Exploring the Mind Bending Simplicity of BABA IS YOU

Hmm, despite its simple visuals and mostly short solution paths, what makes BABA IS YOU so mentally demanding?

The game starts with an intro where flowers appear on the screen. After a few flowers pop up, words begin to appear one by one—such as BABA, WALL, FLAG, and ROCK. As each word appears, its corresponding objects also show up on the screen, one by one.

The intro music creates a strange and unsettling ambience, creating a very weird atmosphere. Once all the words have appeared, the level looks something like this:

It is a puzzle-solving game where the rules themselves are in the level, and you can break them and rearrange them.

Now you would be wondering if we could mess with the rules anyway we want, then how is it a puzzle game, and what would be the conditions for winning?

Now, some rules would be applied to every puzzle in this game, and thus are absolute for you to win.

The absolute conditions for playing a level are:

• The YOU word block must remain active at all times. If it becomes inactive, you will lose. For example, if you break the sentence BABA IS YOU in the level shown above, you will lose immediately.

• At least one object associated with the YOU word block via its corresponding object word block must be present on the screen at all times. There can be multiple or the same type of objects associated with the YOU block.

The absolute conditions for winning a level are:

• The WIN word block must be active. In other words, it must be connected to at least one object word.

• The object associated with the YOU block and the object associated with the "WIN" block must overlap on a single tile.

For example, in the above level, if BABA reaches the flag, which is linked to the WIN block, you'll complete the level by overlapping with it.

If you change the WIN block to something like ROCK IS WIN, the rock becomes associated with WIN. If BABA overlaps with that rock, you’ll complete the level this way as well.

Now, if you look at the levels, they have a very minimalistic art style, and most of them require only a few crucial steps to solve the puzzle. Every level contains all the rules that define the puzzle.

So then this means everything would be quite clear to the player what the puzzle is about. If everything is so crystal clear, then why are a lot of puzzles in BABA IS YOU so hard and mentally demanding?

For example, take a look at this level:

This is Level 4: Still out of reach.

Now, if you look at this puzzle, you have this rule called SKULL IS DEFEAT. The DEFEAT block destroys any overlapping object that is associated with the YOU block. In this case, it would destroy BABA.

Now, the solution to this problem is quite short and is as follows:

The thing is, you can push multiple objects aligned in a row, and this puzzle leverages this concept. You have to break that sentence SKULL IS DEFEAT using this concept, and then you can access that flag.

If you look at the solution to the puzzle, it only has two crucial steps:

1. Place the rocks horizontally.

2. Using those rocks, break the sentence SKULL IS DEFEAT.

It took me quite a few minutes to figure this puzzle out, and it was relatively more difficult than the previous levels. Despite how simple the puzzle is, what is so challenging about this puzzle, though?

Similarly, what was hard about this puzzle?

The rule STAR IS SINK means that it will destroy any object that overlaps with it, including itself in the process.

To solve this level, all you needed to do was overlap the star with the skull. This would destroy both the star and the skull, which were blocking your way.

But for many, including myself, it was quite a challenging puzzle. Here are some comments I found From A YouTube video explaining the solution to this puzzle:

But why is this the case, given how short the solution path is for this puzzle?

Let us see from the very beginning what a puzzle is and what makes the puzzle satisfying and hard.

So, what is a puzzle?

We have multiple definitions for what puzzles are.

The first definition is “Puzzles are just miniature games whose goal is to find the dominant strategy.”

The second definition is “Puzzle is a mental challenge with at least one correct solution that the player must find.”

The third definition would be “A puzzle is fun. And it has a right answer.”

The fourth definition is “Puzzle is a game or toy in which you have to fit separate pieces together, or a problem or question that you have to answer by using your skill or knowledge.”

Now, there are more such definitions related to what puzzles are. But all of them have one thing in common:

• A goal or objective.

• A mental Challenge.

• Rules and constraints.

And good puzzles have these things in common:

• No crucial information is hidden for maintaining fairness and trust with our players

• It tests player reasoning, pattern recognition, and creative thinking, not just trial and error.

• And lastly, it creates epiphanies that make you feel smart.

That being said, if we cannot hide any crucial information from the player required to solve the puzzle, then how do we provide a mental challenge since they would know everything about the puzzle?

