Falling for Fall Guys: The next big party game for streamers?
Though it’s cooking up a storm with a winning recipe, Fall Guys could always do with a few extra cherries on top, especially in the streaming space.
This past weekend’s closed beta for Mediatonic’s new pseudo-battle royale (BR) title, Fall Guys, was an overwhelming success, with the visually-vibrant Takeshi’s-Castle-meets-Total Wipeout game show jamboree jumping, grabbing, and diving its way to the top of the Twitch directory. Boasting a fresh take on mainstay genres, bonkers gameplay, and potential for truly KEKW moments, Fall Guys could easily become the new de facto party game for streamers. However, in its current iteration, there may be a few limiting factors which mar its longevity.
Schadenfreude (n.) — “The experience of pleasure, joy, or self-satisfaction that comes from learning of or witnessing the troubles, failures, or humiliation of another.”
The classic game show formula has always been simple, but effective: you get a bunch of people, throw them through a gauntlet of tricky trials and tribulations, and laugh hysterically as most of them inevitably falter. A cursory glance at Reddit’s infamous ‘LiveStreamFail’ sub is enough to tell you that, at least within a discernible area of the streaming community’s viewership, that appetite for misfortune is very much there. And it is insatiable.
In this context, it’s pretty clear why the reception to Fall Guys has been so positive. Mediatonic has taken that traditional media formula, moulded a battle royale around it, and fired up the kiln. This marks an important shift away from the now-omnipresent BR format being synonymous with shooters, and I for one am revelling in it. As such, Fall Guys isn’t just bringing something new to the plate. As an evolutionary offshoot, it is the plate.
But how does this translate into the streamer-sphere? Though, admittedly, it may be a bit early to discuss Fall Guys’s potential life-cycle in this space, there are positive signs from the devs. Mediatonic have already stated that they’re working on post-launch content, which is great news, especially in an environment where everyone is looking for the next best thing. However, from engaging with the game and keeping an eye on the community over the weekend, there may be a few grumbles which could make Fall Guys eventually fall out of favour with streamers…
Viewer accessibility
When measured up against community night mainstays like Marbles on Stream and the Jackbox series, there are some clear disparities. With both Marbles and Jackbox titles, viewers don’t actually need to own the game to be able to participate in it. As such, there needs to be a way for everyone to get involved, even from the sidelines.
Variation
A Jackbox party pack contains a plethora of individual games, with a plethora of individual prompts. Marbles meanwhile is kept fresh by community courses. Although Mediatonic have stated that there will be twenty-five levels on launch, with new levels and seasonal events planned for the future, will they remain fresh enough between content drops?
Matchmaking lobby sizes
In isolation, Fall Guys may also suffer from its limited matchmaking lobby size, which is capped at four players (at least for now). For streamers looking to host their own games, or trying to bring as many community members in as possible, this may be a deal-breaker.
Having listed these potential obstacles to a long and illustrious life-cycle, here are a handful of things that could be done to remedy them:
Chat integration
Although traditional obstacle-course-based game shows don’t usually have crowds, there may be ways to integrate messages from viewers in chat for on-screen reactions. This is something which Finji’s Overland achieves very well, albeit in a more limited capacity. This way chat can still be involved, even if they don’t own the game.
As an extension of that, with Ubisoft’s Hyper Scape giving us glimmers of the power of chat-chosen timed events, more chaos can be pumped into the show at certain intervals. Eg. ‘Diving only’, ‘invisible obstacles’, or ‘falling objects’. We do know seasonal level variations are on the way, so it’s plausible that level of integration has already been discussed internally in some capacity.
Private game lobbies/Expanded matchmaking lobby size
Custom/expanded lobbies could be gated through codes in the same way Jackbox titles are, rather than via Steam/PS friend lists. Again, I am pretty sure this is something that is on the devs’ roadmap, so we shall see.
Community-created levels (be they through the Steam Workshop or otherwise).
Logistically this might not be possible, and it would depend on the community being up for it as well. But the game has plenty of assets to make some pretty crazy stuff with already, so who knows? These levels would most likely be reserved for private lobbies, as not to mess with the core game, especially when it comes to cross-platform play. The aforementioned Marbles, No Brakes Games’s Human: Fall Flat, or even the classic Fancy Force browser game Happy Wheels may be good reference points of efficacy here.
I’ll admit it, some of the suggestions made in this article may simply add fluff to what is currently pure chaos, but paradoxically under complete control. Fall Guys in its current state ensures that the player knows exactly what they’re in for, whilst simultaneously having no idea what the actual *redacted* is going on.
Fall Guys really has an incredible amount of potential, and has showcased much of it over the weekend. We have here a sparkly new approach to the battle royale genre that is oozing with chaotic gameplay, sprinkled with delicious audiovisuals, and delivered to your doorstep by a dev team with a clear, community-influenced roadmap and a whole tank of fuel to get there. I am confident, then, that with each new addition Fall Guys will itself become a mainstay in the streamer-sphere. Give it time though, as we’ve not even left the bakery yet.
Will I ever actually win a round? How much chaos is too much chaos? Are the devs actually a group of shoe-wearing hedgehogs manipulating magical emeralds? I don’t know the answers. But what I do know is that Fall Guys is dropping on August 4th, and is available on Steam (£15.99) or Playstation 4 (free for PS Plus subscribers throughout August, then £TBC).
