Baby Step Punishes Players Who Skip Cutscenes Too Often

2025-10-09

The upcoming platforming adventure Baby Step has taken an unusual approach to storytelling—by punishing players who skip too many cutscenes. While many games allow players to breeze past dialogue and cinematics, Baby Step turns this behavior into a lesson about patience, narrative, and absurd humor.

According to players in early test builds, skipping multiple cutscenes in succession triggers a hidden feature: an unskippable, ultra-long cinematic that lasts up to ten minutes. The scene reportedly shows Josh, the game's clumsy protagonist, trudging through a fog-drenched mountain, delivering a bizarre philosophical monologue about "the virtue of slowing down" and "what it means to truly climb." The pacing is deliberately slow—each step feels like a minute. The message? Maybe you should've watched the first few cutscenes.

The developers, known for their dry, meta sense of humor, have described the mechanic as a "gentle form of discipline." They wanted to poke fun at players who treat story segments as mere obstacles. "We noticed that people were skipping everything we wrote," one team member joked in a recent interview. "So we made sure that if they skip too much, they'll have plenty of time to reflect on that choice."

Reactions online have been mixed but passionate. Some players call it one of the funniest game design ideas of the decade, praising its self-awareness and commitment to humor. Others see it as frustrating and potentially immersion-breaking, arguing that forcing players to sit through a scene goes against the principle of freedom in gameplay. But whether you find it brilliant or annoying, it's undeniably memorable.

Interestingly, the punishment sequence isn't always the same. Some players have reported different versions of the "lesson cutscene"—one features Josh giving a mock lecture about storytelling, while another shows him sitting by a campfire humming to himself. The developers hinted that future patches might include even longer or more creative penalties for chronic skippers, including fake loading screens or "mindfulness" minigames.

What makes this mechanic stand out is how well it fits Baby Step's overall tone. The game has always been about slow progress, awkward movement, and celebrating failure. By integrating narrative impatience into its gameplay, it reinforces its core theme: taking your time can be meaningful—and funny.

With its blend of absurd humor and clever commentary on gaming habits, Baby Step continues to spark discussion across the community. Whether it becomes a cult favorite or a divisive experiment, one thing's certain: next time you're tempted to mash that "skip" button, you might think twice.