How developers crafted Baby Steps' awkward protagonist Nate

Bennett Foddy and Gabe Cuzzillo have described how they created Nate, the manbaby protagonist of their comedy game Baby Steps. Foddy, formerly Cuzzillo's professor at NYU's Game Center and now his collaborator, and Cuzzillo, who provides Nate's voice, said choices such as the character's onesie and exaggerated posterior emerged playfully during development.

Nate is presented as a 35-year-old, bearded, russet-haired man living in his parents' basement who is socially awkward, resistant to help and physically unprepared for a hike. The game turns player frustration into its point of play: offers of assistance can be refused, movement is deliberately awkward, and the world contains infantile imagery including rivers of breast milk, giant toys and surreal set pieces.

The developers traced the game through many prototypes and linked its themes to Foddy's earlier work on purposeful suffering and awkward bodily movement. Playtests revealed additional facets of Nate, such as misplaced pride and a toxic-masculine vein, and the team added unlockable childhood flashbacks and symbolic elements like shiny fruit as a personal reward, a wide-angle camera inspired by trainspotter Francis Bourgeois, and a name suggested by Frank Lantz.

Foddy and Cuzzillo say many players initially dislike Nate but then begin to identify with him or see him in people they know, which they consider central to the game's philosophy of turning hostility into pleasure.

Key Topics

Culture, Baby Steps, Bennett Foddy, Gabe Cuzzillo, Maxi Boch, Nyu Game Center