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Getting Over It and QWOP creator Bennet Foddy may have a reputation for making rage-inducing games, but the developer doesn't intend for their next game, Baby Steps, to be quite as frustrating.
Bennett Foddy is likely a name that inspires fear in many players' hearts. Foddy made the viral flash game hit QWOP back in 2008. While they've been involved with other games like VVVVVV and Ape Out, Foddy has made a number of rage-inducing, awkward movement games to torment gamers around the world. The likes of CLOP (QWOP but you play as a unicorn), GIRP (playing a game of twister on your keyboard to climb), and then the most devious of all, Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy (which in turn went on to inspire other popular rage games like Only Up and A Difficult Game About Climbing).
Foddy's next game is Baby Steps (which is being developed alongside Ape Out's designer and composer Gabe Cuzzillo and Maxi Boch). In Baby Steps you take on the role of a 30-something manchild who is forced into exploring the great outdoors. The catch – of course – is that you have to manually control every step Nate takes; it's literally a walking simulator.
In the same vein as Foddy's other games, it's got an awkward movement system, but despite this, the developer didn't intend for Baby Steps to be rage-inducing. GamesRadar+ senior writer Austin Wood played the game and spoke to Foddy at GDC 2025 (describing playing it in front of Foddy as "the most intimidating demo I’ve had in 12 years of covering video games").
Foddy told us "You can inflict that on yourself playing Baby Steps if you want to. Some people will want to if they're fans of my work in particular. But this is really a step away from that, like Ape Out." Unlike Getting Over It – which sometimes feels like it was made with pure malice – Foddy describes Baby Steps' difficulty as "more of a real arcade vibe, sort of skill ceiling, with reliable input."
One way this player-made difficulty plays out is with the game's different paths. Foddy describes it, saying, "It's a rock or it's a tree; it's minding its own business. It's not telling you, 'hey, can you get up here?' You're deciding at some point, I think I can get up there, and that moment is where the player starts to sort of set the friction for themselves. We've really tried to zero in on that feeling as much as we can."
Baby Steps is releasing later in 2025, but why not pass the time until you can become a manchild by playing some of the best games of 2025?
