Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning

Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning
Developer(s)	Mystman12
Publisher(s)	Basically, Games!
Series	Baldi's Basics
Engine	Unity
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows macOS Linux Android iOS
Release	March 31, 2018
Genre(s)	Survival horror, educational, parody
Mode(s)	Single-player

Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning (also known as Baldi's Basics and Baldi's Basics Classic) is a 2018 independent parody horror video game developed by Micah McGonigal, known by the pseudonym mystman12. The game parodies educational games of the 1990s through poor graphics and similar themes. Baldi's Basics was first released in beta on March 31, 2018 via Itch.io for Microsoft Windows and macOS. A full release of the game, including additional content and a story mode, was published in early access on June 12, 2020, with development ongoing.

Plot

A friend of the protagonist forgets seven notebooks at the local schoolhouse but can't get them himself because he'd be late for 'eating practice', so he asks the protagonist to fetch them. Once the player arrives, Baldi, one of the teachers, quizzes the player with simple math problems every time they find a notebook (three per book), with the promise of a prize if they answer all of them correctly. Baldi is also very easy to anger, and after presenting the player with impossible math problems will start to chase them when they inevitably fail to answer them correctly. The protagonist is forced to continue to search for all the other notebooks while also avoiding other students and various obstacles. If the player chooses to answer every question wrong, they will experience an alternative ending which includes a distorted version of Baldi and another hidden character asking you to destroy the game.

Gameplay

The player must locate all seven notebooks without being caught by their teacher, Baldi. Other students and faculty attempt to hinder the player by forcing them to participate in various activities. Each notebook contains three simple arithmetic problems, but the third question is unsolvable in the second notebook onwards. As the player continues to fail the impossible questions, Baldi moves faster and becomes harder to avoid.

Once the player collects all of the notebooks, Baldi will seem to congratulate the player before screaming, "GET OUT WHILE YOU STILL CAN!!!". There are three trick exits and only one that will let the player escape, and the player has to trigger all three before they can use the real exit.

The player can collect different items from around the schoolhouse, such as a candy bar that keeps their stamina from dropping for a short period of time, a soda that can be used to blast characters away, a pair of scissors that can temporarily disable some of the obstacles and a teleporter that will place them in a random position in the school among others.

Development and release

The game was initially made as an entry in the annual Meta-Game Jam, where it received 2nd place. In an interview with Gamasutra, the game's developer cited the 1996 game Sonic’s Schoolhouse as his main inspiration. It became popular for its humour, difficulty and surreal gameplay. Popular YouTubers such as DanTDM, Markiplier, Jacksepticeye, PewDiePie, and Kindly Keyin made videos on the game, helping to boost its popularity.

The developer launched a Kickstarter campaign for the game, where he announced that an early access prototype for the full game will be released on June 12, 2020. The Kickstarter raised a total of $61,375. Development has been ongoing ever since, with additional content such as new characters, new items, minigames, challenge modes, 'field trips' and a new layout for the schoolhouse, incorporating multiple levels and procedural generation.