Baby Steps Devs Talk Reclaiming the Walking Simulator Genre

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The phrase “walking simulator” has a complicated history. Originally, it described games centered around exploring and discovering things, usually on foot in a large, open world. More recently, though, it’s been used as an insult for open-world games that feel empty despite having big maps. The developers of an upcoming game called *Baby Steps* – Bennett Foddy, Gabe Cuzzillo, and Maxi Boch – are intentionally embracing the label. *Baby Steps* is literally a walking simulator, where players control every step their character takes, and the team wants to redefine what that means. They’re proud to call it a walking simulator.

How Baby Steps Subverts The Open-World Formula

When questioned about whether *Baby Steps* was meant to be a parody of “walking simulator” games, Bennett Foddy explained that he saw it more as a playful twist on large, open-world games like *Assassin’s Creed* – which also involve a lot of exploration on foot. *Baby Steps* does have a main story, where the character Nate explores a strange new world, but it’s very free-form. The game doesn’t use quest markers or to-do lists, allowing players to explore at their own speed and choose their own paths.

Foddy, Cuzzillo, and Boch also aimed to playfully challenge typical open-world game features, like those found in *Assassin’s Creed*. A key example of this is how they handled collectibles. Players can find hats for Nate throughout the game, but these hats aren’t tracked or rewarded. If a hat falls into a gap or rolls away, it’s simply lost. They’re meant to be part of the environment, something players can choose to engage with or ignore.

Baby StepsReclaims The Term “Walking Simulator”

While *Baby Steps* isn’t the team’s first game focused on simple movement, it builds on previous experiments. Bennett Foddy, a key member of the team, previously created *QWOP*, a famously challenging game where players directly control each leg muscle to run. He also made *Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy*, which featured a character using a pot to climb a mountain. Foddy points out that his games differ from typical ‘walking simulators’ because they don’t aim to realistically simulate the act of walking itself.

However, he is a fan of the walking simulator genre and is proud to call Baby Steps one:

I love walking simulators and have played many, including popular games like Dear Esther and Gone Home, as well as lesser-known ones like Fugue in Void and Far Future Tourism. The thing these games all share is a desire to break away from typical genre conventions.

Foddy is pleased to call *Baby Steps* a walking simulator because he admires how its developers, like those behind *Dear Esther* and *Gone Home*, have taken back a label that players once used dismissively. He explains that “walking sim” is a term designers use to describe games focused on exploration and observation, and they’re essentially turning a negative description into something positive.

Launching on September 23rd, *Baby Steps* is a new ‘walking simulator’ that embraces the genre while offering a unique experience. Though it centers on the simple act of walking, it still delivers what makes these games great: a beautiful, expansive world, hidden secrets, and breathtaking scenery.

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2025-09-16 17:07