Baba Is You Wiki
This page of the IGN Wiki Guide and Walkthrough for Baba Is You contains instructions on how to progress through the Temple Ruins area stage, Level 4 - Unreachable Shores. For advice on how to. Baba Is You is a puzzle game where the rules you have to follow are present as blocks you can interact with. By manipulating them, you can change how the game works, repurpose things you find in the levels and cause surprising interactions!
What is it: Sokoban meets programming in this word-pusher puzzleExpect to pay: $15/£11Developer: Hempuli OyPublisher: Hempuli OyReviewed on: Windows 10, 16GB RAM, Intel Core i7-5820k, GeForce GTX 970Multiplayer: NoneLink:Baba is You, and its developer Arvi ‘Hempuli’ Teikari, found themselves in the spotlight after a build of the logic puzzler won over IGF Award judges in 2018. With nominations in four of the eight categories, Teikari beat out the likes of Into The Breach to take home the Excellence in Design award as well as pocketing the Best Student Game prize.
Now the full release is here it’s easy to see what the fuss was about.Baba is You is a spatial word game, of sorts. It combines programming-style commands with Sokoban-esque block pushing to create hugely inventive and varied puzzles. By rearranging the blocks with words on them you can issue new rules for the world or find new ways to interact with the space. You can even totally rewrite the win conditions for a level.It’s an easier concept to understand by playing than talking, so here’s an example. In one level you start as a rabbit in a walled room.
Inside the room with you are three text blocks—“Wall”, “is”, and “stop”. They’re connected in a straight line so the walls currently stop your character from passing through them.
If you nudge any of the blocks out of line the walls no longer stop you and you can walk through them.The blocks which make a win condition for the level aren’t yet connected in a line. The simplest solution to that is to push the blocks marked “flag”, “is” and “win” into a line. After that, walking to the flag will complete the level.But there are other solutions which immediately start to show you how many possibilities the system involves. You could mix blocks from the first and second room to write “Wall is win”. That lets you finish the level by touching any of the walls.A third solution is to make use of the blocks which determine your avatar – they read “Baba is you” in a vertical line. Don’t disconnect them, otherwise “you” no longer exist in the level and cannot interact with it.
But you can use “Baba” as the start of a horizontal command, a bit like a programming crossword puzzle. Write “Baba is win” and it makes you (Baba) the win condition of the level. There’s so much potential and it’s so satisfying!If you put yourself in an impossible situation—for example, disrupting the set of blocks which tells the level what you are and triggering an existential conundrum – you can either go back a step (or as many steps as you need), or reset the whole level and start again.It’s an absolute delight. Madout open city gameplay. Some levels feel a bit overwhelming but you soon get into the habit of reading them. For example, commands jammed into a corner can’t be moved so they act as basic truths for the scene, narrowing down the possible solutions.
If there’s space next to them, that might be a hint that you can modify them with an intersecting command. The puzzles then become manageable (even if they’re still daunting).The difficulty curve for the earlier worlds feels a little scattershot, but that’s largely because players grasp different solutions at different rates which makes accurate difficulty curves something of an elusive target for logic puzzles.
That settles down after a couple of worlds and I’m now at the point where I’m gradually chipping away at later-game puzzles, rotating through them in the hopes that when I come back to a previous level I’ll see it afresh.The aesthetic is simple and works better for simpler levels. When there are a lot of commands at play it can be hard to keep them all straight, especially when they’re spread out in corners of the screen. Pausing lets you recap the rules currently active, which helps, but the process adds mental load.One of my favourite moments came after the introduction of the “Has” block which adds the concept of objects containing other objects. Manipulating that command to cross a river was a low-key moment of real joy! The addition of “not”, on the other hand, filled me with deep horror.Baba is You deserves its critical acclaim. It’s part logic puzzle, part existential quandary, part love letter to how much potential is contained in the tiny building blocks of language.
| Baba Is You | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Hempuli |
| Publisher(s) | Hempuli |
| Designer(s) | Arvi Teikari |
| Programmer(s) | Arvi Teikari |
| Composer(s) | Arvi Teikari |
| Engine | Multimedia Fusion 2 |
| Platform(s) | |
| Release | 13 March 2019 |
| Genre(s) | Puzzle |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Baba Is You is a puzzle video game created by Finnishindie developer Arvi Teikari (known professionally as Hempuli), released on 13 March 2019 for PC and Nintendo Switch. The game centers around the manipulation of 'rules'—represented by tiles with words written on them—in order to allow the player character, usually the titular Baba, to reach a specified goal.
