Baby Steps, the literal walking simulator from the minds behind games like QWOP and Getting Over It, is out now, and publisher Devolver Digital is celebrating with a relaxing “naturescape” stream where the game’s protagonist Nate violently falls into frame every 15 minutes.
It’s all as weird, jarring, and hilarious as it sounds. In Baby Steps, “unemployed failson” Nate must traverse a “mountain-sized mountain” using the power of putting one foot in front of the other using the game’s unique (and by the look of it, frustrating) physics-based control scheme. The stream highlights various landscapes from the game that Nate must overcome and presents them as serene, idyllic vistas.
Every few minutes, however, the stream takes a sharp turn as Nate comes tumbling down some rocks or faceplants into the dirt, mimicking the experience more than a few Baby Steps players are having themselves. It’s never not funny, in large part because it’s easy to forget it’s going to happen while the stream runs in the background on a second monitor, only for the peaceful sounds of nature to be suddenly interrupted by a bumbling oaf crashing through the landscape.
Those who pay close attention to the stream will notice there’s more than just Nate occasionally bursting into view in a physics-based cacophony. Product keys for free copies of Baby Steps occasionally flash across the screen as well, rewarding those who have become entrapped by the meditative experience of waiting for a comically proportioned man-baby to flail onto the screen.
Baby Steps isn’t quite like anything else out there, as is evident by its truly wild ESRB rating description that includes the phrase “human/donkey hybrids with exposed male genitalia.” Originally scheduled to release earlier, Devolver wisely chose to delay Baby Steps to September 23 in order to avoid the debut of Hollow Knight: Silksong, which it announced with a video of Nate comically failing to climb a statue of Silksong’s heroine Hornet.
Baby Steps is available now on PC and PlayStation 5, and is also Steam Deck verified, in case you wanted the ability to throw your whole console in frustration.
