Archives in Video Games: Blue Prince

Hey y'all! It's been a minute! Let's make this a short one while I get back into the swing of it because, ya know, everything sucks and this is one of the few outlets in which I get to express myself!

So, because I'm an archivist people outside of my profession, upon learning some of the ins and outs of what the job entails, assume that I really like puzzles. Something about having to play detective on the regular when it comes to piecing together disparate bits of information or reverse engineering an email thread gives folks the impression that it's so fun for me that I choose to engage in the activity after work hours.

I don't. In fact, puzzles kinda stress me out. To be fair, a lot of things stress me out: the world, Stardew Valley, free verse poetry, a car idling outside my house for more than an hour. You know, the usual stuff. So, no, I don't seek out puzzles in my spare time, but it seems they seek me out when it comes to writing about archives in pop culture.

Blue Prince is a 2025 puzzle game that incorporates strategy and roguelike elements developed by Dogubomb and published by Raw Fury. The premise of the game sees the player as the sole inheritor to the Sinclair family fortune, provided they can discover the hidden 46th room at the Mount Holly Estate. The mansion, however, has a teensy little quirk wherein the rooms are never in the same place from one day to the next and the player character must navigate the mansion by drafting floor plans to create a path to the 46th room.

Each room, however, has stipulations upon entry. Some rooms require keys or jewels as payment. Some rooms grant you additional movement around the mansion or items to be used later. Some rooms deprive you of movement and/or items. Luckily, there's a color-coding aspect as well, so at least you'll know how successful or screwed your run will be after a certain point.

Archives Icon in Blue Prince

Drafting rooms is random, so you could easily find the Archives within your first draft on your first day as you could your fifteenth draft on the 22nd day. But when the Archives shows up, it's not likely to make anyone playing the game cheer. The Archives is a red-bordered room and in Blue Prince that means you're going to lose something. In the case of the Archives:

While drafting, you will no longer be able to see all 3 of your potential Floor Plans.

In terms of gameplay, the player will only have two out of the typical three options visible when drafting. It's a limitation that goes into effect immediately upon entering the Archives and lasts for the rest of the run. In every subsequent draft, the player will see two floor plans and a file folder with ARCHIVED FLOOR PLAN stamped in red. The file folder can still be selected, it just prevents you from knowing what room you could potentially be selecting, which forces the player to take a gamble on a more or less safe bet in the visible floor plans versus the possible run-ender if the concealed room is a non-ideal choice. In doing some research for his article, the red rooms are generally an annoyance but you have to engage with them at some point. There are items and rooms that can provide protection from the negative effects of red rooms, so that's something to look out for.

Example of an Archived Floor Plan in Blue Prince

What I do find interesting about the Archives within the game is how the flavor text in the Mount Holly Directory contextualizes the negative aspects of the floor plan. The blurb reads:

Countless shelves of documents and towering file cabinets make this otherwise immense space seem small and cramped. These archives contain almost a century of records and files pertaining to the Sinclair family's numerous interests, many of which are sealed and unable to be accessed.

As far as the game is concerned, the Archives represents concealment and inaccessibility. You might be playing as a member of the Sinclair family, but there are still things that are unattainable.

Interior of the Archives room in Blue Prince

Contrast the role of the Archives with that of the Library in Blue Prince. While you might think another room based in information would also have the red boarder, the Library has a more calming blue border, which marks it as a Common room; one more likely to show up in drafting, especially towards the start of a run. Upon drafting the Library:

Discover less common Floor Plans while drafting in the Library.

Library Icon in Blue Prince

So, the Library gives the player a boon in terms of drafting floor plans. Less Common rooms means bigger rewards or bigger losses, but depending on where you are in the run this could be a game changer. And if we look at the Mount Holly Directory:

Two stories of wall-to-wall books surround the reader in this room, exhibiting either a bountiful spring of knowledge or typical interior design sensibilities of the wealthy. A few books have been withdrawn from the shelves and placed on rostrum stands in various corners of the library.

To be clear: Archives, cramped and gatekeeping knowledge to the point that it limits your access to floor plans. Library, a two-story bountiful spring of knowledge that provides you with access to supposedly better floor plan options.

Huh.

Well, I can't rightly say that they haven't made the Library and Archives very distinct from one another. At least the Archives aren't in the basement, though it's hard to tell in a two-dimensional space.

Happy drafting.