About

My name is Arvi Teikari, and I’m known in the internets as Hempuli. I’ve been creating games since I was 10-11, and I use Multimedia Fusion 2 to create my games. This blog was created so that I could put some news up more easily, this far I’ve needed other pages to do this.

133 Comments

  1. Noah says:

    Hello Hempuli, I am an avid fan of Environmental Station Alpha, I’ve played it many times. I love the music and the smart use of the restrictions you put in the games art is wonderful. As a fan I’ve always wondered if you were planning on porting the game to Nintendo switch, especially with the new one in development currently! Realistically I would assume it would be placed in the hands of a porting team.

  2. Nathan says:

    Hello! I am having serious issues with getting ESA to run on Steam Deck, I don’t know who else to turn to because nobody seems to know or want to help. Please email me or contact me somehow so we can figure it out, I would be so appreciative. Here is the reddit thread I made: https://www.reddit.com/r/metroidvania/comments/12ip0bv/problems_trying_to_get_esa_to_run_again/

  3. Keith Sammut says:

    Dear Arvi,

    You know how I like to make crazy monsters and creatures.
    I Really really want to get my hands on the old versions of Noita just like Mcweeb did.
    I’ve already found a lot of sneaky hidden enemy concepts here and there in old Noita versions.

    I want to study older versions and extract every last bit of concepts from them.

    Thank you. I just have no idea how else I’m supposed to contact you guys from Nolla Games.

    Regards,
    Keith

  4. Michel says:

    Hello and happy New year,

    I am very interested in buying Baba is you for Android, but I have no Google account. Is it possible to get this game (and pay it) without using thé Google store ?

    Thanks you ans have a good day.

  5. Anthony says:

    Hello,

    I’m an itch.io customer, and I’d like to know if the itch.io version is discontinued or you plan to update it to match the Steam version.
    On Steam is build 473 while on itch is still build 470.

    Thank you for such a great game.

    Cheers,
    Anthony

  6. Mehlian says:

    Hello, I don’t know where to put is so I’ll let you know here.
    I found a bug in ‘Baba is You’ version 471 on Android.
    When in ‘Living Lands’ level (base game) you can transform level to both ‘wall’ and ‘me’. Doing so player is stuck and cannot progress anymore.
    It is possible to trigger prompt that gives option to select level (both options are ‘Living Lands’) but selecting one or another does nothing.
    After restarting game it is possible to select second option of ‘Living Lands’ and enter that level, but when you return to map, player is again stuck.

  7. Matthew says:

    Hello,

    Can you please update ESA to run on the steamdeck? Right now it plays in a small window.

    Thank you and looking forward to the sequal.

  8. Miguel says:

    Hey how are you?

    how is the development of esa2 at this moment? I am a big fan of the first part.

    I hope we can enjoy it soon, thanks for this big game.

  9. Andrejs says:

    Hello Arvi!

    Is there a way to send you an email or any way to reach out to you privately?

  10. Araraura says:

    Hello!

    I wanted to ask if it would be possible to sync progress in Baba is You between platforms (Steam, Mobile, Switch, etc). I’m not sure if all platforms have the same amount of levels, but if they do then I would love to see that feature!

    Cheers,
    Ara

    • Hempuli says:

      I doubt we’ll be able to offer support for syncing progress between all platforms, sadly; that’d require us to set up our own syncing system instead of using the ones offered by platforms on their own (Steam Cloud etc).

  11. Lee Hollman says:

    I’m a schoolteacher who would love to use Baba Is You. If you can send me an DRM-Free itch.io, I can help promote you in NYC. Thanks.

  12. Marius says:

    Hey,
    I just wanted to get a small crash report off my chest:
    It happens when I am trying to enter the level Deep Forest – C before the level title appears. I am playing the Steam version.

    Other than that I really love Baba Is You, it’s such a gem :)
    Thank You!

  13. Joshua Bush says:

    Hemplui, I just wanted to say that Baba is You is so much fun. That is all. I’m a mathematics student at the moment and I was very, very surprised when I read you have had no formal training in coding or logic, but then I saw your massive backlog of games, and now I understand that your training has actually been quite extensive! I will add one more thing – I hope you will dabble in more puzzle games in the future, though I have no doubt they are a pain to create!

  14. Mr. C says:

    Hello,

    My name is Nathan Ciavarella, and I am a high school computer programming teacher.

