How Baby Steps’ Visual Design Makes Nate a “Fish Out of Water”

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Okay, so at first glance, *Baby Steps* is exactly what it sounds like – a walking simulator, and the developers *lean into* that. You literally control each of the main character, Nate’s, legs individually, making him walk. It seems silly, like a joke about how simple some games can be. But honestly, it quickly becomes something way more interesting. It’s not just about the awkward way Nate moves; it’s really about the strange world he’s stumbling through and what that all means. It’s an experiment, and it’s surprisingly captivating.

The unique world in *Baby Steps* isn’t just a strange backdrop; it was intentionally created to make the player, as Nate, feel like an outsider. Developers Bennett Foddy and Maxi Boch recently explained to Game Rant that they wanted Nate’s journey to feel less like a typical adventure and more like a disorienting experience – a feeling of not quite fitting in.

Baby Steps’ Visual Design Frames Nate as a Perpetual Outsider

Talking to the developers, we quickly learned that the distinctive look of *Baby Steps* wasn’t just one design decision. It came from many different sources of inspiration. Right from the beginning, the team deliberately wanted to make the game world feel slightly *off* for Nate, and this idea eventually showed up in the strange way he moves and how the physics work.

Nate Walking Across a Bridge

The game’s world was designed to be so bizarre that even simple actions, like standing, felt awkward. This unique style came from various images and artwork the developers were looking at during the game’s creation, as Foddy described:

The game’s visual style drew inspiration from several sources, but I was aiming for a specific mood at the beginning. Around late 2019, while playing an early version of the game called Baby Steps, I found artwork by Tyler Rhodes – created using Artbreeder – that perfectly captured what I envisioned. He made these atmospheric images of candles emerging from foggy landscapes, which reminded me of the sets from old movies with visible special effects, or even the surreal sponge paintings by Max Ernst. This aesthetic helped create the feeling of Nate being out of place, which I wanted to complement the gameplay.

The same idea applied to the game’s sound design. It wasn’t enough for *Baby Steps* to simply look realistic; it needed to *feel* that way too, and the music and background sounds were key to achieving that. Like the art style, the audio focused on emphasizing Nate’s clumsiness instead of hiding it. Instead of a typical game score, the developers used sounds from the environment itself to create the game’s soundscape.

Because of this, the music in *Baby Steps* felt more free-flowing and improvisational than strict and planned. The developers found its unique beat by exploring unexpected places in the game’s sound design. Boch explained their approach to creating the game’s audio, saying:

While recovering from finishing the game *Ape Out*, I began experimenting with making music in the shower and really enjoyed the sound. I’d already used water sounds in *Ape Out*’s music, and as the gameplay for *Baby Steps* developed, it felt natural to create a soundtrack inspired by sounds from the environment – which perfectly matched the game’s story about a psychedelic hike taken by a somewhat lost character.

The visual and sound design in *Baby Steps* deliberately portrays Nate as unheroic and incapable. The game consistently emphasizes how out of his depth he is, making him feel like an outsider through both what you see and hear. This constant sense of vulnerability makes even small achievements in the game feel significant – and that’s what makes *Baby Steps* a compelling idea, even if it’s a bit unusual.

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2025-09-17 21:10