2019-05-01+PC+Gamer

BabaisYouisaspatialwordgame,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

willcompletethelevel.Butthereare

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

the win condition of the level. There’s

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. 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 the 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.

Wordplay

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!

Baba is You deserves its critical

acclaim. It’s part logic puzzle, part

existential quandary, part love letter

to how much potential is contained

inthebuildingblocksoflanguage.

NeedtoKNow

What is it?

Sokoban meets

programming in this

word-pusherpuzzle

EXPECttOPaY

£00

DEvElOPEr

HempuliOy

PublishEr

In-house

rEviEWEDOn

Windows 10, 16GB RAM,

Intel Core i7-5820k,

GeForceGTX 970

MultiPlaYEr

None

link

hempuli.com/baba

90

Baba is You manages to

take the familiar idea of

nudging blocks and

solving puzzles in a fresh

direction. Brilliant.

vErDiCt

Write “Baba is

win” and it

makes you the

win condition

of the level

B

aba 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 OOh

Pushing andshovingtherulesin

the wonderful BaBa is You. By Philippa Warr

VocaBularY lessoN What these word combos actually mean

textis Float

Floating text won’t be

affected by objects that

“sink” or “teleport” what’s

on top of them.

doorisshut

aNdstop

The door can be removed

using any object described

as “open”.

sKullisdeFeat

This one is pretty

straightforward. If you

walk into any of the skulls,

you lose.

rocKispush

You can move boulders

around by pushing them.

Without “is push” you’d

just walk through them.

BabaisYou

rEviEW