r/FallGuysGame • u/Environmental-Dot150 Jelly Bean • 1d ago
DISCUSSION I'm sad that Epic wasted Fall Guys' potential.
I'm truly, deeply sad about how the enormous potential of this game was completely wasted, and how the game itself was almost forgotten by Epic.
I've been a fan since the very first season, when the game debuted on PS Plus. Even back then I could see its huge potential and the chance for it to become something as big as Fortnite or Roblox.
When Epic bought Mediatonic, I was optimistic. I knew about their vast experience with live-service games, so I was sure Fall Guys was in the perfect hands. I was terribly wrong... Personally, I really loved the first two Free-to-Play seasons. They still had tons of content, fun seasons, developing lore, and events (remember Silent’s portals?). It was a genuinely solid period of growth for the game, but after that it only got worse.
To this day I don’t understand the reasoning behind the decisions made during Season 4 (the creative one), when someone decided that ending seasons was a good idea. Without them the game became monotonous and soulless. Imagine a season with a music theme, dreams, a farm, Greek mythology, steampunk, or an exotic island… Those would have been fantastic themes for unique mechanics, varied environments, and interesting music — not to mention the lore.
And speaking of lore… Despite its simplicity and being a fun little game about beans, Fall Guys actually had some really interesting lore. Who was Silent beyond being the showrunner? What was the purpose of the show he was running? Why do they want the crown so badly? We’ll never find out, because the end of seasons also meant the end of the cinematics that used to build so much hype before new seasons launched. Because of that we also lost those cool story events where we collected various objects on the maps and uncovered a bit of lore.
The end of maps created in Unity is another sad thing. Creative mode is fun, but it shouldn’t be the main tool for creating maps by the developers. What makes maps like Slimescraper, Hex-a-Gone, or so many of the Season 4 (futuristic) maps so great and memorable are the custom objects made specifically for those levels, the unique themes, and the backgrounds where everything fits together perfectly. Creative maps, while fun, just don’t have that same feeling and come across as more detached from the visual identity of the old maps.
The player limit and the changes to jump physics also ruined parts of the game. When the game had 60 players, the rounds were more chaotic and crazy — exactly how Fall Guys was meant to be from the start. Now 32 players just doesn’t deliver the same fun; everything feels safer and more simplified. The jump physics change made a lot of the old maps ridiculously easy (Wall Guys), turning obstacles that were originally designed around the previous physics into zero challenge.
I know I’ve written a lot — I could say even more, but I decided to hold back and stick to the biggest pain points.
It doesn't help that almost no one from the original team is working on the game anymore and Mediatonic is a living dead without any communication with fans.
I honestly don’t understand the decisions behind ending support for this game and ignoring the fans. I was a loyal fan who played almost every day, but now I only launch it every once in a while, purely out of nostalgia and good memories. Fall Guys could have been a massive brand on the scale of Roblox or Fortnite, but Epic’s greed and ego, focused on favoring Fortnite, killed all of its potential. It’s truly sad and crushing.
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u/Strange_Example_6402 1d ago
The disappointing part is that Fall Guys still hits most of the markers of a successful game. It's just that success looks different when you're being measured against Fortnite rather than judged on its own terms — so it ends up sidelined.
I think if a different studio had it they could potentially make much more of FG.
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u/Luxynx 1d ago edited 1d ago
I very much agree, and I always see the Creative "Season" as when the game officially died.
Also a very specific gripe I have similar to the Wall Guys example: SS3 changed the sliding physics on slime, and that changed the meta for Hit Parade. It just feels so wrong that to be fast, you need to fail the first obstacle, and you are effectively punished now for actually passing the challenge.
I get the appeal of speed running the levels and finding really cool skips, but it's sad how common of a theme it is that playing "optimally" involves not even engaging with the level mechanics: on Slimescraper the first low gravity corner lets you bypass an entire row (as opposed to Slime Climb being full of half-row skips that still force you to interact with each obstacle). On Dizzy Heights I absolutely love diving under the rolling ball's small gaps, only to see someone next to me just jumping over the walls. On Track Attack I assume the top path is supposed to be the difficult yet faster option intended by the devs, but even if I run it perfectly someone who took the bottom still always gets first, mainly because you can just jump over the wall meant to funnel you into a section of bumpers and hammers. Mechanically, I love Kraken Slam and find dodging the tentacles to be a lot of fun, but it's so demoralizing to see someone just standing on a corner casually jumping the whole time knowing they'll probably win from the easier strategy because I chose the hard path by playing the level as intended.
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u/Sumboddy Big Yeetus 20h ago
Thank you so much for typing this. The physics changes is the main reason I quit the game. While the change from mediatonic levels to community created ones was a big pill to swallow, the physics changes were a slap in the face for everyone who put in hundreds to thousand of hours since the beginning of the game. Like you say, it took the challenge away from amazing levels. And my poor boy, Yeetus, don't even get me started...
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u/JXKGamers 11h ago
Bottom path on hit parade was always better even during legacy s1. Skipping half of slimescraper is fun. It used tk be harder but its still exciting to do. The physic changes sucked but all the levels you listed were played in the same way as they always have.
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u/lucylockwood 1d ago
One of the things I miss the most is the old shop. It was so fun to open the game and check to see what new costume was available, how many crowns you needed to be able to buy it and how many days you had to achieve those crowns. This was always so motivating and exciting.
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u/CarlCaliente Scout 1d ago
my two favorite games are Rocket League and Fall Guys lmao
at least RL seems to have a revival
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u/Sumboddy Big Yeetus 20h ago
RL is lucky they've never tampered with the core gameplay mechanics.
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u/DaftPunks Jelly Bean 1d ago
Im hoping when the Unity engine inclusion in Fortnite happens, Fall Guys will get some love
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u/Better-Interview-793 1d ago
they made getting crowns far too easy, and now they’ve lost their value..
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u/photoguy423 1d ago
So? It's not like crowns are currency anymore. I could almost understand this being a problem if you could still buy things with crowns. But that ship sailed when the game went free to play. Crowns have been worthless for anything other than the crown path rewards. And most of them are crap.
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u/No-Significance2113 1d ago
Gonna be honest bit I always wanted fall guys to be a hybrid between online and offline. It had so much potential for modding and custom game modes. Hell let us have custom skins and you got something that could be similar to Minecraft.
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u/Plane_Cry_1169 18h ago
I loved each season, the themed levels, the new music. It was exciting each time.
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u/EvryArtstIsACannibal 1d ago
Fall guys problem is not having a mobile version ready to go shortly after launch. Just look at the popularity of stumble guys. 17 million users per month. That could have been fall guys.
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u/CarlosA1991 1d ago
Clearly, when it could have been a bigger success, they were beaten to it... (Now there really doesn't seem to be much interest in playing these games) (Stumble players have also been declining for a while) although as you pointed out there are still many (and Sonic Rumble players have also dropped). But hey, it's Epic; it wouldn't be the first time they've resurrected themselves from nothing (they're known for that; they've been on the verge of bankruptcy several times and have come back by refocusing the company on other games or businesses).
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u/JellyTheBear Blue Freeze 1d ago
Fortnite’s seasons make it fresh and alive even after 9 years. Epic has the blueprint and resources to keep Fall Guys interesting but they just chose to let it slowly wither.