Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning is a 2018 first-person survival horror game developed and published by Micah McGonigal. Disguised as an educational game, it parodies 1990s educational games by deconstructing their elements into metafictional horror. It is set in a schoolhouse. The objective is to locate and collect notebooks, escape the school to take them to the player's friend who lost them, and avoid being caught by Baldi. It features many game modes that change gameplay subtly or drastically.
Inspired by Sonic's Schoolhouse (1996), Baldi's Basics was developed for the Meta Game Jam in 2018 and released on Itch.io. Baldi's Basics was praised for its gameplay, presentation and satire of the educational video game genre, but it was criticized for the lack of a save system and its difficulty. It was proved to be highly successful and expanded upon in the form of successors such as Baldi's Basics Plus in 2020 and Baldi's Basics Classic Remastered in 2022.
Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning is a survival horror game that parodies 1990s educational games, and is played from a first-person perspective. The player has to locate seven notebooks scattered around a school; they belong to the player character's friend, who cannot retrieve them so as to not be late for "eating practice". Each notebook contains three simple math problems, but starting with the second notebook, the third question becomes unsolvable. Baldi, initially a friendly NPC, becomes hostile upon answering an impossible question, and begin chasing the player. As the player continues to answer the questions, some of which are impossible, Baldi becomes increasingly faster and harder to avoid. Baldi hears every sound that the player makes, and chases them with his ruler while smacking it against his hand as he moves. If the player gets caught by Baldi, they are jumpscared and the game is over.
The player may encounter other characters that can be used to their advantage or should be avoided, such as Principal of the Thing, It's a Bully, and Playtime. The Principal locks the player in detention for a short period of time, after breaking one of the school rules, such as running in the halls or entering the teacher's lounge. Bully takes one of the player's items upon interaction, and Playtime forces the player to jump rope. Items are scattered around the school, which the player can use, for instance, to cut Playtime's rope, temporarily preventing her from stopping them, by using safety scissors. As well, they must manage their limited stamina. After collecting seven notebooks, the player has to escape the school, by finding all exits.
The original game features both a story mode and an endless mode; in the latter, the player must keep collecting notebooks until Baldi catches them. Other versions and releases, such as Baldi's Basics Birthday Bash and Baldi's Basics Classic Remastered, include additional features such as randomly chosen items. The latter game features a "Demo" mode, which blends the original with the elements from Baldi's Basics Plus. Plus introduces randomly generated maps, new characters, roguelike elements, and random events like fog or floods.
Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning was created and developed by Micah McGonigal. Its main character, Baldi, originated from the 10-page comic strips that Micah had made during his youth, after being influenced by his younger sister. The comic revolved around Baldi's then-personality, where he was an inventor whose inventions always failed, he abandoned the comic sometime afterwards. Prior to the game, he learnt how to code on his Nintendo 3DS through SmileBASIC, and later with Unity. In 2018, when McGonigal started remaking his games made in the Petit Computer, he cancelled it to enter a "Meta Game Jam" on Itch.io, to gain experience in making games on the Unity engine. At "Meta Game Jam", the contestants (including Micah) had to make a game from the start within two weeks, based on other video game genres. Despite not knowing why he chose him initially, McGonigal recruited Baldi to be a school teacher to fill his role of the game's antagonist. The game's design and its main inspiration was a 1996 video game Sonic's Schoolhouse. While Micah never played it, he chose it due to the unsettling visuals of the game, and its blend of 3D and 2D elements.
The game was released on March 31, 2018, on Itch.io, where it placed in second place in the competition. In June, an update was released, which added new characters and slightly lowered its difficulty. Following the game's popularity online, McGonigal launched a Kickstarter campaign on July 24, 2018, announcing a "full game", (titled Baldi's Basics Plus) with a funding goal of (). This followed the release of a demo titled Baldi's Basics: Field Trip, in which players must keep a campfire burning by gathering firewood. Failure triggers Baldi to chase the player, leading to a game over. The campaign succeeded, surpassing over half of its initial goal with a total pledged amount of $61,375 by the end of the funding in August 23.
On April 1, 2019, for the one-year anniversary of the game, a birthday-themed version titled Baldi's Basics Birthday Bash was released. It added randomly chosen items as well as birthday decorations and costumes for the characters. Later that year, the original game was ported to iOS and Android under the name Baldi's Basics Classic. Originally planned for release in December, and later delayed to early 2020, Baldi's Basics Plus was ultimately launched as an early access game on June 12, 2020, via Steam, Itch.io, and Game Jolt. In spring of 2021, a new project was teased, that being Baldi's Basics Classic Remastered, which was released on October 21, 2022, on the same platforms. This remastered edition includes both the original game as well as Birthday Bash, alongside adding a mode that blends elements from the original with Baldi's Basics Plus. In April 2025, McGonigal hinted at plans for the release of Baldi's Basics on consoles, where he began the search for its publisher.
Since May of 2018, Baldi's Basics became an online phenomenon, after several Let's Play YouTubers, such as Markiplier, PewDiePie, and Jacksepticeye have made videos on the game, which reached millions of views. And over 500 million views in total. Fans of the game created various content, such as animations and song adaptations, such as "Baldi's Basics: The Musical", by the musical YouTube channel "Random Encounters". Fans were involved in modifications, with journalists noting appearances of the game in Roblox and Minecraft as recreations, as well as unauthorized mobile game , which further contributed to the game's popularity. It was also highly successful; by August 2018, the game had gained 1 million downloads on Itch.io, and by December 2019, the game was downloaded over 5 million times, similarly to the mobile ports.
Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning was praised by critics, for its gameplay, presentation and the parodied approach of the educational video game genre. Gita Jackson of Kotaku praised the game for "making fun of bad education games", while comparing the gameplay to the ", but with math" calling it her "worst nightmare". Jesse Grodman of Dread Central/DreadXP praised its gameplay, noting the game's reminiscence of low-quality educational Flash games. It also received praise for its intentionally dated design and clash of various art styles, ranging from MS Paint drawings to assets from Unity. Jan Wöbbeking of 4Players found the game's janky design and surreal voice samples to have "a surprising appeal".
In contrast, Jesse Grodman criticized the game's difficulty and the lack of a save system, resulting in progress loss, once characters appear and interact with the player all at the specific time, making the experience frustrating. Though she noted that beating the game felt "that much more rewarding".