Game:

Baba Is You (2019)

Duration: 11:49

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The Ind.ieBeat Baba Is You is a charming puzzle game where words matter.
Baba Is You is an innocuous little puzzler that emerged from the Nordic Game Jam last year — and it’s received nominations for four different awards for March’s Independent Games Festival. Its curious charm is undeniable, and draws on developer Arvi Teikari’s deep love for brainteasers like Jonathan Blow’s iconic indie title Braid and the quirky yet elegant Stephen’s Sausage Roll from Increpare. Teikari is hoping to release the game sometime this summer for PC, though he’s also considering

“The theme of the [game jam] was ‘Not There,’ which made me think of the logical operator ‘Not,'” said Teikari in an email to GamesBeat. “I didn’t think much of it at first, but during the evening/night of the day the theme was announced, I got the mental image of a Sokoban-like game that used the Not operator. The mental image didn’t feel very interesting and I was sure that I’d run into some large technical roadblock quickly, but I decided to have a go at it anyway. And here we are!”

Baba Is You cleverly plays with language, inviting players to change their environment and take on new abilities by manipulating the words around them. As it progresses, it becomes more complex. Some of the later puzzles look almost like rudimentary programming, tasking players to “code” the way they move and the way objects around them behave. For the release, Teikari will also include a level editor so players can create their own puzzles.

Teikari has 35 games on his webpage, many of which he also developed at game jams. Many of these events are only 48 hours long, which he says leads to an exciting atmosphere and also give developers permission to ignore troubleshooting bugs that don’t break the game. Instead, they can just focus on shipping.

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