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Of all the upcoming games to get excited about in 2025 - and, as we're showing you with Big in 2025, there are a lot - this is one of the best placed to raise a smile or fifty. Perhaps the best placed. A soulslike is designed for you to fail repeatedly so that you can learn; Baby Steps is designed for you to fail repeatedly so that you can laugh. Learn too, sure, but mostly laugh.
"One day in 2019, Gabe made the bold claim that he could make a game that controlled like QWOP but was a skillful, controllable action game with the player being in charge of the physics rather than the other way around," says Bennett Foddy. "I told him it would be too hard. He had a gameplay prototype two hours later, and that was that. But I was totally right, it is too hard."
Step change
Developer: Gabe Cuzzillo, Maxi Boch, Bennett Foddy
Publisher: Devolver Digital
Platform(s): PC, PS5
Release date: TBC 2025
The developers themselves describe Baby Steps as "a literal walking simulator". You'll be taking control of 35 year old Nate, a loser in a sweat-stained onesie who's about to face the greatest challenge of his life; getting off the couch, and leaving the house. In fact, he's set for something of an epic adventure, and he's got an awful lot of walking to do. The problem is, he hasn't really got the hang of this 'walking' thing yet, and each awkward step is a new challenge for both him and you.
The DNA of QWOP and Getting Over It is plain to see, albeit toned down significantly in order to better fit a more traditional adventure. There's one influence you may not have seen coming, though. "Death Stranding was a huge inspiration for us!" Foddy explains. "When you play Death Stranding or Baby Steps, after a long period of difficult, hard-won uphill progress, there's a moment where you look back downhill and sort of bask in the magnitude of your achievement… and, even though it's just a game and it's not real, you feel a sudden wave of vertigo! That's what we're shooting for, that moment when the silly safe gameplay pierces through into the hindbrain."
It's important to stress that the goal for the developers here is definitely that "silly, safe gameplay" rather than the guaranteed failure QWOP would quickly lead to. "Watching playtesters go through the game, they start very uncoordinated and clumsy," says Foddy. "But within about 15 minutes they're steady on their feet, and after an hour they're trucking along like they were born to it. But even when you're an expert, parkouring and pirouetting through difficult obstacles, you can still choke and trip on a rock and fall off a cliff. There's always some danger. But it's not like QWOP, where you can't get good at it."
So, Baby Steps is a game where you can 'git gud'. Nonetheless, when you trip and fall - repeatedly - that will be a sign that you're playing the game as the developers intended. One look at the trailer will tell you that. Nate's movement is awkward and unnatural, but a lot of the time, the movement we see is downwards and uncontrolled. We see him stumble, fall, plummet, and slide for our entertainment. Nate will get where he's going eventually, but along the way, he'll be taking the kind of damage usually reserved for a protagonist in The Last Of Us.
The controls aren't the only aspect of the game that differ from a traditional adventure., as Foddy explains. "I don't think anyone will have experienced anything like the game's music system, which weaves a musical soundtrack out of the natural environment of the world. Have you ever had that feeling where it seems like, for a minute, everything in the world around you is operating in harmony?". We can't wait to reach a perfect moment of gaming zen, when the rhythm of movement and environment-driven soundtrack blend together to create a soothing flow state. Right before we trip over our own ankles and faceplant with nose-breaking speed.
Check out our Big in 2025 ranking to see where we've placed this year's most anticipated games
