I mean, where do I even begin? Oh right, this game called Blue Prince. Raw Fury, this Swedish indie game company, decided to drop the mic and announce it a while back. Some puzzle adventure thing from a developer who goes by Dogubomb. I found out that this guy, Tonda Ros, has been pouring over it for more than eight years. Can you imagine? Eight! Who does that? It was at the February 2025 State of Play—who remembers where they were then, right? They said it was launching on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Feels like a lifetime ago.
Fast-forward to April 10, 2025, it actually dropped on all the big platforms, and surprise, surprise, sales took off like rocket fuel. For some reason, everyone missed the hype train before launch, but then boom! There it was, high on the charts. Getting all these crazy scores—89/100 on OpenCritic and a 92/100 on Metacritic. Mind-blowing, really. And gossiping across the community is that it’s the indie darling of 2025, kinda like Balatro was last year.
And speaking of Balatro, it was like indie game royalty in 2024. That and other titles like Caves of Qud and UFO 50. But let’s be real, they didn’t stand a chance against Balatro’s shadow. It’s just one dude, LocalThunk, behind the magic, similar to Blue Prince. Kind of makes you wonder if there’s some kind of indie loner dev club out there.
Blue Prince and Balatro—same kind of brains, really. Balatro’s this rogue poker deck game. Sounds fancy, huh? But it’s all about crafting illegal poker hands and beating these imposing blinds. No story, no combat, just pure card play. Funny, though, it’s got depth. The kind where if you picked a strategy and stuck to it, you’d pull those crazy card tricks, like magic but with poker. It’s that whole easy-to-learn-madly-hard-to-conquer vibe, just like Blue Prince’s narrative.
Now, Blue Prince, that’s a whole different beast. Not a card game, thank goodness. Picture this—a mansion with shifty rooms, and you’re hunting for the elusive 46th room while unraveling puzzles and mysteries. Doesn’t it sound kind of straightforward? But trust me, it’s tricky as heck.
So here we are, somehow Balatro and Blue Prince are pulling off this wide appeal, even though they’re more complex than they seem. Why? Well, these game loops are just plain graspable for folks. That’s the hook. Simple on the surface but deeper than the Mariana Trench underneath.
Anyway, can’t really wrap my head around everything without a coffee, but there’s your glimpse into the chaotic world of indie games. Who’d have thought, right?
