Intro
Babbdi is a first-person walking simulator game where players are tasked to find their way out of Babbdi, a “forsaken district in the outer ring of the megalopolis.” Developed by Sirius Lemaitre and Léonard Lemaitre, Babbdi is available for free on Steam and is intended for anyone willing to explore, discover, and solve an eerie, interactive mystery. Players at the start are thrown into the world of Babbdi with no context whatsoever – spawning at a dark hallway high above the ground – and must walk around the world to discover their purpose and fulfill the game’s quests.
Central Argument
By throwing players into an eerie world with no information/context, they’re left with no choice but to explore the vast terrain and interact with various NPCs to discover their purpose, gather clues, and ultimately fulfill the game’s mysterious quests. Through doing so, Babbdi makes the process of uncovering the embedded narrative both thrilling and demanding, amplifying the aesthetics of discovery and challenge.
Analysis
One of the great things about Babbdi is the cohesive, eerie theme that it adheres to in all parts of the game’s presentation. Before even loading into the world, I was already feeling unsettled due to the misspellings and obscurities of the home menu (see Figure 1).
Upon loading into the world, the feeling of unsettledness persisted, as I was thrown into a dark hallway with no information/context (Figure 2). Unlike other walking simulators where players might receive some guidance from an all-knowing narrator, Babbdi gives the players nothing. Out of curiosity to discover more about the eerie world I was thrown into, I began to explore the hallway. That’s when I discovered various stationary NPCs that I could interact with (Figure 3).
After having interacted with all the NPCs in the hallway, I quickly realized that there was a narrative surrounding a train ticket that I must obtain in order to escape Babbdi. One of the beauties of Babbdi is the way it craftily presents the embedded narrative. Rather than spoonfeeding clues to the player via an all-knowing narrator or obvious visual cues, players start from nothing and must explore the world themselves to uncover more clues toward the objective of finding the train ticket.
However, although interactions with NPCs are rare and few in Babbdi, they’re not always as helpful as you might think. For example, in Figure 4 I found a group of NPCs that I hoped would help me get one step closer to obtaining the train ticket, but in reality, they were merely irrelevant characters dancing in an underground cave. Figure 5 depicts a more useful interaction with an NPC telling me where I can find the information center for the train tickets.
This goes to show that although Babbdi is an embedded narrative that requires players to discover clues, the clues are very subtle and oftentimes vague/unrevealing. I think this was a great choice by the game designers, as the ambiguity intensifies the sense of mystery and challenge surrounding the game, which consequently requires users to spend more time exploring all the cracks and crevices of the vast terrain. Personally, Babbdi was challenging because the clues were never handed to me; I had to work to find the NPCs scattered throughout the map and try my best to decipher their obscure messages. Sometimes they would be found on the top floor of an abandoned building (Figure 6), concealed in the corner of a dark room, or floating in a pond of graves (Figure 7). Coupled with the fact that Babbdi provides little scaffolding/information to its players, the only way to discover more clues and make progress toward your objective is by simply playing, which is how this game so strongly emphasizes the aesthetic of discovery. There were numerous instances where I went down dark passageways thinking that I would find some hidden clue, only to realize that it was a dead end. Because the world is so vast, it’s never obvious what areas are and aren’t relevant to reaching your goal (Figure 8).
Final Remarks
Babbdi is a captivating walking simulator that utilizes a lack of information and ambiguity to create challenge and promote discovery. One critique I have is that sometimes I felt that the sense of challenge was too much. At one point I was basically going in circles, completely lost on how to reach the next clue. And while the lack of information provided to the player may promote discovery, sometimes I felt as though I could have benefitted from some more information, such as how to use a pickaxe or leafblower to effectively maneuver around the map. That being said, I had so much fun playing Babbdi. When I get the chance, I plan to go back and discover all 21 secret objects (Figure 9).