How would we create those epiphanies that make our puzzles fun and make players smart? If we cannot hide anything, then where does the challenge come from when solving puzzles, though?

Before tackling this question, let us see how problem-solving works in general.

The Human brain uses two primary thinking Functions, convergence and divergence, along with two fundamental memory functions, recall and recognition, to solve a problem.

These processes work together, alongside other cognitive functions like attention and working memory as well.

Divergence and Convergence thinking.

The thinking process starts with expanding the number of possibilities and considering as many options as possible. You begin gathering all kinds of information you can get from the environment and your memory.

This process is called divergence. The purpose of divergence is to generate ideas, experiment, and gather as much relevant information.

In our case of puzzle solving, players would start looking for clues and experimenting with the mechanics, and see what players can do.

After this, we started narrowing down each possibility from the number of possibilities to look for the possible solutions for the puzzle using pattern recognition and reasoning based on the mental model they created around the game.

In both processes, the brain uses recall and recognition.

Recall: It is a process of actively retrieving information without any mental cue. For example, trying to remember Stuff You studied when giving an exam.

Recognition: It is a process of retrieving information with a mental cue. For example, you easily understand the meaning of words just by seeing them on a blackboard or book, given that they are in your vocabulary.

Though in our case, the brain mostly uses recognition since all the crucial information to solve a puzzle is already given to the player either from previous puzzles or clues in the level.

So all that information acts as a cue to retrieve relevant information from the brain.

Another thing the brain uses to converge and diverge things is attention. It allows the brain to discard all the irrelevant information it is receiving based on its mental model formed for that particular subject over time.

Mental model refers to the internal, simplified representation of how something works in the real world. It is constructed and updated based on the information the brain receives from feedback to predict outcomes, solve problems, and guide behavior.

Lastly, it also uses something called working memory. It is a temporary storage where the brain keeps information for manipulation needed to carry out complex tasks, such as puzzle solving.

To make it simpler, here is a thought process of how I probably solve one of the puzzles in BABA IS YOU.

I have this puzzle, and my goal is to make the rule FLAG IS WIN and reach the flag locked behind the crabs.

First, I started considering what my options are using divergence:

I could slide BABA IS YOU horizontally, but I cannot break it, as it would result in me losing.

I can go inside the container where the flag is, but I cannot overlap with the flag because of FLAG IS DEFEAT is active at the moment.

I can push the rock forward only since it is adjacent to the edge of the wall, so I can only push the rock all the way and make CRAB IS DEFEAT and FLAG IS WIN.

But if I do that, then it would lock the flag behind those crabs. After this, I began using convergence to predict what the solution might be.

I cannot go inside the cell where the flag is after I make "FLAG IS WIN". So there's something that needs to be there inside that flag cell before I make that rule.

And there is only one other subject besides Baba: rock. But then, how would I get the rock out of there without triggering the switch?

Then I switched back to divergence again and started seeing how I could get that rock out of there.

My attention went towards that rule "ROCK IS PUSH" and thought, if I can get those words out somehow from that little cell, then I could make "ROCK IS YOU" and get the rock out from there.

And indeed, I could get those out. After I made that rule and got the rock out of that corner, I switched back to Baba again and pushed the rock inside where the flag is.

So now, when I make that sentence: FLAG IS WIN, I simply need to switch to that rock, and the problem is solved.

Now, the information to solve the puzzle was given to you as follows:

You already learned the concept that you can associate any object with the YOU block in previous levels. You also knew at that point that you cannot push an object that is not text without the PUSH block active with that corresponding object.

In this level, it gives you the information that you cannot go inside the flag cell after you have triggered that switch. It also tells you that you can move that rock and can also break the ROCK IS PUSH rule.

The rest of the information could be deduced using convergence.

So, all the crucial information required to solve this puzzle was given to you beforehand. But the thing is, it was the toughest puzzle I had encountered so far at that time.

And when I checked on social media, it was quite tough for many other players as well. Some people skipped the puzzle at first and decided to solve it later on.

But despite all the information given to you, what made this puzzle so hard? You only need to perform these four crucial steps to solve the puzzle:

• Get those words ROCK, IS, and PUSH out of that cell.

