Baba is You is a puzzle game in which players could manipulate the rules of the gameplay to achieve the winning condition while playing through each level. I am going to analyze Baba from three perspectives: the visuals of the game, the design of the game, and the main point of why the game is fun to play.
Firstly, I think it’s very clever for the designer to use pixel art as the art style of Baba because pixel art could be simple but stylistic, giving less limitation to the game. The visual logic of the game is based on a 2D tilemap where everything in a level is presented as different types of blocks. By doing so, as all the objects are drawn in an invisible grid, they could save plenty of time on the art side without paying attention to solving regular difficulties we face such as the perspective and details of assets. Also, there is a close connection between the art style and mechanics. Baba is actually continually using these ‘ancient’ settings of the classic game ‘Pushing Box’, including its core mechanics and controls, and then further developing them. Thus, the retro art style perfectly matches Baba’s gameplay. Another highlight is the animations of Baba. By simply shaking all the objects and adding feedback to players’ death, the designer trickly makes the game world vivid and alive, precisely catching what players need.
Secondly, from the viewpoint of design, I personally divide the game into two parts: figuring out the logic of sentences and executing by controlling the avatars. As I mentioned above, the core mechanic of the game is pushing blocks of two data types. The first are words that construct the rule in the level while the second are resources like walls, pillars, or other objects. By pushing these word blocks and re-placed them into new sentences, the functions of objects that were described in the sentences will be re-defined.
I believe the primary aesthetic goal of Baba is to make players a part of the rule modifier. And players would feel like they have more control over the game than they actually do.
Another highlight is that the designer simply solves the deadlock problem by bringing in the ‘z’ key for players to undo their last move. This mechanic helps players avoid the deadlock and they can try out any strategies without any concerns since there is no punishment for the wrong move and they never need to restart the level.
I think the main reason that makes the game interesting is the unique interactions between players and the mechanics. Unlike other puzzle games, Baba shows all elements of the level at the beginning. Even though the game becomes complicated after adding together these simple staffs, it still gives players a feeling of ‘the answer is so easy but I just didn’t get it’ when they are stuck because there is no information asymmetry between players and designers. Actually, there is still only one critical path in each level, but it could be reached differently since players would have to try many times, building many different rules, before they find out the correct answer. And this would give players a relatively relaxing game feeling with more freedom.
In conclusion, the designer of Baba is You accurately grasp players’ demands when playing a game, providing proper feedback and fluent game flow. I consider it as a great example for indie developers or designers who want to make small-scale games that focus on mechanics but still have a pleasing overall performance.