Baby Steps Preview - A Promising First Stride

Ahead of the demo’s debut on Steam Next Fest, we got the opportunity to play the first chapter of the upcoming game developed by Gabe Cuzzillo and Maxi Boch (Ape Out), Bennett Foddy (Getting Over It), and published by Devolver Digital, Baby Steps.

If you’re familiar with Bennett Foddy in particular, you're getting what you expect: a game that makes movement difficult in service of creating frustrating platforming, that eventually pays off once you finally get everything just right. What excited me most about this demo, though, were the things I didn’t expect: presentation in line with much larger studios, and a game that delivers on humor better than other games in years.

One Small Step for Man

Baby Steps in particular reminds me a lot of QWOP, Foddy’s breakout browser game. In QWOP, you played as a track star for whom running is, surprisingly, quite difficult. This time, using a controller in place of QWOP's signature keyboard controls, even the most basic steps are a bit of a struggle. The level design is expertly paced around this struggle, though. Right when I started getting the hang of movement, a new ledge or set of steps came to throw me off my game.

This sort of movement has become a staple of any game with his name on it, and Baby Steps is no different. What is different, though, is the scale.

Baby Steps looks great and runs smoothly, even in a very expansive world. Compared to the usual style of Foddian games, which steered more towards the minimalist side, Baby Steps feels like a premium, large-scale experience that spared no expense. I'm quite excited to see what locales show themselves next, as there are more varied locales shown in trailers than what I saw in my short slice of gameplay.

One Giant Leap

The most notable thing about Baby Steps wasn’t the Foddian locomotion system or presentation, though: it was the humor. Being a funny video game is no easy feat, but the team behind Baby Steps is delivering in spades.

The protagonist of the game, Nate, is perhaps the most pathetic man I’ve ever met, real or fictional. After he’s teleported by a mysterious power to a large mountain, he avoids human contact at all costs.

At one point in the demo, a fellow traveller remarks that he could probably use a map. Finally! A way to get some direction, and really get a grip on where exactly he is.

Nope. Nate says he’s actually fine without it, all in the name of avoiding any additional human conversation or contact. Barring a big shift in him, it feels like Nate will be actively working against the player at every step of the way.

In any game, or any story for that matter, there’s always some kind of force working against the protagonist. This feels like a rare time in games where a protagonist is working against themselves. Beyond creating a lot of funny scenes and situations, I’m excited to see where this game goes narratively, both for Nate and the mysterious world surrounding him, something I didn’t expect going in.

Baby Steps | Final Thoughts

Baby Steps, like most Foddian games, will almost certainly find an audience on streams. Foddy’s games like Getting Over It, and Foddy-inspired ones like Jump King and Only Up, were sensations on the platform, and I imagine this game will be no exception.

However, this slice of the game convinced me that this might be the best Foddy game from a player perspective yet. From the increased production value to the sharp wit, there is a lot here that justifies playing it yourself. Whether you’ve been closely following the creator since QWOP or this is your first exposure, this is a game that is poised to be a joy to play. Even if you play it and find it isn’t your thing, even if you play games with similar ideas this year, I promise that you won’t play anything else quite like Baby Steps.

Baby Steps was previewed on PC using a copy provided by the publisher over the course of an hour of gameplay.