How'Fall Guys' became the summer's surprise hit

As expected, ‘Fall Guys’ is the summer multiplayer hit.

After Playstation 4’s two thoughtful, serious, visually stunning games, ‘The Last of Us Part 2’ and ‘Ghost of Tsushima’, players are focussing on a simple, accessible, proudly silly battle-royale.

Devolver Digital reported that Mediatonic’s title has sold two million copies on Steam, had sixty million players pass through its servers (or “fall” off its infinite cliffs) (one and a half million in its first 24 hours), and was broadcast on Twitch for twenty-three million hours in less than a week. The game will be simple like few recent hits, but there is a reason for its success.

The game is on an unstoppable rise, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to slow down: on TwitchTracker’s statistics website, ‘Fall Guys’ is in second place, barely ten thousand viewers behind ‘League of Legends‘. It outperforms Fortnite, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and GTA V in viewership.

Mediatonic had to remove the game on August 7 to make adjustments due to its overwhelming success. ‘Fall Guys’ was unprepared for the avalanche of players the servers were receiving in such a short time, and while they increased the capacity, they warned that matchmaking could be problematic.

Devolver saw the potential of the game and allowed Playstation Plus to give it away to its subscribers in August and to the general public on the same day it went on sale. Before going free-to-play, ‘Rocket League’ used this strategy successfully. That guaranteed an avalanche of users that boosted its first numbers significantly. Steam costs € 19.99, but concurrent users are comparable to PS4.

Why does everyone love ‘Fall Guys’?
Fall Guys’ simplicity and accessibility made it popular, but that may be underestimating its sophistication. A sophistication that betrays the studio’s internal standards when designing levels, which led them to insist that each level’s rules be three words. As fans of retro classics know, high-impact technological displays and cutting-edge graphics often ignore this sophistication.

The most obvious details may be the “something more” that goes beyond extreme simplicity. The game is clearly inspired by fixed contests like ‘Takeshi’s Castle’ (known in Spain as ‘Yellow Humour’), ‘Wipeout’, and extreme fitness demonstrations like ‘Ultimate Beastmaster’ and others. This includes the garish colours of the former, the aesthetics of a bouncy castle and oversized toys, the hurtful but not too painful blows, and the simple mechanics of a schoolyard race and every man for himself.

Game’Fall Guys’ is self-aware. Its costumes, which are cosmetic, reference other video games like ‘Half-Life’, and Mediatonic knows that crowd brawls are one of the keys to the success of games with more refined mechanics like ‘Fortnite’ and traditional party games. This game follows the philosophy of gathering friends to play with the controller, but with 60 friends and remote foolishness.

Because underneath that superficial shine are some well-thought-out decisions. For instance, 60 players are active instead of 100. The game’s creators told Forbes that 100 was too many and chaotic, but the noise is so loud that a race between 60 gives the player the impression of too many people competing. This decrease in runners did not affect the game’s feverish appearance, but it sharpened the technical section.

Immediacy makes games last about ten minutes, making them less immersive than ‘Fortnite’ maps, but the game needs more levels. Another key to the game’s success is its variety: races where speed is key, skill is key, and luck is key. Team obstacle courses or ‘You take it’ games. Winning one ‘Fall Guys’ level does not guarantee success in others, even if it is repeated. This unpredictability extends the game’s life, despite its simple mechanics, and gives newbies confidence: everyone has the same chances.

How’Fall Guys’ became the summer’s surprise hit

As expected, ‘Fall Guys’ is the summer multiplayer hit.

By knl9j

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