Baldi's Basics originated with Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning, an independent game created by Micah McGonigal and released in 2018. The game parodies low-budget educational software while adding survival-horror mechanics, surreal characters, and deliberately crude graphics. Its introductory audio became familiar through gameplay videos, streams, animations, and fan edits shared online. Creators still use it because the cheerful classroom framing instantly recalls the game's uneasy humor and signals that an apparently simple lesson may quickly become chaotic.