Baby Steps, the new "literal walking simulator" from Bennett Foddy, Maxi Boch, and Gabe Cuzzillo, predictably kicked my butt when I tried it earlier this year. It turns out piloting a large man in a onesie through precarious mountainsides is very hard when the simple act of moving forward feels like balancing spinning plates in a wind tunnel while Foddy throws tomatoes at you. So when I had an opportunity to talk to Cuzzillo about the nature of difficulty in games, all while the subject is extra topical thanks to Hollow Knight: Silksong, I jumped at the chance.
Developer Team Cherry has already busted out the nerf bat for a few notorious offenders, but Silksong remains an openly brutal game. Baby Steps is also a proud nail-biter of a challenge, but in a different way to an action platformer like Silksong. And just as some Thai food has to be spicy, Cuzzillo reckons some games have to be hard.
