2025 was a banner year for gaming, especially in the indie space. While some releases like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 are being faced with questions about their true indie cred, and big-name releases like Hades 2 and Hollow Knight: Silksong had the benefit of being sequels, other titles like Ball x Pit, Dispatch, Absolum, and Despelote made this one of the best years in memory for original games from new voices.
One of the best examples of the impact of indie games this year was Blue Prince, a quietly moody and effectively engaging puzzle game. Blue Prince stands out as one of the year’s most effective debuts, and fans have been eager to return to this setting in a potential sequel. While some might be disappointed to hear that the game’s creator acknowledges that there won’t be a direct sequel to Blue Prince, his reasoning lays the groundwork for an inventive follow-up that could carry on the worldbuilding but avoid the expectations that come with a sequel.
Blue Prince Creator Doesn’t Think There Needs To Be A Sequel
Developed by Dogubomb, Blue Prince is a terrific puzzle game that sees players exploring a massive mansion in search of a mysterious 46th room. As players move through the building, they encounter challenges, dead ends, and puzzles that make finding the final room all the more difficult. As they explore the mansion as Simon P. Jones, players learn more about the mysterious world of Mora, the fate of Simon’s mother, and how it all factors into an effort to combat the authoritarian government that has taken over the land.
Created by creator Tonda Ros, Blue Prince was a fascinating passion project from the designer, taking eight years to develop, that steadily brought in more influences and inspirations from not just video games but books like Masquerade by Kit Williams and tabletop card games like Magic: The Gathering. While the game has earned rave reviews from critics and has quickly become one of the year’s most impressive indie titles, it seems that Ros doesn’t have any plans of making a direct sequel to Blue Prince anytime soon.
Ros has outright said as much, noting that he may continue to explore the same universe in different titles but would elect to tell a new story in each one, noting games like Myst and Riven as examples of this approach. While it might be a bummer for fans of Blue Prince who were hoping to learn more about Simon, it makes perfect sense from a storytelling perspective — and is an exciting development for the indie creator.
Blue Princes Doesn’t Need A Sequel
Blue Prince came out of nowhere when it launched in April, with great word-of-mouth and critical raves turning it into one of the year’s best gaming success stories. It makes sense that fans would be quickly expecting a sequel, especially given how the game’s ending sets the stage for a contentious future where Simon, having claimed the Orinda Aries throne and become the titular Blue Prince. The massive success of the title would have easily justified a direct sequel.
However, it’s a more exciting development to hear as a fan of the Blue Prince‘s creative design. By trying to live up to the success of the previous game, a direct sequel would inevitably be compared to one of the year’s biggest indie releases. By making a follow-up that is tied to Blue Prince tangentially but not directly, Dogubomb gets to make a game that could stand on its own. It can be a more radical reinvention, letting Ros and his fellow creatives take some big swings that might otherwise be tricky in a space dominated by expectations for a sequel.
It also allows Blue Prince to follow in the puzzle game legacy that inspired it, crafting a larger world instead of just telling a specific story. There’s no reason Simon couldn’t return in the next game by the developer, which could also carry on his story either in the foreground or the background of the experience. In fact, a follow-up set in the world but not directly tied to him could allow for a greater showcase of how the game’s ending impacted the world around him.
While a sequel would likely have to directly involve Simon by expectation, a broader follow-up could be used to naturally move to other parts of the story or flesh out the general tone of the world in light of Simon’s discoveries. It gives the creatives behind the project more room to experiment with their story. In the meantime, players have plenty of secrets to unearth as they revisit the Mt. Holly Estate and continue to explore it. Blue Prince is one of the year’s biggest indie releases, and it’s exciting to see that the potential follow-up will commit to being just as original instead of feeling like a retread.
