Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning

Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning is a 2018 puzzle horror game developed and published by Micah McGonigal. Disguised as an educational game, the game is set in a schoolhouse, where the objective is to locate and collect notebooks, while avoiding being caught by Baldi. It parodies 1990s educational games by deconstructing their elements into metafictional horror. The game received positive reception upon release.

Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning
The original cover art depicting the game's title screen, and the main character, Baldi
Developer(s)	Micah McGonigal[a]
Publisher(s)	Basically, Games!
Engine	Unity
Platform(s)	Windows macOS Linux Android iOS
Release	March 31, 2018[not verified in body] Windows, macOS, Linux WW: March 31, 2018 Android, iOS WW: December 17, 2019 Baldi's Basics Classic Remastered (Windows, macOS, Linux) WW: October 21, 2022
Genre(s)	Horror puzzle educational
Mode(s)	Single-player

Gameplay

A screenshot of Baldi's Basics Classic Remastered before the player collects any notebooks. Baldi, the game's titular antagonist, stands in the distance.

Baldi's Basics is a 3D puzzle horror game which satirizes 1990s educational games. The player has to locate seven notebooks scattered around a school without being caught by Baldi.^[1] Each notebook typically contains two simple arithmetic problems using the mathematics subject, but the third question is unsolvable in the second notebook onwards. As the player continues to fail the impossible and possible questions, Baldi becomes more agressive, moves faster and becomes harder to avoid.^[2] The game features both a story mode and an endless mode. In the latter, the player must keep collecting notebooks until Baldi catches him.^[3]

Development and release

Baldi's Basics was created by Micah McGonigal, and it was initially made as an entry in the 2018 Meta-GameJam on Itch.io,^[4][5] where it placed in second. In an interview with Game Developer, McGonigal cited the 1996 game Sonic's Schoolhouse as his main inspiration.^[6][7]

McGonigal launched a Kickstarter campaign, where he announced that a "full game," titled Baldi's Basics Plus, would be released in early 2020 as an early access title.^[3] On April 1, 2019, for the first anniversary of the game, a birthday-themed version titled Baldi's Basics Birthday Bash was released.^[1] Later that same year, the original game was ported to iOS and Android under the named Baldi's Basics Classic.^[3][8]

Reception

Cultural impact

The game became an online success for its absurdist humor, difficulty, and nostalgic gameplay. Several YouTubers such as Markiplier and PewDiePie have made videos on the game, which have gained popularity on YouTube.^[9][10] Various other content created by fans of the game, including a song adaptation by video game musical group Random Encounters, further contributed to its popularity.^[5][1]

Notes

1. Known online as "mystman12"