• Make ROCK IS YOU and get that rock out of there as well.

• Switch back to Baba and place the rock inside the cell where the flag was.

• Make FLAG IS WIN and transfer controls to BABA again.

And there are not many elements in the puzzle either, so the player knew what the rules and goal of the puzzle were.

Despite all this, where does the difficulty of the puzzle come from?

So, where does the puzzle’s difficulty arise from?

So, after a bit of research, there are mainly five ways to present a mental challenge in puzzles:

1. Intrinsic or Computational difficulty

2. Contextual difficulty

3. Extrinsic or perceived difficulty

4. Optimization difficulty

5. Emotional difficulty

1. Intrinsic or Computational Difficulty:

It refers to the difficulty that arises from the computational power required to solve a puzzle. The aim here is to overload the player's working memory.

So, puzzles that have more variables and a number of steps required to solve the puzzle would have high intrinsic difficulty.

Here is an example of a puzzle that would have a high intrinsic difficulty value:

It is a 3 * 3 sliding tile puzzle, where you have to complete the picture by sliding those tiles with the one empty tile.

This is a relatively high intrinsic difficulty puzzle because there are a lot of steps required to complete this puzzle.

Second, if you try to place a tile into its correct position, you might end up ruining the position of other tiles in the process, thus it also has a high degree of variables in the puzzle as well.

Lastly, there is no feedback when solving the puzzle, whether you are on the right track or not, making it uncertain as well.

Here is another example of a high intrinsic difficulty puzzle from BABA IS YOU, this time.

Over here, the solution to this puzzle was simple to imagine:

Make ROCK IS EMPTY IS BABA. That way, babas would start spawning from the space where the rock was. After that, make ICE IS WIN, and then place one of the babas on that ice you see on top.

But its intrinsic difficulty was quite high just because of this rule, BABA IS YOU AND STOP.

While executing the solution, you have to handle a whole ton of baba spawning from empty tiles, and you cannot overlap them.

This makes making sentences a lot harder. For example, you see that ROCK IS PUSH, you would need to orient the ROCK IS vertically, and then connect with EMPTY IS BABA.

This makes the solution require a lot of careful steps to execute to solve this problem.

Another thing that makes the puzzle intrinsically harder is making the solution of the puzzle more abstract in relative to the player's mental model.

Instead of giving them information or feedback straight away, we provide a small hint, and the player relies on their deduction skills to determine what that hint means and where it will be used.

This makes the player use convergence more, and convergence is harder in the modern era due to a lack of attention span.

Generally, it is better to make the player more abstract and rely heavily on extrinsic difficulty rather than the number of steps and computations to present a mental challenge.

The reason is that the player would most likely give up and start doing trial and error to stumble upon the solution accidentally.

Use computations and steps only to make the solution unique and less prone to accidents, so that they won't miss out on those epiphanies.

That is because abstraction and extrinsic difficulty have a greater likelihood of creating those epiphanies that we want the player to feel.

2. Contextual Difficulty:

It refers to the difficulty that comes from external factors of the puzzle, like time and environmental pressures.

Besides the convergence and divergence theory for explaining how problem solving works, there is another theory: Dual process theory. Here is a link to a research paper that explains it in more detail.

Or if you want a summary, here it is:

There are two types of thinking modes:

System, which is Fast, automatic, and intuitive, but inaccurate sometimes.

System 2 is slow, effortful, and analytical, but more accurate than System 1.

Contextual difficulty aims to force players to use more System 1 thinking so that they come under pressure and make more irrational decisions.

Here is an example of a Contextual difficulty puzzle.

Remember, there was this famous horror mobile game called Granny. In the game, you have to use certain items to escape from the house within 5 days without getting caught.

In the game, you have multiple escape routes based on how you progress in the game.

You need to use items in a particular order to unlock more items and rooms, and solve more small puzzles as well.

Now, in this case, the Granny mob itself acts as a contextual difficulty. The puzzles and escape progressions itself is not that hard, but because of the loss aversion caused by the 5-day time limit and Granny cause the game gets a lot harder.

The fear of losing progress puts pressure on the player, making the game harder.

Here is an example of a Contextual Difficulty puzzle from BABA IS YOU this time.

The solution to this problem was to place the conveyor belts in such a way that the baba could reach the SHUT block and push it inside.

