Beyond the Video Game: Blue Prince and the Art of Surprise
Blue Prince is a super-indie video game created by Tonda Ros that is driving audiences and critics crazy, with over 2 million players and a score of 92/100 on Metacritic, on par with the other revelation title of the year, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. This success, as we discovered at the recent First Playable, also speaks a little Italian and has a beautiful story to tell.
Davide Pellino, born in Avellino in 1986, is the Art Director of Blue Prince and describes it like this: “The definition puzzle/roguelite has always seemed reductive to me compared to the thousand facets of the game. Blue Prince is a story told through an extremely intricate storytelling made of puns and double meanings, a strategy game, a continuous and surprising exploration. In a romantic way, I believe there are only two types of games, those that leave you with something and those that don't. Blue Prince is one of those that leaves you with something, the feeling of having accomplished a huge feat, giving you that sense of satisfaction that goes beyond the gaming experience.” Attilio Di Gaeta, 3D Modeler of the game , continues: “It's really difficult to pigeonhole Blue Prince , it has a unique identity that I believe has contributed to its success. Defining it as a puzzle strategy game would be reductive, perhaps the most appropriate definition is a roguelite with a true indie aesthetic, refined and distinctive”.
Blue Prince is a really smart title, which constantly challenges the player. Even more particular is the meeting between the brilliant Tonda Ros, creator of the game, and Davide Pellino, who says: “They say the postman always rings twice, luckily in my case, with Tonda, he rang four times”. In October 2017, the Art Director opens an email that says only : “I don’t think you’re interested, I’m very sorry but the project is about to start. You’re my number one choice, but this is a last try before moving on. Let me know”.
He identifies it as a classic scam email, not knowing the sender, a certain Tonda Ros, nor the phantom project he was talking about. Davide says: “Almost by chance I then checked the spam folder and found three more emails from the same sender. They had ended up there, ignored, never seen, because they were full of attachments, photos and images, marked as advertising and discarded by Gmail”. Tonda Ros had found Davide’s portfolio on ArtStation , and the style he imagined for Blue Prince was very similar to that of his works. Davide says: “ The first email dates back to September 2017 , where he presented the project to me in a long and detailed letter, with attachments, photos, documents and a prototype. He was impressed by my work and wanted me to be the artistic director of the project. After reading just the incipit of his first email, I was already in love with the project and wanted to work on it more than anything else in the world. I didn’t even finish reading: I replied immediately, explaining what had happened”. An hour later Davide Pellino and Tonda Ros were already on the call talking about it. Two hours later they were working on Blue Prince.
The gestation of Blue Prince lasted about eight years . Tonda Ros wanted to give his work a strong authorial imprint. Davide explains: “During the production of a game, you often encounter two big problems, time and budget. Making compromises is almost always a forced and sensible choice. In our case, the compromises were few, if any. We worked hard to keep the bar high, but it was clear that the only limit to everything was us and the quality of our work . This pushed the artistic team to have the same approach as Tonda, everything had to be done as it had to be done, without shortcuts, cuts, or sacrifices”.
Attilio continues: “At the beginning it wasn’t easy to get into the mechanisms and understand the deep meaning of some choices, but this confrontation with such an authorial vision represented a great growth . The work context was very stimulating and I believe that this experience positively influenced my approach, even in subsequent projects”.
For Blue Prince , Pellino created a custom shader system to achieve an artistic graphic novel look that was highly praised by video game critics. The work, however, was complex. He explains: “We were inspired by real photos, of objects or architectural elements. It was more of a study of shapes and colors, the basic elements of visual communication. The first days of work were like a masterclass in architecture. This approach transformed into the style of the game: it was an immediate and natural process, born of inspiration”. Two thirty-year-olds, without ever having met before, had drawn the same sketches: one from Los Angeles, Tonda, and the other from Avellino, Davide. It was enough to draw a line between the two to find the main road. Davide concludes: “In purely artistic terms, the style you see today in Blue Prince is probably the same one we already had a few weeks into development”.
The Power of StorytellingFor the first two years, both Davide and Attilio had very little information about the script, Tonda Ros was rather stingy with details. Working on the game atmospheres became an enigma. Davide explains: “Imagine having to build a car. You have all the details, the specifications. Every piece, every component that you have to build is explained to you with extreme clarity. There is a moodboard or references for everything. With so much precise information you can clearly imagine that finished car. But then, when asked 'Once built, where are we going with this car?', Tonda's answer was always a vague and ironic 'Somewhere, far away!' ”
Tonda didn’t want to ruin the gaming experience for the team either. Davide continues: “The day I tried it for the first time, a complete but rough version, it was incredible. Not only was it one of the most exciting projects I’ve ever worked on, it was actually one of my favorite games ever. And I could enjoy it like any other gamer, because, even though I knew every part of that machine, I didn’t know which direction I was going to go in”. Attilio concludes: “It’s true, for a long time I worked with very little narrative information, I only had a vague idea of the room I was working on and a moodboard as a reference. But it was precisely this lack of detail that gave me great creative freedom. I think his intention was to leave room for authentic expression, so that every element really had something to say”.
An unexpected success? From its debut, the game has achieved great success, and room 46 of the mansion where Blue Prince is set, which the player must reach, has become surrounded by an almost mystical aura. Davide tells us: “We had good expectations, I won't deny it. However, we were aware that it was the debut of an indie studio, with an extremely complex, intricate puzzle game that doesn't hold the player's hand. Not exactly a mainstream game. And yet, the release went beyond expectations”.
The title jumped to first place on Metacritic with a score of 92/100; critics loved it and so did the players. Davide continues: “I think the main reason that is keeping so many people glued to the screen is the same that kept me glued: behind every door there is a new discovery, which leads to further questions, thus opening the way to other puzzles. You are always there with the feeling that the next step taken, or the next door opened, leads to a new, incredible plot twist and… often it is exactly Like this". Attilio concludes: “When I had the chance to test a version with the definitive mechanics, even if still immature in other aspects, I immediately understood that Blue Prince was something unique”.
With an experience as refined as it is innovative, Blue Prince is set to become one of the biggest surprises of the year, with real potential for the Game of the Year title. A work that once again demonstrates how indie video games can surprise, point the way and leave a mark.
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