Baldi's Basics

Solo developer Micah McGonigal released Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning in 2018 as a parody of the clunky edutainment CD-ROMs of the 90s, and its central joke landed hard enough to make it a cult classic almost overnight: a smiling cartoon teacher who seems harmless right up until you answer a math problem wrong.

Every mistake, in a notebook or otherwise, ratchets Baldi's walking speed up for good, so the school gets more dangerous the longer a run goes, not less. Early notebooks are worth solving properly instead of guessing through quickly, since a fast wrong answer early costs you far more over the full run than a slow correct one. Items found around the halls, scissors for shortcuts through the fence, a stack of BSODA cans, exist to buy distance when Baldi's chasing you directly, and are largely wasted if used before that. The formula proved popular enough to get an expanded sequel, Baldi's Basics Plus, with a full campaign and randomized school layouts.