What is happening these days with Fall Guys is not really something new. However, and unlike other “balls” that might seem similar, there are some differences that must be taken into account when making an assessment of what is happening. And in case you wonder what is happening, the answer is that this title created by Mediatonic and distributed by Devolver Digital, has already been in the top positions for several days (since its release on August 4). the most viewed games on platforms as Twitch.
To quantify it, last Saturday night, over a quarter of a million people were watching streams dedicated to Fall Guys, managing to position itself as the third most viewed category at that time. Ahead only Just Chatting (talk) in second position and League of Legends in first. And if we refer to this Sunday morning, although the numbers have decreased (not only in this one, but in all categories), it maintains the third position, while the first and second have been exchanged.
If you still don’t know Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout (because this is his full name), the truth is that you are missing a very original proposal, which comes to turn around the concept that, until now, we all had of battle royale. And is that, instead of having to equip yourself with the best weapons and be the fastest when pulling the trigger, in Fall Guys what you will have to do is be the most skillful when passing multiple skill tests, while you compete with 59 other players (in the first round) who will not hesitate to grab you, push you, go over you if you fall to the ground …
To make it more interesting, the characters in Fall Guys are not anthropomorphic, or at least not too much. As you can see in the video below, they are creatures inspired by the classic dragees (jellybeans), and with legs so small that, since it is deductible, Trips, falls and so on are inevitable. Even more so if there are cannons that shoot pieces of giant fruit, rotating hammers, extremely sensitive rockers … I’m sure you are getting an idea, right?
As to his approach is, at the same time, very simple and tremendously frantic: you will have to overcome several rounds in which the number of participants decreases. Some of them are free-for-all, while in others the game will randomly create multiple teams. The mechanics of the tests are quite simple, in many cases you will only have to run avoiding obstacles of all kinds, in others you will have to steal objects from other players, coordinate with your team to score goals, memorize fruits and tiles … And avoid falling. That is always key, avoid falling.
Fall Guys: Flower of a day?
Since its launch, I have already spoken with several people about Fall Guys, and one of the questions we ask ourselves the most is whether will be able to consolidate the audience you have or, on the contrary, in a few weeks the bubble will have punctured and, consequently, it will have abandoned (perhaps forever) the top positions in the most viewed ranking. There are reasons to think that it will hold, and others to think that it will not …
In his favor he plays, without a doubt, the great success of its launch, well above expectations even by its own creators and distributors. And is that unlike other great successes in recent releases, as happened a few months ago with Valorant, there has not been a great campaign prior to launch, it has not been generated hype launching the game in beta phase and with drops on the channels that broadcast it… it has been successful because the Fall Guys approach works and is liked. And it may seem silly, but it is actually a key point.
Also unlike some of its main competitors, such as LOL, Fornite, CS: GO, etc., is that Fall Guys is not free. And that, as a general rule, complicates the entry of new users, but according to the distributor over a million and a half players in the first 24 hours. It is not a particularly expensive game, 19.99 euros on SteamBut the fact that people have shown themselves willing to pay that money for a game, in theory so simple, shows us that the idea has been very popular, and that it may have a long way to go.
Two aspects are conspicuous against him. The first is that the massive reception that Fall Guys has had has caused the saturation of its servers, which makes it sometimes impossible to start a game. This is the message that they have published on their page in the Steam store.
Only a fairly quick response to this problem can prevent players from getting frustrated by technical problems. Also, the one at the beginning was not the only technical problem: the first days each player’s name was displayed, but for a few days, instead, a generic “Fall Guy” and a four-digit number have been displayed, something that detracts a bit from the experience if you are playing with friends , which you identify in the game by name.
On the other hand, and this is more concerning, the existing evidence at this time is fine … for a little while. Much of the future of Fall Guys will depend on the ability of your developers to create new tests, add other mechanics to the existing ones to give them more route, delve into the possibilities of multiplayer with friends … It is not easy, but either it remains in constant evolution, or most likely, in a few weeks, at most a couple of months, Fall Guys is already just a nice memory of this atypical summer of 2020.
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