After that, make BABA IS MOVE and reach the door before the baba reaches the SHUT block; otherwise, that reed just before the door would block your way.

It would look something like this:

Now, in this case, it uses baba as a turn limit to add contextual difficulty to the puzzle.

If I remember correctly, there are some more contextual puzzles in the Tomb Raider series as well.

But do keep in mind that you cannot use Contextual difficulty as your main way of presenting a fun mental challenge.

That is because it still needs to be dependent on either intrinsic or extrinsic difficulty, or otherwise it won't be able to provide sufficient mental challenge on its own.

In the above puzzle, it also uses Extrinsic difficulty to distract the player from figuring out the solution way too quickly.

I assume Granny also uses Extrinsic difficulty to raise the base difficulty of problem solving through figuring out how to use those items to unlock an escape route.

Regardless, if used correctly, it can be used to create experiences of tension between the games.

3. Extrinsic or Perceived Difficulty:

It refers to the difficulty that arises from how irrelevant or insignificant the solution or clues are to the player initially, either through the presentation of the puzzle's elements or how the player interprets, recognizes, and imagines the puzzle.

Remember how I talked about the mental model and attention and how they are used in the process of divergence and convergence. We can manipulate player attention away from the solution of the puzzle in various ways.

The aim here is to manipulate the attention of the player's mental model to consider the solution irrelevant initially, to ignore the solution that was right in front of them.

In other words, we need to hide the solution in plain sight while providing clear clarity and crucial information about the puzzle's solution.

In this puzzle, if you look carefully, the sentence ROCK IS PUSH, there is no need to make it breakable or movable.

It can also be at the corner with the rest of the rules, like BABA IS YOU and FLAG IS WIN, since we just need to use the rocks to break that SKULL IS DEFEAT sentence.

That ROCK IS PUSH acts purely for distraction.

Similarly, if you look at this puzzle as well:

If you look carefully, why was there a need for ROCK IS PUSH when you only need the PUSH block to overlap the star with the skull?

Similarly, there was no need for those two rocks either. They acted purely as a distraction to keep you busy and make it hard to find the real solution to the puzzle.

The main advantage of using extrinsic difficulty is that it is generally a lot more fun than intrinsic difficulty because the moment your mental model re-evaluates the significance of the solution, the player feels "How did I miss that?".

If the intrinsic difficulty is not high enough, the player might figure out the solution accidentally.

Regardless, it is a great way to make a puzzle more mentally challenging in a satisfying way.

4. Optimization Difficulty:

This difficulty arises from understanding the complexity of a large system and trying to figure out the most efficient solution for a given problem using the large system.

This difficulty arises from the divergent thinking and then using convergent thinking to find the best solution to a given problem.

It overwhelms the player's working memory as the system could have a lot of variables at play that the player needs to understand, and generally, such puzzles have no right answer to puzzle since they are open-ended.

Also, the player generally needs to generate a lot of possibilities for a given solution and then converge into a very small set of solutions, which would generally be hard.

Nowadays, convergence is even harder in the modern era because of a low attention span.

This is more of a mix between creativity and problem-solving.

The best example of such puzzles would be games like Infinifactory, Factorio, and Opus Magnum.

Now, in BABA IS YOU, you do have multiple solutions to the same puzzle, but there is no indicator for explaining which solution is better than the other, except for how short the solution is in comparison to the other solutions to the same puzzle.

And BABA IS YOU puzzles are not open-ended so we are not going to talk much about optimization difficulty in this essay for now, but maybe in the future.

5. Emotional Difficulty:

This difficulty comes from the psychological barriers in the player's mind.

This could include frustration from repeated failures, Low motivation from unclear rewards, Anxiety, and a False sense of progression.

Now, as you have guessed, this difficulty is something you would not be able to control in a puzzle game because it comes from within the player's emotions, not the game itself.

For example, say you are stuck on a level, you watched some kind of walkthrough, or a YouTube video to solve the level. That would feel bad. Right!

Let us say you watched a tutorial again for the next level as well; that would even lower your confidence and create frustration. Making the next puzzle harder than it should be.

Or let us say that instead of lowering your confidence, it might end up boosting your motivation, like "This time I will solve it on my own, no matter what".

