Developed by independent studio Dogubomb and published by Raw Fury,Blue Princeis an adventure puzzle game launching on July 10, 2025. Although it is Dogubomb’s debut title as a video game studio, earlypreviews ofBlue Princehave been highly praisedfor its innovative premise.
InBlue Prince, players take the role of Simon P Jones, the heir of a mansion in Mt. Holly who must find Room 46 to claim his inheritance. Players will explore Mt. Holly room by room as they draw up a blueprint of the house, all while solving puzzles and riddles. However, their progression will reset each day, so players should think very carefully about their next step. Moreover, a missing person’s case reveals itself inside the rooms of Mt. Holly. Thus,Blue Princecombines puzzle gameplay with strategy and mystery, while defying the puzzle genre in the process. Game Rant recently spoke to Tonda Ros, the game’s creator and director at Dogubomb, about howBlue Princebalances all these elements.The following transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.
How Blue Prince Is Not Your Average Puzzle Game
Q: InBlue Prince, every door offers random rooms to choose from, and each day resets the player’s progress, similar to a roguelike title where no two runs are the same. How did the team tackle combining these elements with puzzle gameplay?
Ros:Surprisingly, I feel the combination of these two typically disparate designs solves a lot of the genre’s biggest flaws. In a moretraditional puzzle game, for example, if a player has trouble with a particular puzzle, they will often find themselves stuck until they can solve it. It’s a binary check, and if you can’t figure it out, you’re going to be forced to either look up the answer or give up on the game.
InBlue Prince, however, you will always have the option to move on and keep exploring. If you run out of options, you may always just begin a new day with all new rooms. Nothing will be stopping or blocking you from progressing. In fact, most of the puzzles you find won’t even be able to be solved without finding clues or items in other rooms. Exploration is key.
Q: How doesBlue Princeencourage player experimentation and strategy?
Ros:Experimentation is a core pillar of the game. There is no hand-holding at the onset and it’s up to each player to figure out the hidden rules that govern the house and this world. To me, the most fun part of a game is the discovery process: developing strategies, coming up with theories, andexploring game mechanics. There are hidden layers to every aspect of the game that will only be uncovered by players questioning how things work.
Q: What was most challenging about designing the mansion’s puzzles? How did you balance puzzle difficulty to keep the gameplay experience fresh?
Ros:One of my goals was to create a game that both strategic players and puzzle enthusiasts could enjoy, even if they don’t necessarily enjoy the other genre. To that end, puzzle difficulty is largely determined by the player themselves by allowing them to solve things at their own pace whenever they feel they have enough information. For the puzzle experienced, they might only need a single clue, while others may wish to explore the house to gather as much knowledge as they can before taking a stab.
There are also multiple solutions for many of the challenges you come across and some items and rooms may provide alternate routes to the intended solutions. I don’t even like to use the word “intended” because I love the idea of allowing players to use their creativity to solve or bypass obstacles.
Q: Is there a particular puzzle that you think players could enjoy the most?
Ros:There are so many different types of challenges in the game, and it will be really interesting to see which ones will end up becoming people’s favorites. I have a few I’m personally fond of, and a few I’m proud of, but most of those are a bit deeper into the game, so I’d rather not reveal anything about those at this time.
Detective Work Plays a Part in Blue Prince
Q: A missing person case unfolds while exploring Mt. Holly. Can you discuss why you decided to include this storyline?
Ros:I talk a lot about the strategy and puzzle aspects ofBlue Princebecause it’s easy for me to discuss these very mechanical structures that the game’s foundation is built upon. The disappearance of children’s author Marion Marigold, on the other hand, is much more difficult for me to discuss because that story is the very heart of the game. And like a heart, it’s not something one can see from the outside. Perhaps, with time, players will come to learn who she was and what happened to her, but the clues surrounding her mysterious disappearance are concealed within the furthest rooms and shifting shadows of the house.
Q:Blue Prince’s aesthetic is quite unique with a graphic novel-like touch. Can you talk about developing this art style and what it adds to the overall experience?
Ros:Our art director, Davide Pellino, is an absolute genius. We spent an entire year together developing the look of the game and creating a very unusual shader system to facilitate thehand-drawn lookof our world. The result of those efforts is a bold, stylized sketchy world of imperfect lines and floorplan sketches. It’s the perfect blend of his style and my own, and I am very pleased that so many people are drawn to the atmospheric visuals of the world we have created.
Q: Were there any real-life inspirations behind the architecture of Mount Holly Estate? How does the mansion’s architecture affectBlue Prince’s pace and narrative?
Ros:I wouldn’t say there is one single source of inspiration for the architecture of Mount Holly. If you stand before the building and look at the facade, you will notice the house was built in a layered symphony of disparate architectural styles. This appearance suggests that the mansion was constructed over several generations, room by room; each new addition being added to the whole with little concern for uniformity or cohesion. In this way, the game is a lot like the house. Each new idea was added organically, one room at a time, year by year, adding complexity and depth as the house expanded. This process is also mirrored in the journey of the player as they add to the tapestry of the world, one room at a time.
Q: Has players’ feedback on the demo influenced the final version ofBlue Prince?
Ros:We have been playtesting the game since 2020, and I have spent these past four years watching hundreds of hours of playthroughs to tweak the game to find that perfectbalance of strategy and difficulty. When you first begin playingBlue Princeyou may find it to be a little challenging; many doors are locked and dead-ends are constantly popping up to thwart your progress. But as players slowly progress, they will discover more and more secrets and learn more and more about the rules that govern this strange building.
You will discover strategies, tricks, and items that will all contribute to your mastery of the house. The overwhelmingly positive reaction players have expressed after playing the demo has reaffirmed that those years spent balancing the game were well worth the effort and these players have only played the first four days!
Q: Is there anything else you’d like to say to players who are waiting for the game?
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