11 minute read
The Final Boss
Above: Getting the game to work for 60 players all at once proved challenging
“And that was another thing when it comes to the physics. They were making these levels before we’d really understood how the character moves. And then sometimes the way the character moves would have to be changed, because of the problems that were being solved with the 60 player network. It’s like, look, you can’t have the character bend in all these different ways, we’re sending too many messages. You know, when you times that by 60, and then you times that by all of the things moving and suddenly the internet’s falling over, we can’t do this.
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“So it wasn’t until midway through development, that we were even starting to understand how the game played, and how these things intersected and how these problems will be solved.
“So the team did a really great job, on all counts. There were a lot of problems and none of them were separate, they were all interconnected. And the biggest thing for design was they didn’t get a chance to really play the game and understand what the game was until far later in development than I think you’d have with a lot of titles.”
DESIGNING THE BEAN
Despite the challenges (and some initial server troubles immediately following the game’s launch), Fall Guys has gone on to spectacular success. There’s any number of reasons for this, but one thing that definitely helped Mediatonic’s title stand out from the crowd was its art style, and the design of the eponymous Fall Guys in particular.
“We knew intrinsically, having watched things like Takeshi’s Castle and Total Wipeout, that we wanted these things to fall over, and we wanted them to fall over good. This all goes back to It’s a Knockout, which was this very British show from the 70s.
“They just delighted in dressing people up in things that were completely antithetical to climbing over obstacles and anything that requires some kind of skill. We knew very, very early on that we didn’t want them to be good at what they were doing, when you watch these shows, you’re waiting for moments where they fall, because the falling is the joy.
“So we knew we wanted them to be tall and top heavy, and we knew we wanted them to have some restriction around the legs, so we didn’t give them knees – you know, knees are far too useful.
“[The final design] was a combined effort between Dan Hoang [principal concept artist] and Amy Pearson [artist]. They kind of came together when we began and were like, ‘we can do better with these characters. They’re doing the right thing physically, but we don’t love them.’
“Basically, Amy’s proud about giving them butts, and Dan then pulled that whole thing together. And he did a really incredible job working in the needs of design as well, like we knew customisation was important – and I’ll be honest, I thought the beans
were good when we were making them, but seeing them in the game, seeing all the costumes and seeing how easily they mod to pretty much anything you want to put them in... It’s just an incredible piece of work from Dan and Amy, and the whole art team that joined afterwards, they really knocked it out the park.”
The ability of the Fall Guys to be placed in any variety of wacky costume, while still being recognisable as a Fall Guy at their core, is testament to the genius of their design – and one that encouraged companies to launch a bidding war for charity to get their branding into the game. While Mediatonic certainly couldn’t have predicted that, they knew the costumes would be important from the start.
“We knew we wanted a base that was iconic, but never at the expense of being able to dress them in things. So in all of the early pitch stuff, you’d have your Fall Guy and then Dan would draw a whole bunch of ridiculous things like sharks and whales over them. We were never looking at just the Fall Guy, it was always the Fall Guy in costume.
“So I think going through that process, and always understanding that the costume is going to be a huge part of it really helped us. It’s weird, I think the Fall Guys are iconic, but at the same time entirely neutral. You can add anything to them, and it doesn’t take away from the core.”
The design isn’t the only genius move, mind you. From the day of launch, Fall Guys was available as one of that month’s free games for PS Plus subscribers. Given the game’s success, enjoying the highestearning PC launch since Overwatch, it’s hard to tell if the game owes a lot of its success to PS Plus, or if Mediatonic potentially missed out on a lot of sales.
“I think it’s one of the best decisions we could have made,” says Tanton. We looked at what happened in Rocket League, and we dreamed of emulating something close to that. Even with half of what they have, we would have been super, super happy.
“And, well. Fall Guys has done very, very well. We’ve had a lot of downloads on PS Plus. I know some people have said, ‘are you not frustrated? Those could have been sales!’ And... no. There’s literally no way we could have made the impact that we did without PS Plus. The support from Sony has been incredible.
“And we’ve not done badly out of this situation. To be in this situation and then say, ‘oh, but look at what we could have had,’ that’s looking at it the wrong way.
“Our fear was ‘are there going to be enough people playing, that 60 people can get into a game?’ And if all the PS Plus did – and there’s obviously a lot more – but if all it ever did was take away that fear at launch that there wouldn’t be anyone buying the game, and therefore even the people who bought the game can’t play the game properly... If all it did was that, I’d still say it was worth it. But obviously it’s done a hell of a lot more than that.”
BIGGER THAN YEETUS
It seems reasonable to assume that Fall Guys has surpassed all expectations. Mediatonic were confident they had something special, but it takes a special kind of confidence to know you’re going to become the biggest game in the world.
