Baby Steps is an inherently frustrating game, but do the developers merely want to see us all suffer? Well, not quite. It’s a bit more complicated than that.
No different from Getting Over It and QWOP before it, Baby Steps can be a brutally punishing gameplay experience. It’s designed in such a way as to frustrate players at a regular cadence. Regardless of your skill, you will fall, you will slide down a hill, and you will lose progress.
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That’s all central to the experience as you get back on your feet, exhale, and try again for the fourteenth time. Pain is part of the process, as it has long been in games from Bennett Foddy.
Naturally, when speaking with the man himself alongside Baby Steps co-developers Gabe Cuzzillo and Maxi Boch, I had to get to the bottom of it. Do the developers enjoy watching us suffer?
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Do the Baby Steps creators enjoy making players mad?
The answer is a complicated one. While Baby Steps is indeed designed with the goal of occasionally making you frustrated, Bennett Foddy doesn’t view frustration as an entirely negative feeling.
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“I think there are different types of feeling frustrated,” he told us. “It’s like picking a scab or something like that. That’s the type I enjoy.”
Foddy himself is no stranger to getting overly mad at his own games, admitting he’s even “rage quit” from Baby Steps on occasion. “But even that experience of getting tilted and getting mad, that’s what gives the game stakes and makes it feel exciting, as you know, you might get annoyed.
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“To me, that gives video games something that linear media doesn’t have, there’s something on the line.”
Now, as for whether Foddy enjoys watching others suffer in his games, there’s a clearer answer on that topic. He simply can’t do it. Even with viral videos and mega-popular streams boosting his games’ popularity, he’s not tuning in.
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“It’s gonna sound hypocritical, but I cannot watch it. I feel too much of their pain, and it makes me feel guilty.”
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Devolver DigitalBaby Steps goes out of its way to make your life a misery, but that’s all part of the fun.
Baby Steps devs biggest tips for improving
Obviously, we’re expected to suffer at least a little before we start improving in Baby Steps, but how might players be able to expedite the process?
There’s little in the way of recommendations for mechanical skill, as that’s just something you have to learn with experience. But all three devs had their own little tricks to help enjoy the experience.
“I think you should cherish whatever you happen to see,” Cuzzillo chimed in. “Don’t try too hard on any one thing.”
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“Take some breaks,” Boch added. “Gameplay skills cement really well with some sleep.”
“Brush your teeth every day,” Foddy said. “And floss!”