How rebellious thinking informed the cleverest puzzle game in years
As a game that encourages you to break or rewrite its rules, it’s fitting that the idea for Baba Is You should have come about under strictly controlled conditions. Arvi ‘Hempuli’ Teikari arrived at Nordic Game Jam in April 2017 intending to work on pre-existing projects. When the theme for the jam (“not there”) was announced, Teikari wasn’t particularly struck by it. But, partly inspired by his affinity for puzzle games such as Snakebird and Stephen’s Sausage Roll, he suddenly had an epiphany: what if the word ‘not’ could somehow be used to defy the laws of nature? What if a block of ice could somehow survive contact with a pool of lava?
“The initial idea was kind of like this,” he says. “Things have their own intrinsic rules, but you can disable those intrinsic rules by saying something is ‘not’ something. But then when I started prototyping, I realized it makes more sense if nothing actually has intrinsic rules – it’s much cooler that way. So that’s what I went with.” From then on, the pieces fell into place. The theme had been announced on Friday evening, with Teikari’s idea coming pretty soon afterward. On Saturday night, he began prototyping the game. By midday on Sunday, he’d built 14 stages. Baba Is You subsequently won the jam – and that version of the game is still freely available on itch.io.
This story is from the September 2019 edition of Edge.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the September 2019 edition of Edge.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles
Anyone familiar with the concept of kitbashing is already halfway to understanding what Tomas Sala’s open-world builder is all about.
Children Of The Sun
René Rother’s acrid revenge thriller – an action game with its limbs broken and forcibly rearranged into the shape of a spatial puzzler – is at once a bonafide original and an unlikely throwback. Cast your eyes right and you wouldn’t blink if we told you this was a forgotten Grasshopper Manufacture game from the early PS3 era (we won’t be at all surprised if this finds a spot on Suda51’s end-of-year list).
Post Script
What does Rise Of The Ronin say for PS5 exclusivity?
Rise Of The Ronin
Falling in battle simply switches control to the next person up, and then quick revive fixes everything
Post Script
The pawn and the pandemic
Dragon's Dogma 2
The road from Vernworth to Bakbattahl is scenic but arduous. Ignore the dawdling mobs of goblins, and duck beneath the chanting harpies that circle on the currents overhead, and even moving at a hurried clip it is impossible for a party of four to complete the journey by nightfall.
BLUE MANCHU
How enforced early retirement eventually led Jonathan Chey back to System Shock
THE MAKING 0F.... AMERICAN ARCADIA
How a contrast of perspectives added extra layers to a side-scrolling platform game
COMING IN TO LAND
The creator of Spelunky, plus a super-group of indie developers, have spent the best part of a decade making 50 games. Has the journey been worth it?
VOID SOLS
This abstract indie Soulslike has some bright ideas