The Game

I’m not much of a gamer. In fact, until pretty recently my Steam library only had 2 games. Bioshock Infinite, which I tossed to the side after getting frustrated with the game mechanics, and Uberstrike, a free FPS that I toyed around with in high school. What I never enjoyed about games was the pressure. Even with easy games, it always felt as though there was a sense of urgency. To kill an enemy, deliver item A to point B… whatever it was, there was always something to do, an objective to complete. And even if logically I knew there was no penalty for standing around and doing nothing, it never felt like that. These games never appeared like real worlds to me. They were always just vehicles for the gameplay itself, and to actually sit around and take in the atmosphere was not part of their intent. That’s why I generally didn’t play games, the sense of urgency was always too distracting, and prevented me from fully taking in the environment.

But for the first time in years, I downloaded Steam again, reset my password, and checked out another game. This one was not a first person shooter though, it was a relatively obscure indie title that had come out only a couple of years prior.

Babbdi.

My interest was first piqued after watching Jacob Geller’s incredible video essay - Games that Don’t fake the space. Babbdi, as well as all of the games he covered, were like these miniature, intriguing universes - places of introspection, awe, and even a bit of discomfort. The focus of his essay was not the actual game play or mechanics of these games, but how the use of space, and the player’s transition from one area to another, created little capsules of introspection between the gameplay. It was during this video that Babbdi caught my eye. The art style was downright grotesque, and the desolate city seemed like a great place to explore for its own sake. I barely even knew the plot of the game itself, the only impressions I had were from the limited gameplay on Jacob’s video. But that was enough to hook me in.

yeah the art style is kinda weird, huh?

For those of you who have not played this game, Babbdi has a straightforward plot. You spawn in the middle of this concrete mess of a city, and your mission is to find a train ticket, go to the train station, and leave town. Sounds simple, and it is - beating this game will probably take you less than an hour. Simply getting a ticket and going to the station does sound easy, but your adventure through the city is impeded by a labyrinth of buildings, random staircases, stagnant brown water, and meandering streets and overlooks. As well as a general lack of hints - the map is confusing, the NPCs arent of much help, and the instructions that are given by the NPCs are vague and leave you without direction. And maybe thats the point - the goal of the game is to explore the city, not beat it as quickly as possible.

From the screenshots, it’s quite clear this is a weird game. And I am certainly not the only one to think that. The comments I have read from other players range from horror, to confusion, to discomfort at the visuals. I mean, look at these characters, something is definitely not right in the city of Babbdi.

And yeah, the obvious thing to point to when trying to say that “Babbdi is a weird game” is the ghoulish NPCs, and the brutalist, confusing architecture of the city. But there is also a more complex reason behind why Babbdi is so offputting to people who play it. One that has to do with a rather topical theme - AI generated media.

Images and Artifical Intelligence

Babbdi heavily utilizes AI generated media in its environment. Some of these instances are plain to see, take a look at this sign near the train station. You can kind of make out the intention of the text, it seems like it’s imitating the phrase “train station” - but it’s clearly missing the mark.

Same with the text telling you how to get to the travel agent. Even the game’s menu itself, what does “plame” even mean? It looks exactly like AI generated text - it resembles a real word (combination of “play” and “game”, I imagine), but a human would never make such a bizarre typo. Just browsing some images of midjourney renders though, we can notice similar AI generated text:

AI trying to draw 'cooking'

There are instances of AI generated images in the game itself. A TV nestled in one of the concrete buildings displays photos of Macron eating peas. On the edge of the map, only accessible if you get a special propeller item, you can see framed pictures of AI artwork.

These framed photos are certainly AI generated

And this shouldn’t be a shock - its not just these examples. The whole vibe of the city seems AI generated.

Part of the reason something seems to be AI generated is the confusion of form with function. Back in the early days of AI generated images (over 2 years ago), this was much more apparent. But the most famous and referenced example is with hands. The AI understands the “form” of hands. It knows there are fingers, palms, and joints, and nails, but it doesn’t really understand “what” a hand is, and as a result, you get these monstrosities.

It understands the hand as a collection of shapes and colors. It doesn’t understand the physics of joints, how fingers can be manipulated, and the purpose of hands in relation to humans. When AI generated images were more primitive, this was exemplified in the meme “name one object in this photo”.