    I have purchased several copies of Baba Is You and I allow my students who are all very new to computer science to play it in class when they have finished their assignments. I wanted to let you know that they LOVE it and talk about it constantly! Your game has been excellent at helping some of my students grasp the idea of representing objects in code. At the beginning of the year some of the students were struggling with the idea of variables and expressions.
    I let them play your game, then I wrote this on the board:

    “Baba is You”

    x = baba

    you = ”

    x = you

    All of a sudden I saw a bunch of students have one of those lightbulb moments, and a bunch of coding concepts that were new to them suddenly clicked!
    Being able to allow the students to play a game with push/block mechanics they are already familiar with and then relate this concept back to the introductory coding concepts we deal with in class was awesome for them.

    I wanted to make sure you knew what an excellent teaching tool your game has become in our classroom!

    I have one simple request. If you get a moment to read this and would like to email me for my contact info, I have a spot on our classroom wall reserved for a Baba Is You poster. I’d love to give your game a permanent spot on the classroom wall, but I cannot find any posters for it.

    Thank you,
    Nathan C.

  15. Samantha says:

    Hello,

    I am a secondary mathematics teacher. I have played BaBa is You and loved it.
    I am teaching geometry this year and one of our units is on logic. I would like to use BaBA is You during this unit. Is there a way to get a number of copies for use for a 1 to 2 week period? Like an educational license or something similar?

    Thanks,
    Samantha

  16. LeKris says:

    Hi there,

    I am playing Baba is you now for about >100 hours and reached the Gallery level.
    As I saw the watercolour pictures especially the one with the text Baba is you,
    I was instantly saying “This, I would like to have as a shirt.” on my twitch-stream.
    I do love the game and its mind-twisting mechanics. So I just want to ask you, if I
    can get a version of the watercoloured Baba is you picture to print it on a shirt.
    (No worries, I do not want to sell them, I just want to have one for myself.)

    I see forward to the new mechanics and the level-sharing system for the game.

    Best regards,

    Kristian

  17. cheat3 says:

    Hi I’m cheat3 at cheat3puzzles. I design puzzles out of Lego. I’m trying to expand into other puzzle media. I have been such a huge fan of Baba is You and have been advocating for it as great for puzzle enthusiasts but also as an intuition builder for object oriented programming. Anyway, do you have a way for puzzle designers like myself to make and share our own Baba is You levels? I’m thinking I would release a challenge level once a month to my viewers, and also do some solving videos. Let me know! cheers, cheat3

  18. Hugo says:

    Hello!
    Im working on a research thesis about using videogame in mathematics classroom.
    Im realising a mathematical analysis of Baba is You to show an affordance of this game, in order to teach Mathematical logic and reasoning.
    There are two type of rules in Baba is You as :
    the rules wich are true in every level and the rules inside level wich is describe by word (like “stop”).
    I have two questions about that,
    What is the difference for you about this both type of rules ? ( and did you give it differents names ?)
    And my second question, do you think about mathematical logic when you created “rules of words” ? ( and How did you create “rules of words” youve already done ?)

    Thanks a lot for your job who permit me to work..!
    Hugo

  19. Emre says:

    Hello Hempuli,
    recently I used Baba is You for a School project in English.
    We had to choose a Poem and make something creative with it.
    My friend and I chose the “Roses are red, Violets are blue…” Poem,
    because I realized that I could show them this game. We made four levels
    similar to the original poem level and let the class play it.
    They loved it. They were amazed by how you can change the games rules and
    the difficulty of the game itself. But there is something really important. I didn’t asked for your permission
    and I’m really sorry about that. In the little time we had I just forgot about that Hempuli.
    I hope you forgive me.
    With much love,
    Emre

  20. Oscar says:

    Hi Hempuli,

    I’m a Learning Designer currently working on a product that teaches kids how to problem solve. I’m a big fan of Baba Is You and I’d love to pick your brain about your process for designing puzzles. Would it be possible to set up some time for us to chat either online or over the phone?

  21. Marcin says:

    Hi Arvi,
    Have you considered making BabaIsYou available on gog.com? There are 214 community wishlist votes at the time of writing [www.gog.com/wishlist/games/baba_is_you] I think your game could do great there. Please advise.
    -Marcin

  22. Jason Kerley says:

    Helo Arvi, and thank you for your wonderful work

    My partner and I are huge fans of Baba is You and it was the first game we played together.

    I want to surprise her with a one-off record of remixes of your adorable ost. Firstly I wanted to make sure you were ok with this? (it would only be the one record made, and the remixes won’t be uploaded anywhere). and secondly, I wanted to see if you have any pointers on what plug-ins etc you used (other than Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra)for your sounds.

