Every year, there seems to be one indie game that really captures the imagination of the mainstream. Last year, it was Balatro (LocalThunk) and this year, it’s Blue Prince (Dogubomb)–a first person roguelite-like puzzle game. I have included the release trailer below.
I satrted hearing murmurs about it several days ago. I listen to Kinda Funny Games on the daily, and they had a fairly lengthy discussion about it with Jason Schreier from Bloomberg about it. Jason was raving about it after putting nearly 200 hours into it (and finishing it), and he said more games should be this smart and engaging. The Kinda Funny guys were also raving about it and how it has that ‘one more run’ feeling to it and how it’s definitely big brain energy.
Oh, and you need a notebook while you’re playing it. I am of two minds about that, which I’ll get to later.
The game is on Game Pass, so I installed it. And, here’s the thing. It’s first person. I get nauseous/sea-sick when playing first person games. I can mitigate it sometimes by fiddling with the FOV slider and other tricks of the trade, but I assumed this game wouldn’t have any of that. I don’t know why. Maybe because the last time I tried to play a first person indie game, it was What Remains of Edith Finch (Giant Sparrow) for the same reason. This was 2017, and everyone was gaga over it.
I knew better. I really did. I had watched the trailer and felt sick watching it. But I wanted so badly to be in on this because dark, brooding indie games are exactly my jam. I struggled along, dealing with the nausea until, uh, *spoilers* for a nearly-decade old game the flying bit. If I remember correctly, I got turned into an owl and had to fly. I instinctively retched compulsively and came thisclose to throwing up. I immediately quit the game and got a refund. I tweeted about my experience, and Giant Sparrow suggested using the reticule. I thanked them for the suggestion, but there was no way in hell I was touching that game again. The feeling I got while playing it was horrid. Funnily enough, Kinda Funny mentioned a fairly recent patch to that game. I looked it up, and the last patch was in 2022. It had nothing to do with accessibility, unfortunately.
Anyway.
I mentioned in the RKG Discord that I had a hard time with first person games and ruminated that Blue Prince would not have an FOV slider. Much to my surprise, someone replied that the game had it and a mouse sensitivity slider as well. That’s what got me to install it, and I spent the first half hour just messing with the FOV slider, the mouse sensitivity slider, and looked at the other options.