Fall Guys’ pitch doc reveals alternate takes on the iconic beans

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout is a smash hit, with the chubby jelly bean battle royale game taking over social media and streaming platforms. On Aug. 20, Mediatonic creative director Jeff Tanton posted an extended Twitter thread showing off the pitch doc and development process for Fall Guys. It’s worth looking through the entire thread for a look at early level designs like Fall Mountain, but there are a few fun facts about the titular Guys that stood out.

The original pitch was for a 100-player game called Fools’ Gauntlet. This obviously changed before launch. When the games were at 100 players, it quickly became unclear and difficult to read what was happening. Another change was the name, which went through a few more iterations, including Stumble Chums.

The pitch art and prototypes also made it clear that the beans would be the hero of the story. They are tenacious little warriors, each scrabbling for a chance at that golden crown, no matter how often they fall, or are nailed in the face by a giant banana, or find themselves thrown from a platform, or are haplessly shoved into slime.

Over time and iteration, the playable beans were honed into their current state. Two big choices that proved to be pivotal were adding faces to bulky mass, and giving them butts. Tanton briefly discusses the challenges in making the falling and stumbling animations as lovable as possible in the thread.

The design clearly worked. Right now, brands are battling it out via charity auction to put their own costume into the game, with the bids entering the hundreds of thousands. It’s clear that these little beans hit the mark.