It almost breaks my brain to look at this. These shapes and colors and textures are familiar, and LOOK real, but what kind of function do they have here? This is an intelligence that understands HOW things look, but not WHY things are the way they are.

This is the strangeness that is present in Babbdi. Those examples I gave earlier are of approximations of human concepts, but in a way that is strangely familiar, yet offputting. They LOOK like words at first glance, but are really just gibberish. There are stairs and roads, but in nonsensical ways, not designed for humans.

This strange familiarity and “uncanny valley” effect runs deep. Take a look at the tools themselves. A bat letting you jump higher by hitting the ground. Being able to fly with some kind of weird propeller contraption. Scaling buildings with a pickaxe. Once again, this is nonsensical to humans. But from an AI perspective, this makes more sense - this is a use of tools in a way where the form is identifiable, but it doesnt line up with the function of what these things are. A bat can hit the ground, and actions DO have reactions (Newton’s laws), but the idea of propelling yourself upwards by hitting a bat against the ground makes no sense to anyone who has interacted with the physical world. It is a logical, but obviously incorrect imitation of physics.

This is present in the title itself. The strange title/city name, “Babbdi” sounds a lot like “babble”. Well, what is babble? It’s children imitating human speech, without understanding the deeper meaning behind it. Anyone can do this, but it’s most obvious in AI generated artwork, and the strange cityscape and gameplay of Babbdi itself. The whole city and quest you are on has this perplexing familiarity to it. Like the entire game was constructed by an intelligence mimicking human actions, without understanding the complex reasons behind them.

The Implications

So, what does this mean for the game?

I’ve heard many people make similar observations as above, explaining the strangeness of the game and city. On top of that, they use similar words to describe it, often the term “surreal” is used.

I agree, this is certainly surreal. Surreal imagery, like AI generated media, places familiar objects and concepts in bizarre, dreamlike combinations. But Babbdi’s surrealism is darker and more sinister, or at least it appears that way to the player. The atmosphere is gloomy, these “people” look like ghouls, you’re stuck in some city that looks like Eastern Europe mixed with a sewer - this is an offputting and deeply odd experience. And the AI generated aspect of it only adds to this stifling feeling.

(sidenote… what is the deal with surreal pieces of art and trains? I’ve noticed the prevalence of trains in DiChirico’s artwork, Babbdi, Magritte, and video games as well - Bernband and Off Peak.)

Or maybe, it just appears that way to us.

A lot of the weirdness and creepiness of Babbdi comes from this foreign environment. But in the city itself - what really is there that is depressing?

Sure, a sick woman has died, and there are boarded up windows, a gun on a table, and people are dancing in front of an underground, trash-can bonfire.

But on the other hand, we get touching moments of emotion, humanity even. A listless girl gazing off into the distance, waiting for a man on a motorbike to take her away. An old woman with groceries walking home, a man sitting on the concrete, enjoying the sunshine, an elder remarking on how the person in front of him has grown up over time. And while these interactions are quite strange, are they bleak? Are they depressing? Are the characters of Babbdi grim and sullen, and resigned to their fate? Or are these just scenes from a city, unlike our own?

Nothing can hurt you in Babbdi, there’s no way to die. The one death in the game is a sick woman who succumbs. A tragedy, but present in any city, and quite familiar to our own. Many people who play Babbdi describe it as grim and unsettling. It seems like a lot of the discomfort is just that, a vague feeling of unsettlement and not a serious physical threat. Babbdi is a city that feels like it was created by a foreign, artificial intelligence, but is it actually malignant? Or is it just different?

This leaves one final question - why are there no tickets out of Babbdi?

All of the characters you encounter say there are no tickets left. The travel agent himself repeats the same phrase. You only end up getting one from the dead woman. Why? What happened to the tickets?

Some players suspect that every citizen who could leave already has. That you are trapped in this repulsive city.

Maybe there is a more subtle explanation. That for the inhabitants, there simply is no reason to leave. The world of Babbdi is not dangerous, and the citizens of the foreign city find peace and happiness in their everyday lives, as shown in their dialogues. Are they trying to escape, even? Or is the train station simply boarded up because it is no longer used? I think they might just be at home in this alien world.

And who are you, in the game? Do we ever get an explanation? Maybe you are someone who does not belong in this world that seems so strange and eerie and haunting to the player. You are not threatened in this city, you are just sensitive to how very different it is from your own; Babbdi is a city and population with a completely different form of thinking. And you are quite aware that you don’t belong.