For this week’s critical play, I played Babbdi, a game created by Sirius and Léonard Lemaitre and published by Lemaitre Bros in 2022, playable for free on Steam. The game doesn’t specify an exact target audience, but I would assume primarily caters to players ages 13 and up, since it has dystopian themes and a darker, ominous aesthetic. In Babbdi, walking tells the story through spatial storytelling: specifically, thorough the sensory experiences of the world (what you are able to hear and see) and embedded narratives (as evident through the speaking interactions with the other people in Babbdi).
(the world)
Sensorally, you learn a lot about the town of Babbdi by wandering around the town’s physical space and seeing and hearing different elements of the landscape. When I started the game, I was placed in a cement hallway with minimal information, except for knowledge on how to move. The game functions on two primary mechanics for mobility: turning via mouse movements, moving with arrow keys, and jumping with a space bar. I was instructed as I entered the game to press tab to go to the library and view the missions and secret objects, one of the few initial guidances as to what the goal of the game was.
(the library, with missions and objects)
Just looking around visually told me a lot of story as I navigated the game: minimal signage pointed me towards the train station, the playground and dog built the “abandoned town” feel of everything, and the doors with slots for eyes at the train conductor’s contributed to feelings of mystique and dystopia.
Thus, just by exploring and walking around, I could begin to understand the story of the world better as different areas were revealed. Moving a certain distance would enact an auto-save, which marked an amount of territory covered. Tools like the flashlight became crucial to find new objects in dark spaces, unlocking more of the story through this visual reveal.
(the flashlight, unlocking new areas)
Additionally, the things you would hear during gameplay were an important part of the story: so important that there were separate settings for volume, sound effect volume, and ambient sound volume. All of these factors came together to create the ambiance of the world, be it ghoulish background of the dance music playing in the basement around a fire, an extension of the story.
(sound settings)
(people, with dialogue)
The story is primarily told through embedded narratives propelled by the dialogue from the “people” in the town. Upon being placed in the game, I was clued into the train being the way to leave via the person in the second room. Even talking with the guard and Babbdi, I learned that everyone in Babbdi was trying to leave, and that it was desirable to have train tickets. Each person I talked to was like a “clue” as to what general direction I should go, including a random person suggesting I check the train window for tickets being sold. With no exact written directions (aside from missions in the mission board), I relied on these interactions to point me towards escape and different areas to check out. Although I was unable to complete the overall mission during the hour and a half that I played, I would have been totally lost if not for the tidbits learned via character interactions.
One thing I noticed early on was that the designers of Babbdi created the simulation with no capabilities of violence. Even when I had the bat, when I begrudgingly thought that the only way to get the train ticket would be to hit the man who had the tickets and take them from him, I found that none of the characters could be harmed by my hitting them. This was an intentional decision by the designers that placed the emphasis more on figuring out the spatial story than dystopian games that center around violence or running away from a predator. This differs from the experience of playing intentionally violent games, like HungerCraft, where characters’ goals is to survive, or even Minecraft survival mode, where we’re encouraged to fight off creepers attacking or where one can hurt other villagers. The exclusion of violence shifts the player to think more about the story and situation, rather than defaulting to actions that are the norm in a dystopian, walking game. I personally felt much more comfortable and curious plying the game knowing nothing was trying to get me, as it tapped in more to my sense of discovery as fun after turning away from competition.
