Fuck AI

For some background, Blue Prince is a PC (Windows/Mac) and Xbox/PlayStation puzzle game in which you inherit a 45-room mansion from your late, eccentric uncle, but to earn it, you must reach the rumoured 46th room. The twist is, all the rooms reset every day (except a couple permanent rooms), so every time you come to a door, three blueprints (get it, Blue Prince) are drawn like cards from a deck, and you choose the one you want. Some are dead ends, some have goodies, and some have traps. (Sort of.)

Furthermore, a Souls-like game (Clair Obscur: Expedition 33) was controversially stripped of its Game of the Year award by an indie publication, due to it using generative AI to make some of its art. (33 won dozens of other GOTY awards elsewhere.) After this disqualification, Blue Prince was awarded the title in its stead. Because of the controversy, some unknown parties (33 fans? Someone else? Article is not clear) started accusing Blue Prince of using genAI as well.

The truth is a bit more interesting. First of all, there's no genAI in Blue Prince. Second of all, it's made by one guy, who 8 years ago allegedly sequestered himself away from all other games — kind of the antithesis of how AI works, stealing content from artists — so he wouldn't be influenced by any other game. So any puzzle or Roguelike game, or any deck building game you might think Blue Prince is similar to, if it came out in the last 8 years, it's purely coincidental.

You should play Blue Prince for a handful of reasons. One, it's an awesome little digital puzzle box. Beautiful, hand-drawn graphics, lots of secrets to uncover, lots of red herrings, it's just so fun to try to unpack it. It's also fun to just run blindly through a run. Despite the time limit implied in the beginning, there is no time/date requirement for completing the game. You can make 500 runs and never be told you took too much time. Two, it's on Windows and Xbox and PlayStation, but it's also on the Mac. Support for Mac gaming is rare and should be rewarded. Three, it's made by one guy. Four, it's like $20 when it goes on sale (I think the full price is $30 — I only care about sales because I bought it twice, once for my Mac and once for my Xbox). Four, Roguelikes, when done right, are some of the best games out there. I wish we could get Noita on Mac or at least Xbox. And five... because it wasn't made with genAI.