‘You wouldn’t believ…
Baby Steps developer Gabe Cuzzillo prefaced today’s “very unprofessional” developer overview by saying “you shouldn’t know very much about this game when you play it, because it’s full of surprises and they’re fun.” After watching it, I’m not sure I know any more about the comedic walking simulator, but I’m certainly intrigued by the vibe here.
If you’re wondering what’s so unprofessional about the overview, he goes on to freestyle a few facts about the game, like how its ambient soundtrack is “kind of subtle and cool and interesting, unlike anything you’ve ever played,” before transitioning to what feels like the end of his spiel.
“Are you interested in novelty? Are you a novelty-seeking person? I don’t know. You just want to play the same thing over and over again, maybe. Maybe you like League of Legends, that’s fine. You’re probably not going to buy this game … Alright. Hope you buy it. Goodbye.”
After this is said, there are seven minutes left to go in the video. Cuzzillo notes that he’s “not going to do the edit” and then just… starts over and reintroduces “the first fact” about Baby Steps. This happens a few times, but there are some insights to be gleaned here. For instance, Cuzzillo notes Baby Steps is partially meant to satirize triple-A narrative games, noting “there’s over a feature film’s worth of stupid cutscenes in it, with us doing acting … all the cutscenes are improvised by us, much like these facts.”
Bennett Foddy’s involvement should make it no surprise that Baby Steps is also, in part, about frustration and failure. Cuzzillo said in the overview: “You can fall off [a ledge] and feel the despair and frustration, and maybe that will lead you to have some kind of revelation about yourself and how you react to the trials and tribulations that life throws at you.”
The preview is sort of snarky and silly in a way that suits a climbing game about “an unemployed failson with nothing going for him” except his voluminous clappers, so I’m happy to forgive its tone as a guy with hundreds of hours sunk into that yawning abyss, League of Legends.
If you’re interested in taking some Baby Steps of your own, the game releases on Steam Sep 23.