-
Every December, I use my last video of the
year to celebrate the most innovative and
-
inventive game I played in the last 12 months.
-
In previous years I’ve looked at the YouTube
detective drama Her Story, the uncanny chatbot
-
game Event[0], the serpent simulator Snake
Pass, and the time-travelling murder mystery,
-
Return of the Obra Dinn.
-
These games have done things I’ve never
seen before, and are impressive in both their
-
idea and their execution.
-
They might not be the very best games of their
respective years, but when it comes to fresh
-
concepts done well, these are the games I
would recommend.
-
I certainly had lots of choices to pick from
for 2019, like the combat-free role playing
-
game Disco Elysium, the hilarious honk ‘em
up Untitled Goose Game, the sci-fi archeology
-
game Outer Wilds, and the other sci-fi archeology
game, Heaven’s Vault.
-
But this year, nothing quite beat the mind-melting
puzzle game, Baba Is You.
-
Now, from first glance, this game looks pretty
simple.
-
You hop around a grid and push blocks - making
it part of a sub genre of block-shoving puzzlers,
-
all inspired by the Japanese game Sokoban.
-
Here’s where things start getting strange,
though: in each level, the rules of the game
-
are written on screen as simple sentences.
-
Like, “Baba Is You”, which means you control
this funny white critter called Baba.
-
Or “Wall Is Stop”, which means you can’t
walk through walls.
-
“Rock Is Push” means you can shove rocks
around, and “Flag Is Win” means touching
-
the flag will finish the level.
-
And then here’s the kicker: those rules
are, themselves, blocks that can be pushed
-
around - allowing you to break the logic that
dictates the level at hand, and create entirely
-
new gameplay by rewriting the rules.
-
Remove the word “Stop” from “Wall Is
Stop”, for example, and now you can waltz
-
straight past walls.
-
Change “Flag Is Win” to “Rock Is Win”,
and now the rock becomes your goal.
-
Or push "Rock: into this sentence, and you switch
the main character of the game into a tiny
-
brown boulder.
-
Cheeky.
-
And thus begins a few hundred levels where
the solution is never to simply reach the
-
goal - but to rewrite the rules of the universe
until you’re in a world where the goal is
-
now reachable.
-
It is infinitely intelligent and endlessly
surprising.
-
It’s tough, but far from impossible, and
practically every level is a revalatory experience
-
with a satisfying aha! moment.
-
And if you haven’t played it yet, now’s
your time to pause the video, head to Steam
-
or the Switch eShop, and get the game.
-
I hope that you love it.
-
When you’re done, remember to come back,
and we’ll chat more about how the game builds
-
its brain-busting puzzles
-
Baba Is You is the brain-child of Finnish
indie developer Arvi Teikari.
-
He told me over email back in April that he
was inspired to make the game as part of the
-
2017 Nordic Game Jam.
-
The jam’s theme was “Not There”, and
the word “Not” made him think of logic
-
operators in programming languages.
-
Combine that with a block-pushing puzzle game
like Snakebird or Stephen’s Sausage Roll,
-
and this “resulted in a mental image of
a block of ice not melting in hot lava due
-
to the statement "Ice Is Not Melt”.
-
The scrappy, prototypical Baba Is You ended
up winning that Game Jam, and the reaction
-
was so positive that Teikari decided to take
his underbaked jam game and turn it into a
-
full fat release.
-
Two years later, and the designer had about
219 ultra clever levels for players to work through.
-
So how, exactly, is one of these Baba Is You
levels made?
-
To start, Teikari tries to think of an interesting
interaction, or set-up that could come out
-
of the game’s encyclopaedia of words and
rules.
-
“Pull”, for example, could lead to a level
where Keke needs to drag a key across a lake.
-
A teleporter doesn’t have to just move objects,
but could also be used to move around the
-
rules themselves.
-
And the word “Has”, could lend itself
to a level where you drop a box every-time
-
Keke dies, but that box immediately turns
back into Keke.
-
Bonkers.
-
Speaking at the Gamelab conference in Barcelona
this summer, Teikari said, “when I’ve
-
got this idea of ‘hey, that would be cool
to see in a level’, I try to figure out
-
what kind of level do I have to build so that
when the player is playing the level they
-
have to use that interaction”.
-
And that’s where we get to the fascinating
contradiction at the heart of Baba Is You.
-
Because while this is a game that offers a
seemingly infinite world of possibilities
-
- its puzzles are largely defined by what
you can’t do.
-
Because while making an open ended puzzle
game sounds great, it’s open to easy answers
-
- like Scribblenauts, where half of the levels
can be finished by writing in the word jetpack.
-
So the designer’s job is actually to lock
you in and force restrictions on you.
-
And in Baba Is You that’s achieved by the
words that are and aren’t on screen, the
-
way some sentences are pushed against walls
or locked behind fences, and the claustrophobic
-
grid that constricts your movements.