In the next puzzle, you might start paying attention to a lot more details and make the puzzle easier this time.

This is why this difficulty is harder to control than the other difficulties and can be a double-edged sword because it might make the player quit because of too much frustration, or make the puzzle even more satisfying if one overcomes it.

Now, since in BABA IS YOU, most of the puzzles' difficulty comes from extrinsic difficulty, followed by intrinsic, and then contextual, we are mostly going to talk about extrinsic difficulty in this essay.

Ways through which one can add extrinsic difficulty:

Here are five ways in which one could add extrinsic difficulty.

1. Confusion

2. Distraction

3. Contradiction

4. Camouflage

5. Information Overload

Keep in mind that there might be more ways to add extrinsic difficulty, like False Assumption, Symmetry, and more, but to keep the essay short, I am only covering the above five.

1. Confusion

This involves adding noise to divert the attention of the player from the real solution. This involves adding unnecessary foliage or decorations and more fake elements on the screen.

Here are some examples of how BABA IS YOU uses confusion to make puzzles harder:

Okay, so this puzzle uses a similar concept of pushing multiple objects aligned in a row to send one pillar inside, then make PILLAR IS YOU, and you can reach the flag now.

Now, if you look at it carefully, you only need 2 pillars at best to send a pillar inside that star boundary, so why are there so many pillars scattered in the level? They were added to create confusion and direct your attention away from the solution.

Here is another example:

Over here, if you take a look, there is quite a lot of stuff that was not needed for the solution. For example, WATER IS WATER was not necessary, since the solution would only change just a little at the end, and the real solution would still exist anyway.

You don't even need that WATER block to be open; it could be closed in a wall, and inaccessible, there would still be a solution to the problem.

So there are two solutions to the problem, both have the same starting point but different follow-ups.

It starts with making BABA IS MELT AND YOU, freeing that extra BABA and IS.

Solution 1: Make WATER IS FLOAT. This way, you can cross both the skulls and the river.

Solution 2: make BABA IS FLOAT horizontally, push it to the other side, and break it. After that, you should be able to cross the skeleton. See, you don't even need the water for this one.

Lastly, the hypothetical solution could be like WATER IS BABA if not for that WATER IS WATER.

I mean, it is kind of similar to the first solution, except you have a slightly different outcome.

There are multiple babas, and you would be entering the skull as well. It would still follow the same starting point.

That WATER IS WATER was purely for confusion, and given how tight and small the space was, that confusion worked quite well here.

Here is another example where confusion is used.

The solution to this problem is that you need to send the IS and AND to the other side using the robot and cog to the other side using the MOVE property, and make FLAG IS ROCK AND WIN.

Now, if you take a closer look at the puzzle, it is just a more complicated version of FLAG IS WIN. That ROCK and AND was for confusion, so that you would not be able to recognize the pattern easily.

Also, that FLAG IS FLAG, you are seeing in the corner, that is also for confusion because it makes the player think that this might not be the correct solution, since there would be crosses on FLAG IS ROCK.

But you can always make FLAG AND ROCK IS WIN, and it would be equally difficult to the current solution as the number of steps and logic would same.

Confusion is the easiest one to implement from the other methods, as all you do is add some noise to the level. But it won't increase the difficulty in its own right, so it is better to pair it with other ways.

Also, it won't have much satisfaction or those epiphanies the player wants, as compared to other ways.

2. Distraction

This involves setting up an element that is irrelevant to the solution and acts as a red Herring that draws player attention from the relevant information, logic, or pathways necessary to solve the puzzle.

This is the second easiest way to implement extrinsic difficulty after confusion, as all you have to do is implement a few elements that would keep players busy for a long time.

Here are some examples of how BABA IS YOU uses distractions:

This is a very early puzzle; the solution is also very simple. Just make ROCK IS WIN, and you just have to go to the rock instead of the flag.

That whole flag locked behind all that water is just a distraction. The dev wanted to trick the player into thinking that he needed to reach the flag somehow using the two rocks.

Though this one is a very weak distraction, as it won't keep the player occupied for long. The player would soon realize that there is no way to reach the flag using the rocks at all.

