Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning

Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning (or Baldi's Basics Classic and simply Baldi's Basics) is a free-to-play survival horror indie video game. It was released on March 31, 2018 for PC. Baldi's Basics is a parody; it takes the appearance of an educational video game from the 1990s, while the gameplay is centered on survival horror.

Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning
Developer(s)Micah McGonigal (mystman12)
Publisher(s)Basically, Games!
EngineUnity
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, Linux, Android
ReleaseWW March 31, 2018
Genre(s)Survival horror
Indie game

Gameplay

The player must find their friend's seven notebooks that are spread throughout the school, without being caught by their teacher, Baldi, and being hindered by the other students and faculty.[1] Each notebook has at least one wrong answer with the exception of the first notebook. Along the way they can collect items to help them. It is impossible to get the last question correct on all notebooks with the exception of the first notebook.

The game was initially made as an entry in the annual Meta-Game Jam, where it received 2nd place.[2] It became popular for its humor-like difficulty and strange-looking levels.[3] Popular YouTubers such as Markiplier made videos showing themselves playing the game.[4]

Baldi's Basics Plus

The developer launched a Kickstarter for the game, asking the public for money. The developer announced that the full game would be released sometime in late 2019 or early 2020. The Kickstarter, as of February 4, 2019, had raised a total US$61,375.[5]

On August 13, 2019, the Baldi's Basics full game demo was released for the public.

An enhanced Kickstarter Exclusive Demo came out on November 5, 2019.

On March 31, 2020, Baldi's Basics Plus, a version of the original with more features, was announced in itch.io. The early access trailer was posted on May 9, 2020 and it was released for early access on June 12, 2020.

Characters

  • Protagonist: They are the main character that you play yourself.
  • Baldi Baldimore: He is the teacher of the game that teaches normal and extremely complicated mathematics.
  • Principal of the Thing: He is the principal that whistles and says "No [command] in the halls!" for breaking the school rules.
  • It's a Bully: He is the school bully that takes item randomly from your inventory.
  • Gotta Sweep: A broom who sweeps the halls and is able to push anything in it's way including the player.
  • 1st Prize: He is a robot who won 1st prize in a contest and also tries to hug the player.
  • Arts and Crafters: He is a sock puppet who does nothing until you get 7 notebooks, he will teleport the player close to Baldi from the starting point.
  • Playtime: She is a little girl who has a jump rope and forces the protagonist to jump 5 times. You can press space to jump. She can be defeated using scissors.
  • Null: Previously believed to be named "filename2", Null is a character that can be found at the end of the story mode when getting every math answer wrong. In Baldi's Basics Classic Remastered, there is a secret mode named 'Null Style' where he is revealed to be an overarching antagonist and he tries to kill you.

References

  1. Jackson, Gita. "A Free Game That Makes Math More Scary" (in en-US). Kotaku. https://kotaku.com/a-free-game-that-makes-math-scary-1825220750. Retrieved 2018-09-02. 
  2. "Top ranked games in the Meta Game Jam". itch.io. Retrieved 2018-08-05.
  3. "'Baldi's Basics' Brings Nostalgia for Millennial Gamers" (in en-US). Study Breaks. 2018-06-15. https://studybreaks.com/culture/baldis-basics/. Retrieved 2018-09-02. 
  4. Nguyen, Keoni. "A Fake Edutainment Game Is Now A YouTube Hit" (in en-US). Kotaku. https://kotaku.com/a-fake-edutainment-game-is-now-a-youtube-hit-1827114239. Retrieved 2018-08-02. 
  5. "Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning - Full game!". Kickstarter. Retrieved 2018-08-02.