Indie gameBlue Princewent viral earlier this year, buoyed by critical acclaim, a fascinating premise, and a wealth of secrets to uncover. For a couple of weeks after its release, it was all gamers were talking about. People posted cryptic allusions to its puzzles on social media, had revelations while streaming it on Twitch, and complained when its RNG locked them out of something they needed to solve a mystery. I gave it a 4.5/5 inmy review for TheGamer, and Istillhaven’t discovered all its secrets. It feels impossibly deep – there are layers to everything.
It’s a difficult game to complete, let alone to fully finish. You need a notebook and a pen just to keep all its information straight in your head, and the difficulty of its puzzles range from simple to brain-melting. You not only have to solve its puzzles, but manage resources and adapt to its constant randomisation. This is the kind of game that you spend hours playing, methodically taking notes, putting together information in your head. I had more than one eureka moment about Blue Prince in the shower.
This does not seem like a game suited to speedrunning, and yet somehow, Blue Prince speedrunning is now a competitive event. In fact, at Summer Games Done Quick, it was one of the most exciting speedruns.
Bingo Prince? Is That Anything?
Finishing the game in a single day is theoretically possible, if you have all the information you already need, but it would be difficult – without the game’s RNG on your side (specifically, drafting the Tomb), you’d be out of luck and have to start over. But that wouldn’t make for a very fun speedrun, so at SGDQ, speedrunners are instead testing their knowledge and mastery of the game with a unique take on bingo.
Blue Prince has a lot of side objectives to complete that won’t necessarily get you closer to your objective of unlocking Room 46, but that reveal the game’s world and underlying mystery to you, offer you more resources, and so on. It’s these side objectives that are put on the bingo card.
In a wonderful twist, you don’t get bingo by making a straight line. Instead, the bingo card is laid out in a five by nine grid, like Blue Prince’s mansion, and players have to complete objectives in each box to make a path from the start – the mansion’s Entrance Hall – to the goal – the mansion’s Antechamber.
This Speedrun Is Inhumanly Difficult
Some of these objectives are simple to complete, like reaching Rank 9, or accumulating a certain number of resources. Others take more work, like lighting four blue flames, or finding and using upgrade disks. Completing these, if you’re a regular player, could take hours upon hours. These guys finished their speedrun challenge in just under an hour and fifteen minutes.
I really cannot understate how impressive completing this challenge is. The amount of knowledge you need to have about the game alone is astounding, but being able to use that knowledge as strategically and effectively as possible while also adapting your strategy to the game’s randomnessandyour competitor’s tactics is, for the average person, unimaginable.
Frankly, I’m stunned that both competitors don’t look like Megamind. I’ve been inspired to return to my Blue Prince save file, but I’m smart enough to know I’ll never be big brained enough to speedrun likethis.