“So with expectations, the way I feel safest talking about it is not the money made, but the plans made. We had three plans worked out with Devolver. It’s something we do with any other project, you have to be like okay, we can’t afford this 40-50 person team anymore, the game isn’t making enough money to make this worthwhile.
“As a studio, Mediatonic really doesn’t hire and fire, so you start thinking ‘where do I put people? What projects can they move onto?’
“So I’m making these three plans. One of them was – this has fallen off a cliff. Therefore we need to move quite quickly. The second was – this is kind of where we expect to land. This is a good success, and let’s look no further than then six months into the future and we’ll work out what’s happening there. And then there was this moonshot, ridiculous plan. Like, this is where we start ramping up, this has been something of a success. And that was our moon shot.
“We blew past the moonshot plan within a few hours of the game being launched. So we need to make some new plans.”
It’s an almost unbelievable level of success – Mediatonic’s biggest title by a quite considerable margin. Still, in my last conversation with Mediatonic, the team was passionate about maintaining a diverse portfolio of titles. How do you maintain that philosophy when you suddenly have the hottest game of the year? How do you avoid being absorbed into the Fall Guy’s clumsy embrace?
“I think there’s a lot of ways around that,” notes Tanton. “The studio has always survived due to its diversity, being able to pivot and work on different things. So yes, Fall Guys is dominating the studio right now – as it should. But I don’t think there’s any doubt in our mind that we still want to move on to and create things that surprise us in the studio. I think if we weren’t doing that, we wouldn’t be Mediatonic.
“If we hadn’t done that two years ago, we wouldn’t have Fall Guys. So we want to build out the studio and build on the technology and all the lessons we’ve learned from Fall Guys. There’s absolutely no way we’re just gonna throw everything out that got us to where we are today.”
Every month an industry leader wraps up MCV/DEVELOP with their unique insight
Stefano Petrullo Founder & CEO Renaissance PR
You started your career as a games journalist in the nineties. What’s your best story from the ‘golden years’?
I’ve got plenty from when I was at The Games Machine and Zzap64. When we reviewed Ultima 7, five of us had to play it constantly over the course of 24 hours, writing the review, grabbing screenshots and so on. Similarly, another time we had to transfer review code for a Team17 game to an Amiga through a modem at 2400 BPS. I mean, it took more time to download the game than it did to play it!
We’re on the eve of a console launch. How does this one differ from those you’ve seen before?
I’ve got to be honest and say I find the console wars that typically flare up rather boring, and I hope this is the last time we see them. That said, it’s interesting to see how the two platform holders are definitely heading in different directions this time – something I think can only benefit the consumer – and the timing of Amazon’s Luna announcement also seems significant.
Do you feel the games industry is headed in the right direction? We are continuing to evolve as an industry, but it seems we’re still not able to learn from our past mistakes (games delays, budgeting errors). And there’s a large amount of toxicity floating around at the moment, with disagreements being amplified and politicised on Twitter. On the positive front, however, the industry is definitely getting more diverse compared to other, older sectors, and that can only be a good thing.
You spent almost seven years at Ubisoft. What did you learn?
Lateral thinking, ethical practices in PR, and the fact that huge, multinational publishers can and indeed do listen to their employees. I have incredible memories of working with both the central corporate and product PR team in both France and Montreal, as well as the old guard in the UK office – which now boasts the incredible Stefan McGarry, who I am lucky enough to be able to call a friend.
With respect to your current role, what was your dream job?
I’d say I’ve ended up doing what I like doing the most – talking about video games. That said, I grew up clubbing back in Italy and, whilst I was editor at PC Zone, I was a resident MC every Friday and Saturday night at a local nightclub. I would have loved to have become rich and famous doing that if I’m honest.
What are the biggest PR challenges today?
I always say discoverability is key, as well as adapting to the continuous shifts within the industry. More broadly, however, since Renaissance’s inception in 2015, we have invested in two things; tools and people. Tools that help to gather and analyse data – media coverage, content creator output, etc – and people that have the talent to make connections with journalists and content creators at both local and global levels.
What was the funniest single moment of your career to date?
Back in the 90s, I almost got arrested coming back from ECTS because I’d bought a Star Trek Next Generation Phaser type II replica that, on the X-Ray machine at Heathrow, looked like a gun. The funniest part is, when I was asked to explain what was in the box, I simply said it was “just a toy”, which they seemingly misinterpreted as a sex toy. I’ll let you imagine the faces of the armed police at the airport as they opened the posh red velvet box with the United Federation of Planets gold insignia embossed on the top.
