This blog is a "side gig" of sorts for me, so sometimes it's hard to balance finding time to play the latest games before they come out with my real life.

When a review code for Blue Prince arrived around a week ago I assumed I'd get sidetracked and let it slide by. Instead I played 10+ hours of the surprise gem over one weekend. Just one more run, I'd say, before genuinely looking outside and seeing that several hours had passed by and it was suddenly pitch black. I normally hate run-based games where progression can feel just out of reach and luck-based, but Blue Prince almost had a Tetris-effect on me. I'd stop playing and still have the twists and turns of this house running through my brain. At one point I had the room-selection UI pop into my head as I left my real house.

I haven't uncovered every secret the game has to offer, or even rolled credits. I think I'm very close, but also from the sound of things I'm far from done.

But 16+ hours in I'm obsessed and can't stop wondering what's next in this deceptively simple-seeming puzzle game, one that's built around perfect bite-sized runs and strategic play.

Blue Prince has a bit of a board game vibe to it. As the player you explore an inherited house. At the start of each day the house isn't sketched out at all. Every room could be the key to victory, if you can manage to find a path through the house.

Like a board game, each room of the house is generated from a selection of 3 rooms, kinda like picking up 3 cards from a deck at the start of a turn. You're trying to get to a certain room on the board, but this can be limited by your inventory and which randomly selected rooms are offered to you. You might hit a road-block and have to end the day.

Different rooms contain different tools, perks and paths. The currency of the game includes steps, which count down with each room you enter and exit, as well as gems, coins and keys. They're all essential to progression and incredibly difficult to balance. Sometimes finding just one bit of food will save an entire run. Sometimes a key is the difference between today and tomorrow.

Some rooms will punish you, by taking away steps, while others will give you more time to explore the house. You'll find yourself locked out of progressing, or lacking the gems required to open a new type of room that you haven't seen before.

I've felt so many types of emotions playing this game. It has environmental storytelling that just trails along in the background, and everything may or may not be a clue to progression. Simple things that you might walk past a hundred times can eventually become a puzzle to solve. It's best to have a physical notebook by your side as you play, and my own is filled with the scribbles of a mad-man. Everything is a clue, every note, every item.

But runs can also end very quickly. Sometimes you'll get blocked off by a bad set of 3 rooms that equate to a dead end. Sometimes you'll need to collect a key or gem to unlock a door. Some doors are hidden behind specific items. Some specific items uncover powerful specific rooms. Or sometimes you'll have a great run where you're wealthy and able to get extremely far into the house.

When I'd get a great run going, it almost felt like I was winning a lottery. But there's also a need for tactics too, it isn't just luck-based. There are even permanent perks that you'll need to work hard to uncover.

Overall it's best to go in blind though. The best part of this whole review period was simply the fact that barely any discussion around this game existed online, apart from some discussions around a demo released last year.

I think the key tip from me is to explore. Don't worry about how many days have passed, but instead look around. Always pick new rooms if you're offered them, even if it leads to a dead end.

And avoid spoilers at all costs. I've already told you too much (but not really).

(Also yes, the name is kinda a pun for Blueprints, don't let that scare you off)