The Devolution of Baba Is You

Baba Is You is a puzzle game where you can change the rules by which you play. At every level, the rules themselves are present as blocks you can interact with. By manipulating them, you can change how the level works and cause surprising, unexpected interactions. With some simple block-pushing, you can turn yourself into a rock, turn patches of grass into dangerously hot obstacles, and even change the goal.

The theme of the 2017 Nordic Game Jam was “Not There”, which prompted Arvi Teikari to envision a game concept based on manipulating logic operators. As with his previous projects, the game was developed using Multimedia Fusion 2, and a Lua scripting plugin. Arvi stated in 2017 that he planned to release the full game in 2018. Baba Is You won at the Independent Games Festival in March 2018. The game, and a Nintendo Switch release, were focused upon in a Nintendo indie games showcase presentation on 31 August 2018. Baba Is You was released on 13 March 2019, via Steam and on Nintendo Switch. A cross-platform level editor, with online level sharing is expected to be added to the game.