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Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning - Full game!

Created by Basically Games

Welcome to the Baldi's Basics pre-order store! Baldi's Basics Plus is releasing soon, so pre-orders have been closed, but you can still pre-order a boxed edition for a little while longer! Note: None of these purchases will grant access to the Kickstarter Exclusive Demo. That was only available as an award during the original Kickstarter campaign.

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Kickstarter Demo coming soon - Here's how you'll download it!
over 4 years ago – Mon, Oct 28, 2019 at 10:11:50 PM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

Status Update #11 - Progressing towards the Kickstarter demo.
over 4 years ago – Tue, Oct 08, 2019 at 08:38:56 PM

Hello backers, it's time for another update!

Since the public demo released, I've been working towards getting ready to release the Kickstarter demo. I've found that these demos have made for really good milestones in developing the game, as they help me better prioritize what needs to get done. Looking at the game with the idea of "I'm going to release a demo of this in a few weeks" gets me to take care of issues that I otherwise wouldn't until much later if I were looking at the game thinking "I'm going to release this in a few months." Overall I think that really helps me.

Anyways, the Kickstarter demo should be available some time very soon, definitely before Halloween! I'm sorry about not getting it out in September like I originally stated, but I wanted to make sure there was a decent amount of new content to see in it, so I took a bit a more time than I originally anticipated. At this point I've got most of the main new features I want in the game though, so there isn't a ton left to do. A bit more tweaking, a few more small additions, a bit of art and sound everything should be good to.

Some of the new content you'll find in the Kickstarter demo inlcude:

  • 1.5 new characters! One brand new character, one kind of new character (See below!)
  • A new special room
  • Two new random events
  • A new field trip
  • Three new items, as well as the return of all items from the original game
  • Three new special structures
  • And of course, you'll be able to play with the random level generator for the first time!

Improving the level generator

So, speaking of the random level generator, I recently dove back into it to make some much needed improvements. One of the main issues from before these improvements was that the level generator tended to waste a lot of space. Rooms and extra halls would often spawn in positions that would completely prevent other rooms from spawning nearby. Other times rooms would spawn in positions completely separate from the hallways, and ending up completely impossible to access. I've made some tweaks that significantly reduce the amount of wasted space and should eliminate the issue of inaccessible rooms spawning.

I've also made some changes that improve the distribution of level elements. In the past you could often end up with levels where most class rooms were grouped together on one side of the level, or where huge clusters of connected rooms would spawn on the edge of the map. I've changed it so that class rooms tend to spawn more spread apart from each other, and rooms in general are more likely to generate closer to the center than on the edge. This helps ensure levels don't end up with useless areas with nothing to do. My goal is to make sure no matter where you are in a level, you can see something of note, and this is one big step in that direction!

One more big improvement I've made is the item spawning system. Before now the system I had in place was a placeholder more than anything. Items spawned basically completely randomly, regardless of what kind of room they were in or how many items had already spawned in that room. In fact, in the public demo I had to place the items by hand since the system was so unfinished. Now though I have a pretty good system in place! Each room starts with a certain score and then earns or loses points based on things like what kind of room it is, how easy it is to access, etc. Rooms with higher scores will be able to get better items, or a higher quantity of items, than rooms with a lower score.

For comparison, here's a side-by-side of a level with the same seed generated before and after these changes:

Wasted space, an inaccessible room, pretty much all the class rooms grouped together in the same place... Ew.
Many more rooms, class rooms more evenly distributed, little wasted space... Much better!

Of course, there's still more to do. Sometimes rooms can be too small for example, as a few are here, but overall I'm much more happy with the levels that are being generated now than the ones from before.

A (Kind of) new character!

So I want to keep the new new character a surprise, but I think I'll go ahead and reveal one familiar face making his debut in the main game. Cloudy Copter!

Cloudy Copter blows away the competition!.. Wait, this isn't Smash Bros...

Cloudy Copter is pretty simple. He floats around, and will blow strong winds down hallways. If he's blowing the way you want to go, it will act as a speed boost. If not, it will act as an obstacle. You can think of him kind of like a mobile conveyor belt. Of course, his breath will also affect the other characters!

The rest of the new stuff I won't spoil here, but I'm looking forward to when you can all see it for yourselves!

A few more notes about the demo

One thing I noticed is that, in the description of the demo reward, I mentioned that Baldi wouldn't chase you... And I have no idea why I wrote that. I guess at the time I assumed I would release the demo before completing AI or something. The Kickstarter demo will include Baldi and he will chase you! However, in case anyone was looking forward to exploring levels freely, I'll also include a free roam mode where Baldi won't chase you.

Also, I plan on updating this demo at least once with a little bit more content. I hope to eventually add a third new field trip, and one, maybe two more new characters. I was aiming to have that all ready for the launch of the demo, but I decided it would be best to release it sooner and update it later instead of delaying it even further. I really underestimated how long it would take me to develop each field trip, which is the main reason I've decided to hold back on the third until a bit later.