Here is another example:

The solution to this puzzle was to make BABA IS WIN vertically, and you would win automatically. That flag and those walls you see are a complete distraction and have absolutely nothing to do with the puzzle.

Here is another example:

The solution this time was to make JELLY IS BABA vertically, and break that FLAG IS STOP. After you just have to make FLAG IS WIN and go to the flag.

That FLAG IS PUSH, you are seeing, that is completely for distraction to keep you busy. The dev wanted you to just keep your attention on just keep experimenting with the flag and push word.

In reality, you only needed the IS and JELLY, but that would make it too obvious what you need to do.

3. Contradiction

A situation where two or more pieces of information, clues, or mechanics directly oppose each other, making it logically impossible to satisfy all conditions at once.

Humans have a deep cognitive bias toward resolving contradictions. This comes from several evolutionary and psychological mechanisms designed to ensure coherence, predictability, and survival.

Here is a research paper that explains this: Festinger (1957): A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance.

If implemented correctly, it would create those epiphanies, but it is harder to implement than the distraction and confusion.

This is because, quite a lot of times, you might end up making an insoluble paradox where there is no resolution.

Here are some examples where BABA IS YOU implements contradictions:

If we take a closer look at this puzzle now, you would see that there is a contradiction over here that is taking a lot of attention from the players:

If you make FLAG IS WIN, you would also end up making CRAB IS DEFEAT and locking that flag behind the crabs.

Though it also uses confusion to trick the player into thinking that you cannot get those words ROCK IS PUSH out due to the rock.

Here is another example

In this puzzle, first you need to get that CRAB out by making FLAG IS OPEN(vertically) and FLAG IS PUSH(Horizontally).

Then you need to make BABA IS BABA(vertically), and push the CRAB all the way and make CRAB IS WIN, and you can go to crab and win.

The contradiction in this puzzle is something like this:

If you push the CRAB all the way first, it would make BABA IS CRAB, and there is no CRAB IS YOU, so you would lose.

If you try to place BABA IS BABA horizontally, then push the CRAB, it would make BABA IS DEFEAT, and you would lose.

This diverts the attention of the players from the real solution.

4. Camouflage:

Camouflage in puzzles is a design technique where essential elements or clues are disguised within the environment or context, often appearing to serve an obvious but unrelated purpose, leading players to overlook their true significance to the solution.

Here are some examples:

Initially, the puzzle tries to fool you into thinking that you need to get the key out of there somehow and open the door using the key.

It also uses contradiction to attract your attention to that the FLAG IS WIN and key to keep you occupied.

While the real solution was to turn the door into Keke. Make KEKE IS SHUT and destroy the key with the extra KEKE.

This was hidden by a more obvious possibility that the player would assume, while the contradiction was attracting the player's attention, making it a reasonably hard puzzle.

Here is another example:

This is a great puzzle that uses camouflage and distraction. You see that water tile just above the IS FLOAT. Many players would misunderstand its purpose as just an obstacle.

Based on their mental model, players would think that they would need to get two same subjects and send text inside that fence container.

And since the real solution was quite abstract, it was hard to spot.

The solution was to make TEXT HAS BABA(vertically), throw the KEKE into the big pond. After that, make BABA HAS TEXT(vertically) and use that extra baba to destroy that water tile above the IS FLOAT, making BABA IS FLOAT.

This becomes harder because the player ignores the relevance of the water tile, as players cannot understand its true purpose.

It is quite hard to pull off Camouflage when new to puzzle making, but it is quite a powerful way of delivering mental challenge and those epiphanies.

5. Information Overload:

As the name suggests, it is overloading the working memory of the player by either adding too much information on the screen or by making the solution more abstract, forcing them to use more convergence.

Here is an example:

This puzzle uses information overload to make the real solution very hard to see. Also uses a weak distraction to divert the player's attention: Flags surrounded by those walls.

By placing a lot of flowers and lots of rule compactly, it tries to divert the player's attention from those IS blocks and the empty cell.

The solution was to push down IS from upwards, push the violet inside the whole, and get that ROSE block outside. After that, you need to put rose from downwards and make ROSE IS YOU and BABA IS WIN.

