If you are stuck trying to stack toys as a toddler, this One Move Away baby level walkthrough provides the exact placement order to clear Sylvie’s 1973 tutorial. Start by using the Highlight button to find the core blocks, stack the largest wooden cubes into the tiny truck first to create a flat base, and use the Poke mechanic to nudge the awkward plushies into the remaining gaps.
Released by Ramage Games and Playstack, One Move Away disguises a rigorous spatial puzzle game inside a cozy narrative wrapper. While later stages—like packing a cramped hatchback for Uni in 1989 or navigating the American Dream with Cam in 2007—will test your patience, the foundational physics are established right here on a messy playground floor. The game’s 3D, first-person perspective forces you to reckon with volume and gravity in a way that 2D isometric titles like Unpacking never attempt.
To master the art of packing, you must first understand the limitations of your tiny protagonist. This guide breaks down the undocumented controls, the optimal toy-stacking strategy, and the hidden optional objectives scattered around the 1973 nursery.
Essential Mechanics for Your One Move Away Baby Level Walkthrough
Before you start throwing wooden blocks into the tiny truck, you need to understand the spatial logic of the Ramage Games physics engine. The game explicitly teaches you how to pick up, rotate, and drop items, but it leaves several critical functions undocumented. Mastering these three tools—the Crouch function, the Poke Tool, and the Highlight Tool—is the difference between a satisfying click and rage-flinging a teddy bear across the room.
The most baffling oversight in the 1973 tutorial is the omission of a crouch prompt. Because you are packing a low-to-the-ground toy truck from a toddler's perspective, maintaining a top-down or standing view obscures the depth of the truck bed. You need to get your camera angle parallel to the floor to see where the gaps are.
Here is the complete control matrix for the essential packing mechanics:
| Action | Keyboard | Xbox Gamepad | PlayStation Gamepad | Primary Use in 1973 Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crouch | CTRL | X | Square | Viewing the bottom layer of the tiny truck bed. |
| Poke | LMB | RT | R2 | Nudging plushies and blocks into tight corners without picking them up. |
| Highlight | R | Y | Triangle | Identifying core objective toys versus Extra Objects marked with a plus sign (+). |
The Poke tool is particularly vital. When you place an object, the physics engine occasionally leaves it hovering slightly above the floor or caught on the edge of another toy. Instead of picking the item back up and resetting your rotation, a quick tap of the Poke button will nudge the object in the direction you are facing, sliding it neatly into place.
Step-by-Step One Move Away Baby Level Walkthrough (Sylvie, 1973)
When you assume control of baby Sylvie, you are presented with a scattered mess of toys and a tiny truck that features a strict vertical limit outline. The objective is not just to get everything inside the vehicle, but to ensure no single pixel of a toy breaches that glowing boundary.
Phase 1: The Foundation Layer
Do not start with the awkwardly shaped items. Use your Highlight tool to identify the large, perfectly square wooden blocks. These are your foundational pieces. Crouch down (CTRL/X/Square) and place these blocks flat against the floor of the truck bed. Push them flush against the back wall of the truck cab. You want to create a completely level surface that covers roughly 60% of the truck's floor space.
Phase 2: The Perimeter Walls
Next, locate the rectangular wooden planks. These pieces are highly unstable if stacked vertically in the center of the truck, as the game's physics will cause them to tip over when nudged. Instead, lay them horizontally along the side walls of the tiny truck. This creates a makeshift retaining wall, preventing smaller items from rolling out of the back.
Phase 3: The Soft Fillers
Once your wooden grid is established, you will be left with the soft plushies and oddly shaped toys. This is where the 1973 tutorial introduces you to the concept of "squish." While wooden blocks have rigid collision boxes, the plushies have a slight degree of forgiveness. Drop the plushies into the empty gaps between your wooden blocks. If a teddy bear gets stuck on the edge of a plank, use the Poke tool to forcefully nudge it down into the cavity.
