Dogubomb

Blue Prince keeps random room drafting because it makes secrets feel discovered. Designer Tonda Ros explained that drafting a mansion tile by tile is a rare, board-game idea in video games, and the huge possibility space makes stumbling on a secret feel like a genuine discovery, especially when that room may not return for ages.

The randomness adds puzzles of its own: placing rooms next to each other proves knowledge, and the final run to room 46 must be completed in a single day. A new day also clears away dead ends. The mystery itself is fixed; only the house is rebuilt from tiles each day.

Random drafting breaks the link between a clue and where it's used. Adventure puzzles work by joining a clue to its place, like a code to a safe, but in Blue Prince a safe code can turn up three or four runs before the safe does. Mark Brown was blocked for hours waiting for the pump room, and often re-rolled until the rooms he needed appeared.

Some information needs two specific rooms drafted close together plus a specific item in hand, so even testing a hunch depends on luck. Methodical players who like one puzzle at a time, as in Outer Wilds or Tunic, struggle because they must pivot to whatever the house offers. Mark reached room 46 but skipped the endgame, expecting hours of wrestling with RNG.

Keep the randomness but give players tools to manage it. Mark Brown suggests an in-game reference system or camera for the heavy load of letters, books, paintings and photos, more ways to shape the draft pool such as removing rooms, and hiding the day count.

The game already lets players change room rarity, re-roll layouts, force room colours and alter the next day's pool, but these options are limited. The day tally creates false time pressure even though there is no time limit, and splitting the single antechamber goal into, say, eight safes would push players to juggle many puzzles instead of fixating on one.