In Baby Steps, I stumbled through a refreshing kind of open world

“Is the rage boiling over?” Bennett Foddy asks me as I fall down a wooden plank for the dozenth time. The creator of QWOP and Getting Over It is known for games that can be both frustrating and meditative, pairing challenging physics with thoughtful design. The latest, Baby Steps, is similar — but a whole lot bigger.

I had a chance to play a chunk of the early portion of Baby Steps at 2025’s Game Developers Conference earlier this month. The game is developed by a trio made up of Foddy, Maxi Boch, and Ape Out creator Gabe Cuzzillo. It starts out pretty silly: you play as a slacker named Nate who is transported to a strange world with little choice but to hike. There are cutscenes where he babbles in confusion at his situation and a handful of characters who aren’t especially helpful. At one point, someone offers Nate a map, and he refuses; there is no gear that aids your adventure in Baby Steps.

Instead, the game is perhaps the most literal definition of a walking simulator. You move by controlling Nate’s two legs individually to take steps. At first, I couldn’t take more than a few steps before falling flat on my face, which, to be fair, was often hilarious. The p …

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