BLUE PRINCE
2025
Dogubomb
PC, XSX, PS5

Based on seeking and giving hints to navigate the twisting halls of Mount Holly, I believe I am roughly halfway through Blue Prince, this year’s most resonant independent game. The game offered an off-ramp about twenty hours ago, after rolling credits and reaching Mount Holly’s mysterious Room 46. It was already immediately apparent there was far, far more to do.

The game’s setup is succinct. Your character, Simon P. Jones, is the named heir of his recently deceased great uncle Herbert S. Sinclair, Baron of Mount Holly. Sinclair was also known as a fiend for puzzles, and his will contains a conditional statement. “”I, Herbert S. Sinclair, of the Mount Holly Estate at Reddington, do publish and declare this instrument my last will and testament, and hereby revoke all wills and codicils heretofore made by me. I give and bequeath to my grandnephew, Simon P. Jones, son of my dear niece Mary Matthew, all of my right, title, and interest in and to the house and land which I own near Mount Holly. The above provision and bequest is contingent on my aforementioned grandnephew discovering the location of the 46th room of my forty-five-room estate. The location of the room has been kept a secret from all the staff and servants of the manor, but I am confident that any heir worthy of the Sinclair legacy should have no trouble uncovering its whereabouts in a timely manner. Should my grandnephew fail to uncover this room or provide proof of his discovery to the executors of my will, then this gift shall lapse. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this 18th day of March, 1993.”

The game’s core gameplay conceit is that when Simon opens a door in Mount Holly, he draws three room cards from a drafting pool and selects one. Each room has different properties, such as a security room which controls electronic doors in the house or a bedroom which offers Simon extra energy to navigate the house, and a different number of additional doors to continue exploring. A run involves managing Simon’s energy and resources to explore as much of Mount Holly as possible until you hit too many dead ends and need to “call it a day.” When Simon wakes up the next morning, the house has been cleared of all its drafted rooms, allowing Simon to start fresh and make another effort.

The primary gameplay loop is more centered on gathering information than immediately solving puzzles. From the start, the game points you toward one permanent antechamber, at the top of Mount Holly’s 9×5 grid, as an essential goal toward Room 46. Forgive this mild spoiler, but even though getting to the antichamber will be the game’s first challenge, that’s ultimately nothing compared to actually “entering” said antechamber, let alone finding Room 46 once you’ve gained access.

While there are permanent upgrades and new rooms to draw, progress in Blue Prince is never linear. Any given day of Blue Prince may offer bad luck in room draws, a lack of resources like keys and gems required to keep advancing, and yet still contain vital clues to succeed on your next day. The house is full of paintings, sculptures, notes and books to read (and inspect more closely if you find a magnifying glass.) These clues often do not have a clear meaning until hours after you first spot them, but generally speaking, most puzzles eventually have a direct hint toward their solution. Thus far, I’ve really been satisfied with almost every puzzle solution in the game – there’s a good chance they’re just going to take you more time rather than require a degree of intellect or lateral thinking you’re not capable of achieving. I’ve been anticipating an eventual skill gap – somewhere that the puzzle is still fair but is simply beyond my capability to comprehend. At 51 hours, I still have not hit that gap, and I continue to be shocked at the game’s ability to open new puzzles under my feet that I am capable of solving and just hadn’t observed were being clued yet.

Annie and I play Blue Prince like we played Lorelei and the Laser Eyes last year, me holding the controller and her holding our notebook – she’s often more responsible for solving any given puzzle than I am. The initial gameplay requires developing your skills as a deckbuilder, managing randomness and resources to successfully get access to information. It also rewards your skills as a strategist, recognizing your identified goals and effectively prioritizing them. But, ultimately, Blue Prince is a game about observation and reading comprehension, a puzzle game akin to Myst or Fez or Outer Wilds. And like those games, the information density is really intense in Blue Prince, and figuring out what degree of info is “relevant” can be very challenging.

Fans of that kind of game have sometimes bounced off Blue Prince’s randomness, complaining that nothing feels worse than picking up a hunch and having to wait several in-game days to try to implement your gambit. I believe strongly that patience demand is at the heart of Blue Prince’s design. This is a lonely, low-key game, one telling stories of years-long investigations and years-long declines, of historical intrigue and mysterious death and disappearance, and of determining how much work you want to put into your day to day life. Blue Prince demands players keep their eye on the bigger picture, savor whatever morsel of productivity they’re able to derive from each day, to play to their outs and be ready to adapt when a door closes or another opens. If you begin each in-game day with three or more open threads you’re ready to pull, it’s hard to come up shy.

That loneliness extends to the game’s aesthetic, too. There is a heavy emphasis on portentous piano dirges in the game’s score, and when the pace or tone lighten up, it’s an immediate uplift. (A favorite track of mine is the theme “Westwardly Winds”, a wistful sunset tune with a lovely bass clarinet solo.) When you see a cutscene with character animation, it is incredibly limited in expressivity, and no human life is ever sen during gameplay. The game’s premise promoted comparisons to House of Leaves, but Mount Holly’s emptiness isn’t sinister so much as bereft. This is a time of mourning, of people dead or otherwise gone. This is a game about the messages they left behind for Simon before he takes charge of his own life.

I think, thematically, this is a game trying to teach us something about plans measured in years. It is about learning to tolerate momentary frustration and keep your eye on the bigger picture. It’s also a game about honoring your personal feelings, your setbacks and discomforts, your joy and your greed. Blue Prince doesn’t have a lot of characters, but the ones they choose to give additional depth (including Mount Holly’s disgruntled gardener) are often surprising, funny, thoughtful. I will inevitably return to write about this game in more detail and with more spoilers at the end of the year – whatever “best games of 2025 list” I write, this will make the cut. Having as much game remaining as I currently do, I have a lot of questions about the game’s story, where we finally wind up with its conclusion, and how some of these larger puzzles are actually resolved. For now, I encourage you to start the journey early, as if you’re willing to chase the rabbit down the hole, Wonderland is a vast place.