-
With these restrictions in place, the designer
can lock off easy answers - and force you
-
to find the clever trick at the heart of the
puzzle.
-
Teikari calls this process reverse engineering
- of essentially starting with the solution
-
and then working backwards to throw up restrictions
and make a puzzle that supports it.
-
As an example, take the level Baba Doesn’t
Respond.
-
In this level we play as Keke, and the solution
is to use two belts to redirect a moving Baba.
-
So how does the designer force this interaction?
-
Let’s start by putting a wall and a locked
door between Keke and the Flag.
-
If we put a rule here like “Door Is Shut
And Open”, we can just push the word “Shut”
-
over and then go to the flag.
-
But if we put a reed here, and make it so
creating that first sentence simultaneously
-
makes the rule “Reed Is Defeat”, we suddenly
put Keke in a pickle - opening the door also
-
denies access to that door.
-
Hm! Quite the catch!
-
So, the player will hopefully realise that
they need to have Keke be stood in this exact
-
spot when the rule is triggered - and they just
need to figure out how to move the sentence
-
from afar.
-
Answer: “Baba Is Move”.
-
Now the level would be way too easy if we
could just put Baba here, make “Baba Is
-
Move”, and then walk to the right spot and
wait for Baba to walk into the words.
-
So, some restrictions are added.
-
This single hedge block means Baba only has
a tiny run-up.
-
And having “Move” be in the corner makes
it impossible to, well, move, so the sentence
-
“Baba Is Move” has to be made on the furthest
left edge of the screen.
-
These two things combine to make it impossible
to make “Baba Is Move” and then walk to
-
that all-important spot, because Baba will
have already made the reed deadly by the time
-
you get there.
-
And thus, you must use these belts to create
a much longer path for Baba to take, Chu Chu
-
Rocket style, which will give you enough time
to walk across the level before he triggers
-
the sentence change.
-
Then it’s just a case of sprinkling on some
pretty decoration, and putting in some other
-
bits to restrict your movement or stop unintended
solutions.
-
Though, many of those are left in by the designer
-
- provided they don’t make the real solution trivial.
-
So as you can see, the solution to the puzzle
is actually pretty simple.
-
But by obfuscating the answer behind a sequence
of problems, it creates this interesting phenomenon
-
where Teikari is working backwards from the
solution, locking up doors behind him as he
-
gets to the starting conditions for the puzzle.
-
And then the player then moves in the opposite
direction, opening each door in turn until
-
they get to the solution.
-
And by setting the stage up in this way, the
player is actually somewhat lured towards
-
the solution.
-
Each level contains a number of tiny problems
that render something impossible - forcing
-
the player to find a different, more creative
way to overcome the problem.
-
These stumbling blocks then stack together,
creating a pathway to the level’s solution.
-
Here’s how that looks in a favourite stage
of mine: Tiny Pond.
-
In this level, the word “Win” needs to
be released from a pond.
-
The water is tagged as “Shut”, and Baba
is tagged as “Open”, which means you can walk
-
into the water to unlock it and gain access
- but this also destroys Baba.
-
So, we’re going to need to try something
else.
-
We’ve got two other words: “Key” and
“Flag”, and so we could make “Key Is
-
Open”, but there’s no “Push” verb,
meaning the key just sits there.
-
The only way to make it move is to write “Key
Is You”, but we run into the same problem:
-
you’re destroyed as soon as you touch the
water.
-
By now you should hopefully be thinking, “okay,
maybe I can be both key and Baba at the same
-
time, because when one dies, I can still control
the other one”.
-
But, sadly, there aren’t enough words to
make that sentence work.
-
However, the sequence of logical leaps have
got you this far and there’s only one possible
-
way forward now: if you make flag is key,
you’ve got two keys.
-
And now if you have “Key Is You”, you
can control both, sacrifice one to open a
-
hole in the water, and use the remaining key
to finish the stage.
-
It’s really clever.
-
The set-up for the stage walked us right into
the central problem of the level: we need
-
to be “Open”, but we also don’t want
to disappear when we use ourselves.
-
And so we’re in the perfect spot to try
and figure out the actual solution - and go
-
“aha!” when we get there.
-
If this was the first level that you played
in this game, you would be - I think -
-
completely stumped.
-
But luckily, playing Baba Is You means constantly
adding to an ever expanding knowledge base
-
that grows with every stage you play.
-
So Tiny Pond builds on the level Jelly Throne,
where you control two characters at once.
-
And Tiny Pond’s solution reappears in the
stage Unreachable Shores, where you sacrifice
-
one Keke, so the survivor can move forward.
-
But this sort of learning starts from the
very beginning of the game.
-
Baba Is You is a pretty complicated puzzler,
after all, and there’s not a single tutorial
-
in sight.
-
Instead, the game’s first crop of puzzles
all subtly and silently tell you how the game
-
works through their solutions.
-
So in Level 1, we’re stuck inside a tiny
box.