Phase 4: The Vertical Cap
Finally, check the vertical limit outline. You will likely have a few small, flat toys remaining. Lay these flat across the top of your wooden block foundation. Do not stack them on the plushies, as the uneven surface will cause them to slide and breach the height limit. Once the final item is placed below the glowing line, the game will reward you with a deeply satisfying audio click, locking the level.
Extra Items in the One Move Away Baby Level Walkthrough
If you are an achievement hunter, simply packing the truck is not enough. The 1973 tutorial introduces the concept of Extra Objects—items that are not required to clear the primary vehicle puzzle but are tied to environmental storytelling and optional goals.
Tap the Highlight button and scan the playground. You will notice several toys floating with a distinct plus sign (+) above them. These are your Extra Objects. The game does not want you to cram these into the tiny truck; doing so will only clutter your limited space and likely cause you to fail the vertical height check.
Instead, these items are meant for shelf decoration. Look around the perimeter of the room for empty shelving units and low tables. Your optional objective is to neatly organize these extra toys onto the furniture. Doing this successfully in the 1973 stage unlocks the first optional achievement and teaches you a crucial habit for the later stages. When Sylvie is packing her hatchback for Uni in 1989, separating the "must-pack" boxes from the "leave-behind" room decorations becomes the core tension of the puzzle. Learning to spot the plus sign early saves you hours of frustration later.
The Narrative Weight of the 1973 Tutorial
It is easy to dismiss the baby level as a simple mechanical sandbox, but Ramage Games uses this opening chapter to establish the emotional stakes of the entire narrative. One Move Away is fundamentally a game about transitions.
Long before Sylvie is making complex decisions about which childhood items to abandon in her 1989 move, or navigating the shared-space compromises of the 2007 American Dream chapter with Cam, she is just a toddler learning how shapes fit together. The toys you pack in this tiny truck—specifically the worn teddy bear and the distinct wooden blocks—reappear in boxes during the later stages of her life.
The tactile nature of the first-person perspective forces you to physically handle these memories. By forcing you to manually rotate, drop, and nudge each item, the game builds a subconscious attachment to the inventory. When you are forced to leave that same teddy bear behind two decades later because it simply won't fit in the hatchback, the emotional impact is earned entirely through the gameplay mechanics introduced in this very first room.
One Move Away Baby Level Walkthrough FAQ
How do I crouch in One Move Away? The game does not explicitly teach the crouch mechanic in the 1973 tutorial, which can make placing items on the bottom of the truck difficult. On a keyboard, the default button is CTRL. On an Xbox gamepad, press X. On a PlayStation controller, press Square. Crouching is essential for gaining a clear perspective on the floor of the vehicle.
What does the plus sign (+) mean above certain toys? When you use the Highlight tool (R on keyboard, Y on Xbox, Triangle on PlayStation), some items will display a plus sign. These are Extra Objects. You do not need to pack them into the vehicle to clear the level; they are meant for optional shelving goals, room decoration, and unlocking specific achievements.
Why won't my items fit even though they are inside the truck? You must respect the vertical limit outline. If any part of a wooden block or plushie breaches the glowing boundary above the truck bed, the level will not register as complete. Use the Poke tool (LMB/RT/R2) to nudge items down into empty gaps or rearrange your base layer to be flatter.
Does the baby level impact the 1989 Uni level? Narratively, yes. The 1973 Sylvie stage establishes the protagonist's relationship with her belongings, some of which reappear as legacy items when she packs her hatchback in 1989. Mechanically, it serves purely as a tutorial for the physics engine, teaching you how to handle rigid versus soft collision boxes without the pressure of a massive inventory.
Can I skip the 1973 tutorial? No. The baby level is the mandatory opening chapter of the game. It is required to unlock the subsequent life stages for Sylvie and Cam. Fortunately, by following the foundation-first stacking method, the level can be cleared in under five minutes.
Sources
- Ramage Games / Playstack Official Release Notes (May 2026)
- Into Indie Games - One Move Away Beginner Tips & Tricks
- PC Gamer - One Move Away Review & Physics Analysis