The latest game from QWOP and Getting Over It developer Bennett Foddy, an individual I've come to regard as something between a trickster deity and biblical tormentor, Baby Steps is the opposite of a power fantasy. You play as Nate, "an unemployed failson with nothing going for him"—the Steam page's words, not mine—who's been warped from his couch and into another world where he discovers the magical power of walking.
Crucially, it's a magical power that Nate's bad at. Co-developed with Foddy's fellow Ape Out creators Gabe Cuzzillo and Maxi Boch, Baby Steps is a "fully-simulated physics based" literal walking sim, where you guide Nate's individual footsteps across an open world, inevitably soiling his sad adult onesie as you send him tumbling down hillsides by failing a basic act of coordination.
If that sounds thrilling to you: Good. Because thanks to a trailer that aired during today's PC Gaming Show 2025, we now know it now has a playable Steam demo.
The trailer chronicles Nate's attempt to climb a ruined tower, despite the insistence from a nearby NPC that there's nothing at the top of the tower except "a top of a tower." Curiosity piqued, Nate begins his ascent. It doesn't go well.
Nate manages to climb an initial staircase, planting his feet with the intensity of a particularly determined toddler. Things take a turn when he's forced to cross a series of beams, where a series of misplaced steps and overzealous lunges repeatedly send him screaming to the earth.
After clearing the beams with an artful sidestep manoeuvre, Nate's success is short-lived. He plunges through holes in the stonework. He's forced to contort himself as his body snags on jutting bricks and buttresses, snapping back upright like a sort of spring-loaded armature made of mashed potatoes and regret. And yes—with every fall, the onesie is getting grosser.
After a half-dozen or so falls from the tower, Nate calls it quits, deciding "there's probably nothing up there." Setting his sights elsewhere, he wanders into a nearby marsh, spotting an interesting rock formation. He tries to climb that one, too.
I'm sure you can guess how it goes.
Baby Steps launches on September 8—if it’s tickled your fancy, you can play the demo now on Steam.
Check out every game, trailer, and announcement in the PC Gaming Show 2025
