Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning[b] is a 2018 puzzlehorror game developed and published by Micah McGonigal. Disguised as an educational game, it parodies 1990s educational games by deconstructing their elements into metafictional horror. The game is set in a schoolhouse, where the objective is to locate and collect notebooks, escape the school to take them to the player's friend who lost them, and avoid being caught by Baldi. The game features many game modes that change gameplay subtly or drastically.
It was developed for the Meta-Game Jam in 2018 and released on Itch.io. The game's main source of inspiration during its development was Sonic's Schoolhouse (1996). It was positively received upon release. Following its success, the game was expanded upon in the form of successors such as Baldi's Basics Plus in 2020 and Baldi's Basics Classic Remastered in 2022.
Gameplay
A screenshot of the beginning of the remastered edition. Baldi, the game's titular antagonist, stands in the distance.
Baldi's Basics is a 3D puzzle horror game that satirizes 1990s educational games.[1] The player has to locate seven notebooks scattered around a school;[2] they belong to the player character's friend, who cannot retrieve them to avoid being late for "eating practice".[3] Each notebook contains three arithmetic problems within the mathematics subject, but after the first notebook the third question becomes unsolvable. As the player continues to fail the questions, of which some are impossible, Baldi becomes more aggressive, moves faster and becomes harder to avoid.[4] Baldi hears every sound that the player makes,[1] and chases them with his wooden ruler. As he moves, he smacks the ruler, making a sound to alert the player as to the approximate location of Baldi.[4][5] If the player gets caught by Baldi, they are jumpscared, resulting in a game over.[4]
The player may encounter other characters that can be used to their advantage or should be avoided, such as Principal, Bully, or Playtime. The Principal locks the player in detention for a short period of time, which increases with every visit, after breaking one of the school rules. Bully, a naughty student that will take one of the player's items upon interaction, and if they have none he will act as a human barrier, blocking a path. Playtime forces player to jump rope for a certain amount of time.[5][6][7] Items are scattered around the facility, which the player can use to defend themself,[6] like from Playtime using scissors to cut her rope.[7] After collecting seven notebooks, the player has to find all four school exits to beat the game, without been caught by Baldi.[2][6] The original game features both a story mode and an endless mode; in the latter, the player must keep collecting notebooks until Baldi catches them.[1][8]
Other versions and releases of the game, such as Baldi's Basics Birthday Bash and Baldi's Basics Classic Remastered, include additional features such as randomly-chosen items.[2][1] The latter game features a "Demo" mode, which blends the original with the elements from Baldi's Basics Plus.[1]
Development and release
Baldi's Basics was created by Micah McGonigal as an entry in the 2018 Meta-GameJam released at March 31, on Itch.io,[5][9][10] where it placed in second.[1] In interviews, McGonigal cited the 1996 video game Sonic's Schoolhouse as his main inspiration. While he never played it, he chose it due to unsettling visuals of the game, with its poor and inconsistent blend of 3D and 2D elements.[11][12] Music for the game was produced using MIDI.[7]
Following the game's popularity online and now that McGonigal was considering a job as a video game developer viable,[13] he launched a Kickstarter campaign on July 24, 2018, where he announced that a "full game," titled Baldi's Basics Plus, would be released by August 23 with a funding goal of US$50,000.[13][14] Alongside a demo titled Baldi's Basics: Field Trip,[15][16] which is set in a field trip in the middle of a forest; Baldi tasks the player with keeping a campfire going by searching for firewood before a timer runs out. Failing results in Baldi chasing the player; a game over follows suit.[15][17] The campaign succeeded, surpassing over half of its initial goal, by August 3.[18]
On April 1, 2019, for the first anniversary of the game, a birthday-themed version titled Baldi's Basics Birthday Bash was released. It added randomly-chosen items, two of which introduced in this version, as well as birthday decorations and costumes for the characters.[2] Later that same year, the original game was ported to iOS and Android under the name Baldi's Basics Classic.[6][8] With a planned release date of December 2019,[14] which later became early 2020,[8]Baldi's Basics Plus was eventually released as an early access title in June 12 2020 on Steam, Itch.io, and Game Jolt.[7]Teased in April 2021, Baldi's Basics Classic Remastered was released in October 21, 2022, also for Steam, Itch.io, and Game Jolt. The game remakes both the original and the Birthday Bash, and adds a mode that blends elements from the original with Baldi's Basics Plus.[1][19]
In April 2025, Micah had mentioned about the plans for release of Baldi's Basics on consoles.[20]
Fans were involved in modifications,[10] with journalists noting appearances of the game in Roblox and Minecraft as recreations,[23] as well as unauthorized mobile game knock-offs, which McGonigal also had warned about around that time.[10] Which further contributed to the game's popularity.[2][9] The game's comedic aesthetic and character's catchphrases helped create multi-generational appeal of the game.[23][24]
↑ Micah McGonigal (mystman12). Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning (2018) (Windows, macOS, Linux). Level/area: Menu (How to play). Oh noes![sic] School is out, but your friend has a Problem![sic] He left all of his notebooks in school, but doesn't have time to go get them, becasuse[sic] if he does he'll be late for eating practice. To help him out, you have to go back in school and find all his notebooks for him.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
1 2 Zarzycka, Agata (2022). "Ridiculing the Player: Live-Action Visualisations of Game Experience in YouTube Parody Videos as an Ambivalent Strategy of Self-Fashioning". In Giappone, Krista Bonello Rutter; Majkowski, Tomasz Z.; Švelch, Jaroslav (eds.). Video Games and Comedy. Palgrave Studies in Comedy. Palgrave Macmillan. pp.226–230. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-88338-6_11. ISBN978-3-030-88337-9.
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