Baby Steps : Devolver's Secret Code Giveaway
On the 23rd of September, Baby Steps – the long-awaited collaboration between Maxi Boch (A City Sleeps), Gabe Cuzzillo (Ape Out) and Bennett Foddy (QWOP) – released. As part of the launch, publisher Devolver Digital set up a livestream on their YouTube page called “Baby Steps - Calming Naturescapes for Relaxation”. It featured the ambient soundscapes from the game without protagonist Nate grunting around them.
Sound has been a critical element in the trio’s previous games, be it Boch’s adaptive jazz soundtrack in Ape Out or Foddy’s philosophical narration in Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy, so a video dedicated to Baby Steps’ natural soundscapes made perfect sense.
A few hours into the stream, I was tipped off to the fact that in addition to an infographic fading into view occasionally, codes for the game on Steam were also appearing. With so few people tuned into this innocuous stream (26 at most in my time watching), many were able to come away with a free copy of the game for their curiosity.
The video’s description teased the giveaway, reading : “Life can be scary. Take some time to chill with these calming naturescapes, brought to you by Baby Steps. The deeper you look, the more you may find.”
Baby Steps is a game about continuing to put one foot in front of the other when you slip up, no matter how far you’ve fallen, so rewarding the perseverance of viewers feels fitting. I reached out to Devolver but have not had any word back at the time of writing. The stream ended after 22 hours and is currently unavailable to watch but I wanted to highlight it as a unique way of marketing a game and doing a giveaway all in one.
Baby Steps is a literal walking simulator developed by Maxi Boch, Gabe Cuzzillo and Bennett Foddy, and published by Devolver Digital for PS5 and PC via Steam. All images used here copyright of these parties unless otherwise stated for illustrative purposes. If you would like to support Memory Card, consider a one-time donation via Ko-Fi or an ongoing one via Patreon (where you can read articles one day early)!
P.S The droning of the cicada in the grass area was the exact opposite of relaxing ambience in my opinion. It served as an excellent filter for those who started coming into the stream just to grab a code.
