'Blue Prince' and Building on the Ruins of Fascism

How Tonda Ros' excellent indie game weaves together its narrative and gameplay.

[Major spoilers ahead for Blue Prince. Stop reading unless you don’t mind spoilers or have reached Room 46 in the game.]

Fascism promises a return to a glorious, imagined past, and in practice serves to demolish everything. There is no such thing as a benevolent dictator, and an inability to brook compromise or invite collaboration beyond the whims of the autocrat inevitably leads to decay and destruction. We need look no further than our current moment in America, where Donald Trump promised to “Make America Great Again,” but in his first few months in office, he’s only gutted just about every public service, destabilized the global economy, and seems unconcerned that we’re in for months of scarcity. Even our fighter jets keep falling into the ocean.

One wouldn’t expect a little puzzle game like Blue Prince to go full anti-fascist, but that’s where your journey takes you. The set-up of the game is that you play as Simon P. Jones, nephew to the enigmatic Baron Sinclair of Mt. Holly mansion. Sinclair has bequeathed you his estate on the condition that you unlock the 46th room in his 45-room mansion. The trick of the mansion is that every day the rooms reset, and it’s up to you to draft the rooms and solve their puzzles that will get you to Room 46. Along the way, Simon discovers not only his family’s history but the dark history of the surrounding world that led to the disappearance of his mother.

[Seriously, major spoilers ahead. I’m going to get into the game’s big reveal of what you learn after reaching Room 46]

The Entrance Hall in Blue Prince | Image via Dogubomb and Raw Fury