Fall Guys

What’s the secret behind the success of Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout?

Just three weeks after launch, Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout became the most downloaded Playstation Plus game in history. But these crazy characters stumbling towards victory required a lot more craftsmanship than you might think…

client

platforms

service

Co-development
Full-development

discipline

Engineering
Art
Design

intro

We jumped at the chance to work side by side with the Mediatonic dev team to create the original prototype for Fall Guys. This was a rare opportunity to kick off a multiplayer project with zero code already written.

Mediatonic’s vision was highly ambitious: to use Unity to create a session-based, surprisingly wholesome battle royale with comical physics for up to 60 concurrent players. The studio had plenty of experience with Unity, but their focus until that point had been on mobile games that didn’t rely on real-time, high-performance networking.

Could we, as the experts in multiplayer, help them work out whether such a game was even possible? And could we help them make it?

“MPG really knows multiplayer. They quickly understood the technical challenges we’d face and provided the best co-dev team possible to help us tackle those challenges and deliver our vision.”

Salvatore Fileccia,

VP Studios at Mediatonic Games

fully integrated multiplayer development

Our role was to design and engineer the core multiplayer gameplay, dealing with the client/ server model, physics, animation and player character control.

After some early prototyping, we were confident that with the capabilities of Unity and expertise of MPG, we would be able to deliver on the vision for the game.

Over the next 18 months, Mediatonic focused on all the creative elements that go into making a great game, sharing their ideas for level design, features and mechanics. Our team of engineers and technical artists worked alongside them to overcome the technical challenges and minimise risks.

falling over isn't as easy as it looks

A big part of what makes Fall Guys so successful is how Mediatonic’s artists have made the Fall Guys themselves look, behave and tumble with such characteristic cuteness. This seemingly simple art style has been fine tuned to perfectly illustrate the gameplay and maximise appeal. Making this work in Unity and synchronising all the animation for 60 concurrent players was no small feat.

our approach was to keep things simple and our eyes on the prize

It’s very easy to get swept up in trying to implement features using complex initiatives or high level abstractions that prove to be a hindrance down the line. By keeping things clean, simple and optimal, we made it much easier to get the game into a shippable state.

One of the most satisfying things about working on Fall Guys was showing the world that Unity is capable of delivering such a game – even when you’re using a hand-modified version of the UNet networking library.

"We had a fantastic experience with MPG. Lovely people who know their stuff and will always deliver for you.”

Dave Bailey

Co-Founder at Tonic Games Group

over 11 million purchases on pc, and the most downloaded title of all time on playstation plus.

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