These indie games are going crazy, aren't they?
Here, in 2025, we are seeing a resurgence of just amazing, wonderful games made by independent developers that are infusing new ideas and sticking the landing when it comes to creating complete, satisfying gaming experiences. And while many will say Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is the best example of that in the last year or so, my money is on Blue Prince.
This debut effort from developer Dogubomb tasks your character, a young man named Simon Jones, with inheriting Mt. Holly, the sprawling estate of his recently-deceased great Uncle which is nestled away in a remote mountain pass. But the old man didn't just leave you the place in his will with no strings attached - otherwise there wouldn't be a game. Instead, he's laid out a challenge for you, and it's a doozy. You must find the secret 46th room in the inaccurately-named 45-room mansion. You'll have to look for clues, search carefully, employ some trial and error, and rub some brain cells together to succeed.
Ah, I Get it Now
"Oh", you say, "I get it. It's some kind of adventure where you walk around some big house, click around to progress, and at some point finally open some secret door." Well, most of that is fairly correct, but this game throws some big twists at you right from the start that, luckily - unlike with The Outer Wilds - I can actually describe to you without ruining anything. You see, the mansion is split into these rooms that is depicted on a grid, and when you enter a door to walk into the next room, you're presented with a few choices for what room will go in that space. Do you choose the Commissary where you can buy items to help you on your journey? A Hallway with lots of exits that gives you more options for filling in the mansion? Do you go for the Security Room which can help you get through electronically-locked doors later? How about the Walk-in Closet which has no exits but includes guaranteed items to loot?
Each room also has a fixed number of exits, numbering from zero (dead end rooms!) to three. Combine this with the dozens of possible rooms to choose along with items to loot that help you repeatedly along with consumables like keys and money to help you on your way, and the challenge is as much discovering secrets within these rooms as it is just strategizing how to lay them out so that you don't run out and find yourself locked out of completing the mansion.
Hold on...
And speaking of getting locked out of completion - there's one final twist to the basic structure of Blue Prince, and it's a doozy. You see, your character starts with 50 "steps" and every time you walk between rooms, you spend one. You can explore and look around all you want and for as long as you want in a given room without spending steps, but the moment you pass through that threshold into another room, you spend a step. And if you run out of steps, you become "exhausted" for the day, and must start over the next day.
Your great uncle also stipulated that any items you were carrying must be left behind when restarting, although it is hinted to you fairly early on that yes, you can make permanent changes and bend (if not break) some of these rules that will greatly increase your chances of success. Finally, when you come back, the room choices are different each run - the spot that the Nook occupied on Day 4 might be where you place the Den or the Workshop on another day.
And so if you're wondering - "wait, isn't that kind of a roguelike?" - well yes, it is. Starting out, it feels like you're playing a video game, and then board game-style mechanics get thrown in by way of placing little room tiles on a grid, but then it swings back around to video games as the roguelike ruleset governs how your runs end and start over. And let me tell you, this game is addicting, even if you fail to make any noticeable progress towards the fabled Room 46 on a given run. As you make discoveries, uncover secrets, make permanent changes, find new rooms to place, and unfold a rather grand plot and history about the mansion and much more, it's easy to get hooked on this game.
While the overall idea of a mansion that changes from day to day may seem a bit odd and kind of "game-y", it's the fact that the player is has choices for which room to choose every time they touch a door that keeps it interesting to play. The choice is yours for your overall style, and it is to the point that the game includes several books with tips and info on how to make the best of your journey through Mt. Holly.
Still Not for Everyone
With that said, Blue Prince is not a game that everyone will take to. While it is a first-person game that is fairly easy to get started in, its wordplay puzzles and relaxed pace will not be for everyone. There's no action, no shooting, no enemies to fight, and at least some of its challenges will cook the noodle of just about any gamer out there. Early on, the game suggests you get out a notebook and start writing; my version of that was a OneNote page and a whole lot of screenshots.
If this doesn't sound like your idea of an exciting evening of gaming, I get it. It needs a certain frame of mind. But if you've ever been into escape room-type adventures, classic LucasArts point and click games, or any kind of mystery/deduction games, then this is right up your alley.
The Vibe
Blue Prince is rendered in full 3D as a first-person game, and everything is drawn and rendered in a sort of graphic novel style, similar to Borderlands but in a vastly more calm and sane way. That's where the similarities end to that series however, but overall I find the game's soothing style and wonderful, mostly ambient-style soundtrack to be a perfect match for the gameplay.
Luckily, you're also not just cooped up in some rooms in a house - there is an outdoor to the estate, with some of its own secrets hidden away, and the history you read about hints at a much larger world. Everything from a collection of newspaper clippings, to a host of books you can read in the game, even to a simple puzzle box that recreates a tiny version of world events all add to this immersive little world.
Avoiding Spoilers
One thing that can be tough is to talk about this game with others past the basic premise I listed out above. Even just asking someone else playing this game something like, "Did you find the roof shingle in the toilet?" (Note: not a real example, but I've got no idea why I came up with that as a fake one) can feel like a spoiler to someone who wants to discover everything themselves.
The end result is that yes, you can discuss the game, and there are at least a few "generic" milestones you can at least ask others if they've hit, but so many of the mysteries and larger puzzles in Blue Prince can be either solved or skipped completely independently of the overarching progress you can make. This can make it difficult to discuss the game.
Starts to Fall Apart
Unfortunately, towards the end of Blue Prince, the game starts to come apart at the seams. There are plenty of mysteries to work through even after the credits roll, but this is where the game's basic room-building mechanics start to work against it. You see, by this point in the game, players - myself included - likely have multiple pages of notes, lots of diagrams or screenshots, and many threads that aren't resolved, and now the whole room-selection mechanic starts to work against the game. Trying to dig through to get to a puzzle often requires doing a specific build with a series of rooms, sometimes in a particular configuration, and it can be frustrating to get here. And considering that at this point, players had reached the official end some hours ago, it's hard to maintain the motivation to keep going.
It doesn't help that the puzzles only get more obscure at this point, such that finding the solutions can feel even further from one's grasp than ever before. For those that stick with it, there are some nice additional story resolutions to be had, but even though I had mentioned that Blue Prince is not for everyone, continuing past the credits is likely going to narrow down the field of players even further, while everyone leaving it behind feeling unsatisfied despite having "beaten" the game.
Unfortunate, but Still Recommendable
While the post-credit gameplay may be the wrong place to put some of the game's most obscure and frustrating mysteries, I can still say I wholly recommend Blue Prince to anyone looking for a relaxed, interesting puzzle and exploration game. The atmosphere, music, and overall feeling of the game is quite unique, and the feeling of progress and satisfaction as you work your way to Room 46 is fantastic, even if that fades if you continue past that. Still, this is a wonderful example of the innovation seen in the indie gaming space and I am excited to see what developer Dogubomb does next.
9/10
Blue Prince is available on PC via Steam, Xbox Series consoles (including Game Pass), and PlayStation 5. A review copy of the game was provided by Valve Software via Steam. The normal price for this game is $29.99.