced a new Season Pass each time. They could be levelled up by playing shows and completing challenges to obtain a variety of customisation options and currencies such as Kudos and Crowns. On 21 June 2022, the seasons reset for the free-for-all release of the game. Since 16 August 2023 the game shifted away from seasonal content in favour of more consistent smaller updates.Updates
Development
The conception of what became Fall Guys began when Mediatonic was discussing another project in January 2018. Lead designer Joe Walsh said that it reminded him of game shows such as Takeshi's Castle and Total Wipeout. He drew from that inspiration to create a pitch document for what would become Fall Guys. Originally titled Fools' Gauntlet,, Walsh's pitch featured 100 players competing in a battle royale composed of physical challenges. Creative director Jeff Tanton, while initially sceptical 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.Tanton and Walsh worked on a pitch deck, and principal concept artist Dan Hoang created images featuring colourful, 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. With the pitch deck completed, Tanton pitched the game to 10 different publishers at the 2018 Game Developers Conference. Six months after Devolver Digital agreed to publish the game, development began.
Fall Guys began its initial prototyping process with a small team, growing to 30 people during development. Initial progress on individual minigames was slow which caused the team to worry that there would not be enough content for launch. A turning point came when the team made a group of pillars that "took the opinions of people out of the occasion" and allowed the developers to "kill ideas faster". Such pillars include ensuring a minigame was "50-50 chaos and skill" and that a level had to be "different every time". Inspired by game shows, and differentiating from first-person shooter battle royale games, Mediatonic focused on gameplay variety. By presenting the player with several, randomised rounds of game modes, Mediatonic hoped to recreate the experience of being on a game show. 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. Over time, the game underwent numerous other changes. The player count was decreased from 100 to 60, as overpopulated games "stopped being readable or fun". In testing, Mediatonic noted that players overestimated the number of players, stating "we didn't need as many players as we thought to create the crowds we wanted the gameplay to include."
It's a Knockout, a game show forcing 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". The ragdoll physics is deliberate, to avoid "hyper athletic Ninja Warrior characters" and because "falling over is funny". 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". The character designs were inspired by the look of vinyl toys.
Mediatonic began working on Season 2 before the game's release with level designer Joseph Juson, noting that it was more of an "expansion" compared to Season 3 where the team tried to bring new ideas.