Today, August 4, 2025, Fall Guys celebrates its fifth anniversary. Let`s reflect on how its creative mode, despite possessing immense potential, ultimately failed to fully flourish.
It seemed self-evident. Fall Guys – an eccentric game show-style battle royale platformer – was perfectly suited for player-created levels. Fans of games like Mario and Banjo-Kazooie could devise whimsical, yet deadly, challenges for dozens of little “beans” to navigate headfirst.
“I know the chances are extremely low for this to happen, but man, a level editor would be incredibly awesome,” wrote Redditor2033 in a post a year into Fall Guys` lifespan. “With it, this game could easily survive for MANY years.”
Sometimes things unfold in unexpected ways: in March 2021, Epic Games acquired Mediatonic, the developer of Fall Guys, and just over two years later, launched Fall Guys Creative – a level editor that empowered players to create their own “islands.”
Players immediately flexed their creative muscles: recreating Van Gogh masterpieces, building quirky interpretations of Mount Olympus, and designing intuitive jungle-top mazes that rivaled Mediatonic`s own creations.
The enthusiasm for mini-game creation swept across the entire Fall Guys community. Players didn`t just create maps; they built databases of their favorites, developed tutorials to encourage others, and implored Mediatonic for better tools to construct larger and more sophisticated maps.
“When Creative first launched, virtually every stage felt innovative in its own way,” Fall Guys map creator mech33 told GameSpot. “Even something as simple as a sloped stage where iron balls rolled down from above was enjoyable to play with friends.”
Eventually, Mediatonic itself began utilizing Creative for its own designs and started removing older maps that broke due to updates, making space for even more player-created maps in the rotation. Some mapmakers dubbed this the golden age of Creative. The tool itself received regular updates, granting creators immense freedom in their constructions.
Mediatonic started integrating player-created levels into official playlists, offering creators the opportunity to find an audience almost immediately.
“Community creative maps were featured in main game modes, garnering millions of plays,” Fall Guys map creator Pepppie stated via text message. “There was a large community with excellent mapmakers, producing new, quality creative maps almost daily.”
However, these good times were short-lived. Mediatonic began removing player-created game modes from featured playlists, making it significantly harder for creators to find an audience. GameSpot reached out to Mediatonic for comment on the reason for this change but received no response. Many viewed this as the removal of the sole incentive to continue creating. While Epic supports successful creators in Fortnite Creative by providing them a share of the revenue from its battle royale mode, Fall Guys creators receive no such benefits, despite the game being accessible via the Fortnite platform.
Mediatonic had previously established a creator program that granted early access to new items and mechanics, as well as feedback from official developers. According to several creators who were part of it, this group has since been disbanded. Fall Guys creators stated they weren`t seeking large payouts, but rather hoped for some form of incentive to encourage their continued efforts.
“I feel that the momentum behind Fall Guys Creative has definitely slowed down compared to before,” mech33 observed. “Recent updates have primarily focused on visual improvements rather than introducing new tools or gimmicks, which makes it harder for creators to find fresh inspiration.”
Even if creators continue to make maps, it`s challenging for them to get those maps in front of players, owing to the continuous changes Mediatonic reportedly implements in how maps are surfaced within Fall Guys.
“Recently, [Mediatonic] removed all player-made creative maps from the main curated game modes, meaning it`s now solely based on luck whether your map makes it into the few remaining modes, like Discovery,” Pepppie stated. “This decision has alienated most prominent mapmakers from the game, and many, if not most, have left.”
The level editor has significantly evolved since its launch, according to several creators, yet they continue to seek new features and tools like the ability to create chains, suspend objects, and construct dynamic elements unlike anything else in Fall Guys. Nothing of the sort has been added recently, but some creators suggest that additional features could be sufficient to inspire them to build something novel.
When Fall Guys first launched, there was nothing quite like it on the market. Certainly, it carried DNA from Mario Party and various battle royales, but nothing combined the sweaty-palm frenzy of “Door Dash” with the tension of knowing that any moment could be your last as other “beans” finished ahead of you.
In recent years, other Fall Guys-like games have emerged, challenging Epic Games` game show-style battle royale. Stumble Guys has enabled mobile players to create levels for tens of thousands on Steam and millions on phones. Eggy Party, often labeled a Fall Guys knockoff, has captured the attention of a massive player base in China.
It`s clear there`s an appetite for the online experience Fall Guys offers: fast-paced mini-games reminiscent of TV shows like Wipeout and Takeshi`s Castle. This demand is particularly strong when an army of creators regularly supplies new levels. However, that`s no longer the case, though creators hope for change.
“If Mediatonic releases new tools or features that make creators think, `I could build something amazing with this,` then the scene could definitely recover,” mech33 stated. “But if meaningful updates continue to be delayed or cease entirely, interest is likely to keep declining.”
Creators like mech33 still possess the desire to produce content for Fall Guys, but as things stand, there isn`t enough encouragement to push maps to completion. Currently, Fall Guys Creative exists in a strange limbo: full of potential, yet awaiting a new spark.