Most games with a single, linear objective want players to stick to the path, and if they do wander off, there's usually some way to either gently or forcefully guide them back so that they stay on track. Baby Steps takes the opposite approach. Rather than encouraging players to keep their eyes on the road, it hands over control to them in a way that almost makes wandering feel like the whole point of the game. For a game that makes walking the hardest obstacle to overcome, it might seem strange that Baby Steps encourages players to do even more of it than is required, but it's ultimately a part of what makes the whole trek worthwhile in the end.
In a recent interview with The Best War Games, developers Bennett Foddy and Gabe Cuzzillo explained how open-ended exploration is built into Nate's journey as an integral part of it. Rather than forcing players to play a certain way, they wanted each playthrough to feel like it could result in the unexpected by persistently surprising them, depending on how frequently they chose to venture off the beaten path. In the end, it's a design choice that is as much comedy as it is a challenge, and it makes progress feel more personal in the end.
Why Exploration and Failure Both Matter in Baby Steps
When asked about how important freedom is to Baby Steps' gameplay, Cuzzillo pointed to some of the team's biggest inspirations first. They simply weren't interested in making a walking sim with only one way forward and instead wanted Baby Steps to be more like other open-ended titles they admired — games that aren't just okay with players getting distracted but actually do their best to make sure it happens. That unpredictability became the backbone of Baby Steps' design, as Cuzzillo explained:
"We wanted to have a fairly loose grip on the player’s experience in this game. We were inspired by very open-ended games like My Summer Car, Snowrunner, or even Noita. A big part of what I enjoy about those games is the feeling that you’re exploring a vast space in a self-directed way. This game is playing a lot with both designed and undesigned pieces — carefully built climbs, semi-random jumbles of rocks, or even purely aesthetic areas you can still find ways to walk up."
Giving players that much freedom in a walking simulator like Baby Steps is a different story than it might be in other games, though. If there isn't an obvious path to follow, the game's clunky traversal mechanics can make every detour feel like a major risk—or, at the very least, not worth the trouble. As a result, the developers ensured there was an ever-present tension that made players feel like they were missing out on something if they didn't occasionally drift off course. Foddy explained how indecision was eventually made a core part of Baby Steps' gameplay during its testing phase:
"Early on, we noticed our playtesters would want to leave the path to investigate something interesting-looking, but were fearful that they wouldn’t be able to get back, so they would enter a kind of FOMO state that we felt was really interesting. We tried to bring that out as much as possible."
The last challenge was making sure any free-form exploration players did wouldn't interrupt the game's pacing. Falling, failing, and backtracking are inevitable in a game like Baby Steps, but the developers didn't want players to feel punished for venturing off track and eventually making a mistake that resulted in failure. Instead, they designed the world so that losing ground still felt like progress in some way, as Foddy stated:
"It was a pillar for us that if the player falls off a cliff and loses progress, they should end up somewhere that gives them an option of not repeating the same climb they just fell down from. That sense of mercy basically forms the backbone of all the geometry in the game."
This combination of failure and forgiveness would then create a healthy tension in Baby Steps that aims to make every playthrough feel fresh and unique for its players. The result is a game that encourages them to stumble into discoveries that make their journey entirely their own.
- Released
- September 23, 2025
- Developer(s)
- Gabe Cuzzillo, Maxi Boch, Bennett Foddy
- Publisher(s)
- Devolver Digital
- Number of Players
- Single-player
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- Unknown
WHERE TO PLAY
