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Baba Is You (2017 Jam Build) — A 48-Hour Origin Born from 'Not There'
From 21 to 23 April 2017, the Nordic Game Jam was held at Docken in Copenhagen. Within the 48 hours of the theme 'Not There,' Finnish student Arvi Teikari (Hempuli), working alone, built Baba Is You and won first place. Two years before the finished game reached Steam in 2019, this free itch.io prototype was born; I read it here as an ancestor.
Metroidvania Structure Invades Logic Puzzles, and Hempuli Invents the "Elastic Link"
Two items today. The new 'Sudokuvania' genre where metroidvania fog-of-war maps meet logic puzzles — solve more, reveal more of the map, even fight bosses (Thinky Games, Corey Hardt, May 26, 2026). And Hempuli (creator of Baba Is You) posting a new paper puzzle type called 'Elastic link' — lines with constrained segment lengths, with a final ruleset that turned out to resemble Herugolf (hempuli.com, April 3, 2026).
Inside Arvi Teikari's Philosophy — Wanting to Surprise You, He Lets You Play the Rules Themselves
"The greatest motivator is just general desire for self-expression." Finnish solo developer Arvi Teikari (Hempuli) startled the world with Baba Is You, a game that lays its rules out as word-blocks on the board and lets players rewrite them. We read his philosophy, obsessions, failures, dilemmas and influences through his own words.
