Baby steps will take their first steps to the world when released on September 23. Developed by a trio composed of Gabe Cuzzillo, Maxi Boch and Bennett Foddy, Baby steps is the latest collaboration effort between the three and marks another project that shares part of its DNA with the team's previous game, as Monkey and To get over it with Bennett Foddy. Focusing on navigating the Nate-a 30-year-old unemployed “Failson”-by a beautiful but surreal mountain setting, Child stepsS will see players who learn together with Nate how to properly lay one foot in front of the other to perform this seemingly simple task.
Game Rant recently spoke with Cuzzillo, Foddy and Boch about their attitude towards Baby steps“Design philosophy for game rant progress, given that it goes much further and deeper in their movement and control than other titles. The three talked about their past experiences, expectations and experiments, with Cuzzillo that highlights the extensive iteration process required to make this core mechanic work smoothly and intuitively in Baby stepsWhile they still give lots of challenges and give players the freedom to explore the world of the game.
Baby Steps developer at iteration one step at a time
Cuzzillo described the various methods taken to ensure that Baby steps is based on robust gaming foundations that are also natural and appealing. The original vision was always formed with the idea that fans controlled Nate's course through individual movements, but finding the right feeling and flow for how players interacted with this system, together with getting the character to respond appropriately in the gaming world, was a longer and more involved process.
Cuzzillo said it took quite a while and a lot of work to get everything right. Baby steps“Hiking systems have developed a lot during the five years that it spent in development, with him that” there have been hundreds of minor breakthroughs to make it feel good, consistent and controllable. “He added that two overall aspects were taken into account for its design:
“There are two major underlying themes to balance and set that have been constantly resumed when we have worked with it. The first is: What is the player's job, and what is Nate's job?
Nate falls down a muddy hill
Find the right balance for the Baby Step Physics
Cuzzillo, who describes the other large pillar and said the team thought hard and looked closely at how strong a “supernatural balance” Baby steps'Operating system should contain. He noted his general dislikes of heavily physics -based games that use behind the scenes assistant -oriented “magical powers” which can often result in characters moving in scrubbing or unrealistic ways, which creates a sense of connection between the player's input and answers. Its use in some games is to keep things on rails, so to speak, which means it was also a serious consideration here. Baby steps Are still needed to maintain at least part of this “magical power” to prevent frustration and keep their moving parts held together. As he explained:
“Many physics games have your controls in principle throw the character around the world with magical powers while the animation tries to catch up. It said, if we had no forces in the game that was not physically motivated, it would basically be impossible to hold Nate up. Finding the right balance between these two things has been one of the biggest challenges for the development.
By taking a nice tooth comb to the design of its core mechanic and polishing it to a nice shine, Baby steps Aims to put their best foot forward and deliver a unique gaming experience that leans into their originality while giving players the most responsive and densest controls as possible.
- Published
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September 23, 2025
- Developer
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Gabe Cuzzillo, Maxi Boch, Bennett Foddy
- Number of players
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One -player
- Steam Deck Compatibility
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Unknown