-
There’s only one way to get out and that’s
to break the sentence “Wall Is Stop”,
-
and make the wall no longer a solid object.
-
Then, we can make a sentence - “Flag Is
Win” - to finish the level.
-
That’s breaking and making sentences: the
two most fundamental concepts of the game.
-
Level 2 is the exact same stage as before
but now everything is wrong.
-
You play as a wall, the walls are made of
flags, and Baba is nowhere to be found.
-
This teaches players that nothing in the game
has an intrinsic value: it’s only given
-
purpose when part of a rule.
-
The game keeps this up throughout its first
few stages, with solutions that clue us in
-
to some fundamental concept we’ll definitely
need to know later.
-
Here, “Lava Is Push overrides” the rule
“Lava Is Hot”.
-
In this puzzle, we learn that we can create
two sentences from the same “Is” block,
-
by creating them in a cross.
-
And the game will continue to teach new concepts
and ideas throughout the adventure.
-
Every time a new concept is introduced - like
the operator “And” or the words “Open”
-
and “Shut”, we’re treated to introductory
puzzles that make these new mechanics crystal clear.
-
I asked Teikari how he went about making these
introductory stages, and he said “If I exhaustively
-
go through all the meaningful interactions
between elements, eventually I get levels
-
where the ‘trick’ is mostly just the basic
functionality of a specific element in itself”.
-
that can then be put at the beginning of the
world, to act as a tutorial for the stages
-
to come.
-
While Baba Is You is full of puzzles that
will make you feel stumped when you first
-
play them, and make you feel smart when you
solve them, Teikari’s real goal is to create
-
moments of surprise and laughter.
-
YOUTUBER: [Laughter].
-
YOUTUBER: “There’s no rule saying ‘Wall
Is Stop’. [Laughter]
-
I was confining myself to this stupid little
area and I didn’t need to.”
-
That’s certainly one way it’s done - by playing
with your expectations for how things work.
-
In this level, for example, most players will
assume they need to unlock the door.
-
But actually they need to unlock the wall.
-
There are also just bonkers rules that go
way beyond the basic set-up.
-
“Empty” allows you to control or fill
the empty space in each stage.
-
“Make” lets you create a trail of objects
when you move.
-
“More” lets you duplicate keys until they
fill every spot in the space.
-
And just like the original idea for the game,
“Not” allows you to flip rules on their head.
-
Plus, in an attempt to make sure every single
interaction is explored - a similar design
-
philosophy as one used by Braid developer
Jonathan Blow - Teikari has “Text” be
-
a word, allowing you to manipulate the rules
with other rules.
-
And by the time “Level” is introduced,
you’re not only moving the entire screen
-
around - but breaking out the stage and bouncing
around the map screen in a mind-melting meta
-
exploration of the game’s fundamental logic.
-
There were more ideas that didn’t make the
cut, of course.
-
Teikari told me that “Stick”, which would
make objects clump together, was removed because
-
it created nightmare programming problems.
-
And “Safe”, which would render an object
invulnerable, was left on the cutting room
-
floor because it was hazy, and uninteresting.
-
Not everything that made it into the game is a
complete winner, if you ask me:
-
a stage where you trap Keke
-
under words and then push them away from the
corner is awkward and confusing, and the word
-
“Swap” is like “Tele” but not as cool.
-
With 200-odd stages, though, there’s always
going to be a few that don’t click for everyone.
-
But Teikari points to an army of playtesters
who gave feedback on stages, and discovered
-
alternative solutions..
-
“I’m extremely thankful for how much testers
have done for the game”, he says.
-
That group of testers, it turns out, is a
who’s-who of puzzle game wizards, and includes
-
the designers behind Ending, A Good Snowman
is Hard to Build, Pipe Push Paradise, Starseed
-
Pilgrim, Minit, and The Witness.
-
Baba Is You is a surprising, silly, and mind-bogglingly
complex game.
-
And it had every chance of becoming too difficult
to grasp, too esoteric to understand, or too
-
freeform to actually produce good puzzles.
-
But Arvi Teikari has proven himself as a master
of puzzle design.
-
He introduces the loopy logic of Baba Is You
slowly and subtly, so everyone can understand it.
-
With his reverse-engineering process, he buries
a clever trick under layers of problems.
-
But they’re never red herrings or pointless
busy work - they’re about leading the player
-
to the catch at the centre of the puzzle.
-
And he’s more interested in surprises and
silliness than rock-hard challenge, making
-
for a game that will make you laugh more than
it will make you frustrated.
-
It’s simply a really great puzzle game,
built on a fresh concept that was executed
-
perfectly.
-
A no-brainer for this year’s final video.
-
Hey, thank you so much for watching!
-
I just wanted to take a moment to say thanks for
all of your support in 2019.
-
I’m really proud of the stuff I made and
your support has meant the world.
-
I’ve already got so many video ideas lined
up for 2020 but it's time for a quick break.
-
So I hope you'll have an amazing Christmas, and
I’ll see you in the new year.