    I have the free sound samples you listed from freesound, but any help recreating the synth sounds would be a great help in letting me get it ready in time for christmas.

    Yours hopefully,

    Jason

  23. Mandy says:

    Thank you for your game. You create very cool games. Waiting for new games)

  24. Kaytha says:

    Some people have copied your game, baba is you, over IPhone.
    巴巴是你(BaBa Is You) by « shuao wu »
    https://apps.apple.com/fr/app/%E5%B7%B4%E5%B7%B4%E6%98%AF%E4%BD%A0-baba-is-you/id1473612419
    Dev Is You by « Julien PERSON »
    https://apps.apple.com/fr/app/dev-is-you/id1450602963

  25. Jens says:

    Hi, I’ve installed Baba on a spinning Hard drive that is often put into standby Windows 10 after a certain idle period (which is a good thing because it avoids noise). It often happens that I play Baba for a while, the disk is put into standby while playing, then I finish a level for example, causing the “Completed” animation to be loaded from disk, which freezes the game for 10-20 seconds.

    Would it be possible to simply load everything in RAM at the start to avoid these annoying pauses? It might be enough to simply read (and not store anywhere) all files that are likely to be needed when entering a level or such, and Windows will then have these files cached transparently. When I check, I believe Baba was only 200megs total, so caching everything should work easily on >99% machines, and should not cause problems on the remaining ones.

  26. Steven says:

    Hello Hempuli,

    I’m interested in doing an AI project related to your game Baba Is You and I was wondering if you’d be able to give any insight into how you’ve been able to verify that your levels are solvable?

    Best,
    Steven

    • Hempuli says:

      Hi Steven,

      Unfortunately the best answer I can give is “by manually testing”. It was suggested several times during development that I’d pick up some kind of a toolset to test solvability (especially whether changes to the codebase broke earlier solutions), but I didn’t have the technical know-how to utilize those.

  27. foxbox says:

    Hi! Thank you for a good game like ‘baba is you’. I play well.

    One thing I want to ask is, is it possible to stream ‘baba is you’ or post it on youtube? I already know that a lot of people are doing it, but I wanted to ask because I could not find what they were allowed to do. (If I did not find it, could you give me the link?)
    If the game is an AOS game like League of Legends, the game will be different for every person, and the fun of the game will depend on who plays it, but ‘baba is you’ knows all the fun by knowing the contents of the puzzle.
    If you do not allow streaming or youtube posting, I will play the game by myself.

    (English is not my first language, so I use translation.) Please understand that the context is not smooth.

  28. Armo says:

    Hello,

    I’m Armo, a Software Engineer working in US and mother tongue in English and had some indie game translation experience. Wondering is there any plan on Chinese translation? If it’s not been taken by anyone yet I’ll be honored to help on anything.

    Looking forward to your reply.

  29. Paul says:

    Hey,
    are there any plans to release Baba Is You on gog.com?
    That’d be super cool.
    Cheers
    Paul

  30. TimE says:

    Hi Hempuli!

    (spoilers for baba is you)

    I found a simpler solution to Meta-5 that doesn’t require the “not” or “on”, instead of doing “level not on baba is fall” all you need to do is pre-align baba with win, then set “level is fall” so the “is” is aligned between “baba” and “win” and push down “is” while the level is off screen into “baba is win”. Since the levels seem to purposefully use the minimal amount of words to allow for a win, this seems unintentional? Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this, it’s the only place I could find a comment form!

    By the way, I absolutely love the game! It is by far the best and most mind bending puzzle game I’ve ever played. I think I’ve had more satisfying a-ha breakthrough moments from this game than all the other puzzle games I’ve played combined! Thank you for making this game, and pushing the boundaries further than I thought possible!

    • Hempuli says:

      Thank you very much for the compliments! I’m aware of the unintended solution, but I haven’t fixed it because to me “Level Is Fall” is goofy enough interaction that I’ve thought of Avalanche more as a level showcasing that rather than a puzzle in the normal sense. Thank you for reporting this, nonetheless!

  31. Pedro says:

    Hello!

    I’m Pedro, a Portuguese translator.

    I stumbled upon your Baba Is you project at itch.io and it immediatly got my attention. I would like to translate and localize your game to Portuguese, since it would help me improve my videogame translation porfolio.

    As you are an indie developer, I understand that money would be an issue, therefore I am willing to do it for free.

    Please let me know what you think.

    Best regards,
    Pedro

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