Gameplay[edit]
The player, usually, controls a character known as Baba, with exceptions in some levels. Each level contains various movable word tiles, corresponding to specific types of objects and obstacles on the field (such as Baba itself, the goal flag, walls and environmental hazards, and other creatures), linking operators such as 'is' and 'and', and verb tiles reflecting the properties of these objects (such as 'you', which makes the object become controlled by the player, 'push' to make them movable, 'stop' to make them impassable, 'win' to specify the goal, 'sink' to make items drown in it, and so on). The objective of each level is for the player to reach the goal by manipulating these tiles to create or modify 'rules' by which they behave. For example, the goal can be changed by moving 'is' and 'win' blocks to another object, and the player can travel through objects by removing the 'stop' trait from them.[1] Levels can force specific rules by placing their blocks in a corner, so they cannot be moved.[2] The game contains over 200 levels.[1]
Development and release[edit]
The theme of the 2017 Nordic Game Jam was 'Not There', which prompted Teikari (a student at the University of Helsinki who had previously developed the Metroidvania-genre game Environmental Station Alpha) to envision a game concept based on manipulating logic operators. He explained that levels were often created by brainstorming a 'cool' or 'amusing' solution, and then coming up with how the player would accomplish it. Teikari noted that 'the most satisfying moments in puzzle games are those which present the player with simple but hard-to-wrap-your-head-around situations, so that solving the puzzle is about figuring out that one neat trick/twist.'[3] As with his previous projects, the game was developed using Multimedia Fusion 2, and a Lua scripting plugin; Teikari credited his friend Lukas Meller for help with the Lua implementations.[3]
Teikari stated in 2017 that he planned to release the full game in 2018, and placed a development version of the title for download at itch.io. After Baba Is You won at the Independent Games Festival in March 2018, a clone of the game was released by a French publisher on the App Store, using nearly the same graphics and calling itself the same name. Teikari worked with the French division of Apple to remove the offending app.[4]
Katamari forever trophy guide. The game, and a Nintendo Switch release, were focused upon in a Nintendoindie games showcase presentation on 31 August 2018.[5]Baba Is You was released on 13 March 2019, via Steam for Microsoft Windows, Linux, and macOS, and on Nintendo Switch.[2][1]
A cross-platform level editor, with online level sharing, is currently in open beta on Steam, and is expected to be added to the game within 2020.[6]
Reception[edit]
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Baba Is You won first place at the 2017 Nordic Game Jam.[11] It was nominated for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize and won awards for 'Best Student Game' and 'Excellence In Design' at the 2018 IGF Awards.[12] It was also nominated for 'Best Indie Game' at the 2019 Golden Joystick Awards,[13] for 'Indie Game of the Year' at the Titanium Awards,[14] and for 'Best Independent Game' at The Game Awards 2019,[15] and won the award for 'Outstanding Achievement in Game Design' for the 23rd Annual D.I.C.E. Awards;[16] in addition, it was nominated for 'Gameplay Design, New IP' at the NAVGTR Awards,[17] and for 'Game Design' and 'Original Property' at the 16th British Academy Games Awards,[18] and won the award for 'Best Design' and the 'Innovation Award' at the 20th Game Developers Choice Awards.[19] The PC version of the game was among the best-selling new releases of the month on Steam.[20][a]
Baba Is You received 'generally favorable reviews', according to review aggregatorMetacritic.[7][8]Polygon considered it 'one of the best puzzle video games in years', with the reviewer observing that it 'asks me to toss my assumptions about how rules in video games work, to analyze how and why they exist in the first place. And that sort of reprogramming of my brain, oddly enough, happens best when the game is turned off.'[1]Pocket Gamer was similarly positive, describing it as a 'ridiculously complex puzzler that has you questioning not only every decision you make, but how anyone managed to think up something so bizarre', and concluding that it was one of the 'most inventive, exciting puzzle games you will ever play. It's beautifully simple in its graphics and its core design, but it'll make your brain hurt with how nonsensical the solutions appear to be.'[2]
Notes[edit]
- ^Based on total revenue for the first two weeks on sale.[21]
References[edit]
- Teikari, Arvi (20 March 2020). Reading the Rules of 'Baba Is You'. Game Developers Conference 2020. Retrieved 24 March 2020.