Here is another puzzle:

In the puzzle, you would see that there are a lot of words and rules scattered across the level. After understanding the level a bit, you would notice a contradiction:

You cannot go from the upper tunnel because Keke would kill you. So if you decided to go from the lower tunnel and all the way, you would make SKULL IS DEFEAT and would be trapped inside those in between those skulls.

If you send the bolt through one of the tunnels, the skull would destroy it because BOLT IS MELT and SKULL IS HOT.

The solution to this was to send a bolt through the upper tunnel, and you would go through the lower tunnel at the same time. You would break SKULL IS HOT, and the bolt would break SKULL IS DEFEAT.

Given how vague and abstract the solution was, along with all of the words on the screen, he would need to remember and keep a lot of things in his working memory. Making this puzzle quite hard.

Generally, on its own, it presents quite a weak mental challenge, and those not many chances of providing any epiphanies, but rather enhances other ways of increasing extrinsic difficulty.

In both levels, it was not the main way of presenting a mental challenge, but rather used as a support.

How I made my Level:

Using these concepts, I made a level in the BABA IS YOU level editor. Here is the code: BQHQ-9HWT.

Speaking of creating puzzles, here is another GDC video that discusses this.

Here is the thought process of how I created this level:

False Crossroad

At First, as I was looking for concepts to see where I could start, more levels, concepts, I came across these logical fallacies, particularly False Dichotomy.

It intrigued me that most of the logical fallacies are either dependent on insufficient information or manipulating someone's attention. I thought it was quite similar to how a puzzle presents mental challenges.

So I decided to use False Dichotomy as my base to create this level somehow. Initially, I thought using contextual difficulty would make it easier for me because it simplifies the solutions of the puzzle and should be suitable for my first puzzle level.

False Dichotomy is a fallacy where you present an argument in a way where there are only two options: A or B.

But in reality, there are often more options than what is presented to you. I decided to use options A and B as a contradiction that would divert the player's attention.

So I decided to make a timer on the left-hand side using the ghost and the DEFEAT block. Initially, I was going to put the YOU block there as well, but I could not think of many solutions in this puzzle because the player would have limited moves.

But during the process, the timer was concrete in all the possibilities.

So, to present False Dichotomy, I presented two false alternatives to solve the puzzle initially (Well, I ended up making more than that)

So I first placed two flags on the top, and WIN BLOCK at the bottom. I also placed BABA IS YOU vertically, along with an extra IS to trick the player into thinking that they needed to make BABA IS WIN.

But I placed it in such a way that the player would always end up losing at the time when they were so close to making that BABA IS WIN sentence or reaching the flag at the last move at best.

I was thinking of placing FLAG IS WIN outside, but I could not think of any solution to the puzzle at that time, so I had to place it inside.

Well, by doing this, it also ended up giving one more false alternative solution: use the WIN BLOCK from FLAG IS WIN to make BABA IS WIN, but that also did not work.

As I was experimenting, I thought of making FLAG IS YOU as the solution by pushing FLAG straight horizontally, but it would always end up making BABA IS FLAG, and you would lose.

At that moment, I thought, why not use that timer itself as a false distraction to trick players into thinking that they need to solve the puzzle within the given time?

So my bet was to let the player make FLAG IS WIN somehow. But I had a lot of difficulties figuring out how I could enable the player to do that.

Since I am already using GHOST IS MOVE, why not use a moving ghost to do that?

So the solution was to push the ghost, in the opposite direction, when it would be returning, push it upwards, behind the FLAG IS WIN, and again, when it would be returning, I would need to push the ghost towards the FLAG word.

The BABA would die, but the ghost would keep moving, eventually making FLAG IS YOU and BABA IS FLAG would not be a problem this time.

But there was one flaw in this, that ghost was looking too odd and might attract attention from those false solutions I have put up.

So, for the sake of hiding, I put another ghost symmetrical on the Y axis to add some confusion. Though it is not a great one, as it would still not be enough to make the player divert their attention to those false solutions.

And given how near the ghost is to Baba, players might end up discovering it accidentally.

Conclusion:

Baba is you has at least 200 hand-made intricate puzzles, and a lot of them give a mental challenge to the player when solved, giving a lot of satisfaction with epiphanies. Its minimalistic design and short path solutions make the puzzle quite clear and easy to understand what the puzzle is about.

That was it from my side. Until the next one.