Once the demo is closer to release, I'll post an update exclusive to backers receiving the demo with instructions on how to install it.

And that about wraps up what I want to talk about this month! Thanks again for all your support!

It's been a whole year!
over 4 years ago – Sat, Aug 24, 2019 at 01:43:00 AM

Just wanted to post a quick update to say thank you to everyone who backed this Kickstarter! A year ago today this Kickstarter wrapped up and you all changed my life! I'm still just as excited as ever to finish this game. I'm still confident I can get the game out to everyone early next year, and I can't wait to see what everyone thinks of it!

Also, just a reminder, the Kickstarter exclusive demo is planned for some time next month. I've heard a few people say it was supposed to come out this week. If I accidentally said that somewhere, my apologies. I still need to get some new field trips in before the Kickstarter exclusive demo is ready!

Anyways, that's it for now. Not much of an update I know, but I just wanted to do something for the one-year anniversary of this project getting funded. Thanks again!

Status Update #10 - The public demo has released!
over 4 years ago – Tue, Aug 13, 2019 at 12:37:23 AM

Hello everyone!

Since the last status update, I've been hard at work putting the finishing touches on the public demo, and it's finally ready to release! You can read more about it and download it here. 

This demo offers a small taste of things to come in the full game, so I hope you all enjoy playing it!

Working on this demo has helped me learn a lot, and also forced me to take care of some things that I hadn't been getting around to, like fixing some bugs, adding some missing functionality, etc. Since I had to get testing done for this demo, I've also actually spent a lot more time playing the game than I have in a while, which has helped me come up with a lot of ways I can further improve the game. Overall I'm really glad I changed up what I was doing for a bit to get this demo out.

Kickstarter exclusive demo

I plan to release the Kickstarter exclusive demo some time next month. Remember, anyone who backed the $30 tier or higher will have access to that, and it will include a lot more content than the public demo, so look forward to that!

Mobile

Since the last update, I've been able to get some iOS testing done, and things are looking good! I don't have much else to say for now other than the mobile release of the original game is looking to be pretty close!

New Merch

I'm really excited about this! Some Baldi's Basics minifigures, clips, and action figures have started showing up in stores! I'm really happy with how these came out. If anyone wants any of these, they should be available in Target and Walmart.

Some of the new stuff!
Some of the new stuff!

I find it incredibly surreal that there are now actual action figures of a dumb comic character I made a decade ago, but I'm not complaining!

That's about all I have to show for now. Thanks again, and enjoy the demo!

Status Update #9 - A look at upcoming demos!
over 4 years ago – Mon, Jul 22, 2019 at 10:58:15 PM

Hello everyone!

This month's update is going to focus on a sneak peak at some upcoming demos of the full game. I plan to release two demos some time soon, the Kickstarter exclusive demo, and a much smaller, public demo.

First off, I've spent the last month adding some new structures that can spawn in levels. I don't want to spoil too much, but here's some screenshots with a few new structures and events! As always, everything seen here is still a WIP and subject to change.

Public Demo

First, I plan on releasing the public demo. This demo will consist of one pre-generated level, where players will be able to check out some of the new structures and events. In a lot of ways it will be like the original game, but with a brand new level! As the name suggests, this demo will be available to everyone, whether or not you backed the Kickstarter.

Kickstarter Exclusive Demo

Soon after the public demo, I'll send out the Kickstarter exclusive demo! Remember, all backers who pledged the $30 or above tier will have access to this. This demo will use the random level generator, so that each time you play, the levels will be completely different! It will have more random events and structures than the public demo, as well as some new field trips! Beating this demo will require completing three levels of increasing size and complexity in a row, giving a mini taste of what the full game will be like. This will release later than the public demo because I haven't developed any new field trips yet (My focus as of late has been adding content to the level generator), and I want to keep my promise of being able to go on a few field trips in the special demo. I want to make sure there are at least a couple new field trips to go on for the special demo!

Surveys

In the last update I mentioned that surveys would probably be sent out very soon, and the reason was because of my plans to get the Kickstarter demo out soon. However, I realized that I don't actually need to send out the surveys in order to deliver the special demo, so I've decided to give the surveys a bit more time. They're just about ready to be sent out, but there are still a couple of things I hope to be able to nail down to ensure things go as smoothly as possible, so I've decided to wait a little bit longer instead of rushing to get them sent out. Sorry for any confusing this delay might cause!
 

Baldi's Basics Classic on iOS

The iOS release of the original game is so close, yet still so far. I was hoping to get some decent testing done, however the process of doing so is a lot more complex than I was expecting (As with all Apple products... :P), so it's taking a bit longer to wrap up than I hoped (Of course, this entire process has so I guess that's to be expected. :P) Still, keep your ears peeled for an announcement when it's ready!

That's all for this update! I'm looking forward to getting these demos out and seeing what everyone thinks!