Baby Steps & Getting Over It creator Bennett Foddy reveals crazy game ideas

Dexerto caught up with Getting Over It and Baby Steps creator Bennett Foddy to learn about some of his crazier game ideas that didn’t see the light of day.

From the early days of QWOP through to Getting Over It, and now, Baby Steps, Aussie creative Bennett Foddy certainly doesn’t play it safe with his concepts. He’s not trying to do the same things as everyone else, and the industry is all the better for it.

With Baby Steps now in the spotlight, however, I was curious as to what ideas don’t quite make the cut. With how wacky and obtuse the game’s entire premise is, it’s hard to imagine what else was pitched and deemed a little too crazy, even for Foddy.

So, to get to the bottom of it, I spoke to the man himself, alongside Baby Steps co-creator Gabe Cuzzillo, to glean some details on game ideas that may never be carried out.

Bennett Foddy’s wild ideas that won’t be turned into games

Before Baby Steps entered full-scale production, there was a period of “around nine months” where Foddy and Cuzzillo were going back and forth on various pitches. Some were prototyped to various degrees, but none ended up getting the greenlight.

“We threw out a bunch of games that were all bad,” Cuzzillo said. “None of them will ever see the light of day,” Foddy joked in response.

Getting into specifics, one pitch was a very intriguing golf game. “We had a golf game that was inspired by Gold With Your Friends,” Foddy said. “You were the ball.”

Exactly how that may have worked, who’s to say. But just from the description alone, it sure sounds like a concept that could’ve led to plenty of laughs. Ultimately, it wasn’t one they were interested in pursuing, however.

Next came a spin on the classic twin stick shooter. The game itself sounded relatively ordinary until Foddy detailed the narrative layout. “It was about late-stage capitalism,” he said with his dry wit.

Similarly, that novel concept never moved beyond the ideation phase, much like another pitch that riffed on a classic genre.

“There was a competitive, one-on-one city-building,” Cuzzillo told us.

Imagining the depth of a competitive Civilization game paired with the detail of a Cities: Skylines… it certainly sounds intriguing – not to mention a heck of an undertaking.

But when faced with the decision of which game to actually make, none of these ideas were quite what the creative duo had in mind. “They were bad, trust me,” Cuzzillo stressed.

Baby Steps was the first idea in this nine-month span “that seemed like it had legs,” Foddy chimed in with another laugh.

“What we’re seeking is something with a bit of cultural headroom,” he continued. “Something that has the possibility for people to talk about it, or want to watch it be played. To go digging for secrets. To be inspired by it.

“I don’t think you really get to that by working in super well-established genres. It’s harder, at least. So we’re looking for something that we felt might have had room for people to talk about it. This was the first one that really hit that bar, so we committed to it.”