- ^ abcdPlante, Chris (13 March 2019). 'Baba Is You review: one of the best puzzle games in years'. Polygon. Archived from the original on 13 March 2019. Retrieved 14 March 2019.
- ^ abcdCowley, Ric. 'Baba is You Switch review - 'Puzzling perfection in every way''. Pocket Gamer. Retrieved 14 March 2019.
- ^ abCouture, Joel. 'Road to the IGF: Hempuli Oy's Baba Is You'. Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 8 March 2018. Retrieved 14 March 2019.
- ^Wawro, Alex (4 April 2018). 'IGF Award-winning Baba Is You cloned before it was even released'. Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 21 April 2019. Retrieved 16 March 2019.
- ^Fogel, Stefanie; Fogel, Stefanie (28 August 2018). 'Nintendo Holds Nindies Showcase Summer 2018'. Variety. Archived from the original on 29 August 2018. Retrieved 14 March 2019.
- ^Bolding, Jonathan (17 November 2019). 'Baba is You has a cross-platform level editor coming'. PC Gamer. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
- ^ ab'Baba Is You for Switch Reviews'. Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
- ^ ab'Baba Is You for PC Reviews'. Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
- ^Warr, Philippa (15 March 2019). 'Baba is You review'. PC Gamer. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
- ^Marsh, Calum. 'Baba is You Review - Game-Changer'. GameSpot. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
- ^MacLeod, Riley (13 March 2019). 'A Puzzle Game Where You Rewrite The Rules Of Each Level'. Kotaku. Retrieved 16 March 2019.
- ^Donnelly, Joe (22 March 2018). 'Night in the Woods tops IGF Awards, student game Baba Is You wins big'. PC Gamer. Archived from the original on 3 March 2019. Retrieved 14 March 2019.
- ^Tailby, Stephen (20 September 2019). 'Days Gone Rides Off with Three Nominations in This Year's Golden Joystick Awards'. Push Square. Retrieved 21 September 2019.
- ^'Titanium Awards 2019'. Fun & Serious Game Festival. Archived from the original on 21 November 2019. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
- ^Winslow, Jeremy (19 November 2019). 'The Game Awards 2019 Nominees Full List'. GameSpot. Retrieved 20 November 2019.
- ^Van Allen, Eric (14 February 2020). 'Untitled Goose Game Wins Top Bill at the 2020 D.I.C.E. Awards'. USgamer. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
- ^'2019 Nominees'. National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers. 13 January 2020. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
- ^Stuart, Keith (3 March 2020). 'Death Stranding and Control dominate Bafta games awards nominations'. The Guardian. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
- ^Makuch, Eddie (18 March 2020). 'Untitled Goose Game Wins Another Game Of The Year Award'. GameSpot. Retrieved 19 March 2020.
- ^'Best of 2019: New Releases'. Steam. Valve. Archived from the original on 28 December 2019. Retrieved 28 December 2019.
- ^'A Look Back - The Best of 2019'. Steam. Valve. 26 December 2019. Archived from the original on 28 December 2019. Retrieved 28 December 2019.
Further reading[edit]
- Gordon, Lewis (October 9, 2019). 'Indie game makers open up about the money they actually make'. The Verge. Retrieved October 12, 2019.