How Baby Steps Accidentally Created an “Impossible” Climbing Challenge That Players Refused to Give Up On

Most modern video games are built with careful planning and endless playtesting. Designers typically smooth out every obstacle to ensure players progress naturally from one challenge to the next without becoming stuck or frustrated. But the developers behind Baby Steps decided to take a completely different approach.

Instead of guiding players every step of the way, the creators embraced uncertainty—and even a bit of indifference toward the player experience. That philosophy ultimately led to an unexpected phenomenon: a community determined to conquer climbing challenges the developers themselves hadn’t even tested.

A Design Philosophy That Breaks the Rules

During a presentation at the Game Developers Conference 2026, co-creator Gabe Cuzzillo explained that he had grown tired of traditional level design. Many single-player games, he argued, function like theme parks—carefully constructed so players always know where to go and what to do next.

According to Cuzzillo, that approach often strips away something important: the thrill of discovery and the possibility of failure.

With Baby Steps, the team experimented with a different philosophy. Rather than designing levels to control the player’s experience, they built environments that simply existed—and let players figure out what was possible on their own.

Collectibles That Aren’t Actually Rewards

One of the clearest examples of this unconventional design is the game’s so-called collectibles: small stacks of cans scattered across the world.

In most games, reaching a difficult collectible leads to a satisfying reward—rare items, achievements, or secret content. But Baby Steps intentionally avoids that. When players finally climb to the top of these challenging spots, the reward is… nothing.

You can knock the cans over, but they don’t provide much satisfaction. Sometimes characters even warn players that the climb won’t be worth the effort.

And yet players keep climbing.

Climbing the Unclimbable

As the physics-based climbing mechanics evolved during development, Cuzzillo tried to interfere as little as possible with the environment. Instead of meticulously designing each challenge, he often placed objects around the world and simply experimented to see if protagonist Nate could climb them.

Sometimes he succeeded. Other times he didn’t even try.

Eventually, the team began placing stacks of cans on anything that looked like it might be climbable—without verifying whether it was actually possible. The idea was to tempt players into exploring while leaving the outcome uncertain.

Remarkably, the gaming community managed to reach nearly every one of these can piles.

The One Stack Players Couldn’t Reach

There was just one exception.

Somewhere in the game world sits a stack of cans positioned on a climb that no one could successfully complete. Watching players repeatedly attempt the challenge initially made Cuzzillo uneasy, since it appeared genuinely impossible.

But over time, his perspective changed.

Rather than seeing it as a design flaw, he came to appreciate how the unsolved challenge pushed players to experiment with new strategies and techniques. Instead of the developers teaching players how to play, the players were effectively responding with their own discoveries.

When Game Design Becomes a Conversation

Cuzzillo described these moments as “open questions” posed to the community. Traditional level design communicates a clear solution: the developer knows the path, and the player eventually learns it.

In Baby Steps, the process is reversed.

The developers ask the question by placing an object somewhere intriguing. Players then attempt to answer it—sometimes discovering unexpected ways to interact with the world.

And occasionally, they prove the developers wrong by climbing something that seemed impossible.

Even if one stack of cans remains unreachable, the journey to get there has become part of what makes Baby Steps memorable.