Room Escape Artist

Blueprint(s) for success

Location: at home

Date Played: April + May 2025

Team Size: 1

Duration: Between 15 and 80+ hours

Price: $29.99 (available on Steam, XBox, and PlayStation)

REA Reaction

Blue Prince has taken the puzzle game world by storm, and for very good reasons. This was a game with deep and layered mysteries, an interesting puzzle game plus roguelike gameplay structure, and hours upon hours of content. The central hook was intriguing enough that, after seeing it on display at the 2024 Tribeca Festival, I eagerly awaited its launch.

The story of Blue Prince was not a novel one: the main character, Simon, had inherited his eccentric uncle’s eccentric mansion, but there was a stipulation in the will he needed to satisfy first. The goal of Blue Prince was to find the 46th room in the Mount Holly Estate, but the roguelike element of the game meant that each day the mansion resets to being unbuilt. I, as Simon, had to build a new path through the mansion using different rooms and discovering different information and interactions.

The main friction of Blue Prince was born out of the combination of juggling many, many mysteries being open at one time with the randomly generated selection of rooms drafted at each door you opened in the mansion. I may have wanted to work on one particular puzzle, but the RNG may not have provided the necessary rooms or items. This was frustrating, especially when I was given most but not all of the components necessary in a single run. Judging by others’ reactions to the game, this dissonance between puzzles and randomness was the main pinch point of Blue Prince.

On the other hand, the sheer amount of puzzles available at any time meant that I was almost always able to pivot to a new investigative angle based on what I was given, or at least that I learned some new bit of knowledge. And knowledge was the real currency of Blue Prince. Every day spent exploring the Mount Holly Estate added something to my still-growing spreadsheet of information and screenshot collection. And of course, reaching room 46 was only the beginning of the real mystery.

I have already had more conversations about Blue Prince than I have had about any other game I’ve played. This is a game that demands to be discussed. I highly recommend joining in on that conversation by taking your first steps into the estate.

Who is this for?

• Story seekers
• Puzzle and investigation lovers
• Roguelike and metroidbrainia fans
• Any experience level
• Organized note takers

Why play?

• Layers upon layers of puzzles and exploration at every turn
• A surprising amount of intriguing lore and story

Story

Simon’s uncle – a baron in a fictitious nation – has died and gone full eccentric uncle. His will stated that Simon would only earn his inheritance if he could find the 46th room in the baron’s ever changing 45-room mansion.

Gameplay

Blue Prince was a rare combination of a puzzle game and a roguelike game. The game was broken up into days, and each day was spent building rooms in the Mt. Holly Estate. When Simon ran out of stamina for the day, the next day began and the mansion reset. Different rooms became available to draft, opening up new avenues of exploration.

A note on genre: Blue Prince can be described as a ‘metroidbrainia,’ a game wherein knowledge of how systems work provides the impetus for progression, rather than item or ability upgrades. Other games in this style are Chants of Sennaar, Return of the Obra Dinn, and – perhaps the purest exemplar of the genre – Outer Wilds.

Analysis

➕ Blue Prince contained an absolutely gigantic amount of puzzles and long-term mysteries to investigate and solve. You will always have something else to do.

➖ It is unclear to me, 40+ hours into the game and growing, if there is an actual ending that I am building towards.

➕ The feeling of discovery never really ends. Wrapping up one puzzle opens the door to more ways to use an item or interact with a room. I found myself saying aloud, “Oh, I can do that, too?!” every few runs.

➖ The RNG will make you mad at some point. It can be generous some days, but can also end a day’s run in frustration.

➕ There is a surprisingly rich story that underpins the whole game and is slowly revealed throughout the course of play.

✏️ You will need to take notes, preferably in an organized manner. There is too much information to keep inside your head, and nothing that you read or see during a run is ‘remembered’ by Simon in-game. 

➕ I never thought I’d comment on a game’s patch notes, but Blue Prince’s are surprisingly well thought out. They are highly detailed and to prevent spoilers they are broken up into sections based on how deep into the game you should be before you read them.

Tips For Players

• Required Gear: System requirements are listed on Blue Prince‘s Steam store page.

Buy your copy of Dogubomb’s Blue Prince, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.