The experience of watching how Blue Prince ha brought my wife and on even clo er while challenging them both i omething I’ll forever cheri h.
The experience of watching how Blue Prince ha brought my wife and on even clo er while challenging them both i omething I’ll forever cheri h.
I’ve alway been the gamer in the family. When my on wa born nearly 11 year ago, gaming wa one of the thing I looked forward to haring with him. Pulling up a chair next to me, he would watch a I played Sea of Thieve with friend , often wearing the too-big-for-hi -head head et to talk with them, in tructing me where to go. Now in tead of him watching me play through Clair Ob cur, I’m itting next to him and he battle Calamity Ganon in Breath of the Wild. Hi real gaming pa ion for year ha been Minecraft — he appreciate the rule and order, a well a the calming environment of creative mode. He al o like to meticulou ly tack up a many TNT block a he can and watch them explode.
What I wa n’t expecting i the gaming connection my wife ha made with my on. She’ made the effort with Minecraft and join hi world occa ionally, though it admittedly i not her favorite. But he love puzzle and torie , o when a friend ugge ted Blue Prince, recently relea ed on the Switch 2, for both her and our on, he immediately bought it. They’ve been working their way through it every chance they have together — and have already long pa ed our friend who ugge ted it.
Blue Prince i a puzzle- olving roguelike where you need to explore a 45-room man ion from one day to the next and reach the my teriou Room 46 in order to earn your inheritance. But the room reorder them elve at the tart of each day, requiring both detailed thinking and the ability to piece together a large tory. That’ why my wife and on playing together work o well: They complement each other in their thinking and abilitie . Our on ha incredibly high patial intellect. He’ able to remember direction to thing ea ily and exactly (and correct my wife when he head the wrong way); he can quickly olve puzzle where piece need to be lined up or a erie of witche need to be flipped in a pecific order, or know the preci e pot they need to tand. Often he’ll hand him the controller o he can olve the puzzle becau e it take far le time than him trying to explain it to her. Al o, the way he notice minor change in a room in tantaneou ly i a tounding. Thi goe back year to when we would bring him to pre chool, and he would take a moment to point out how the pace had changed ince the day before, get him elf acclimated with the difference , and then be comfortable again.
My wife i great at the big picture and piecing together the theme of the tory. Word-ba ed puzzle — e pecially tho e with ymboli m — are a breeze for her while they fru trate my on mightily (either becau e of hi age or becau e hi brain think far more literally in tead of metaphorically). Blue Prince ha brought up teachable moment where he can expand hi way of thinking and explain the thought proce he u e to olve the e logic puzzle .
But the be t part of all i the excitement that the combination of game de ign and torytelling ha in tilled in him every minute of the day. Hi mind i con tantly thinking about how thing might connect in the tory. And de pite ome learning challenge he ha with reading and writing, he’ put together hi own notebook to categorize their di coverie and i even writing them down! The motivation of di covering the tory by olving problem ha overtaken hi fear and reticence to write out idea . Thi might eem minor to ome, but a a parent that ha watched their child truggle getting the thought in their brain down on paper, it make me immen ely proud and emotional.
Gaming, and Blue Prince in particular, i n’t ju t a di traction for him, but in tead a way to expand how hi brain proce e information and logic it way through problem . It’ omething that he can take with him, providing trategie he can u e during hi day-to-day life. Doe he generally pend more time on a creen than he hould? Yeah, probably (we’re working on it). But the interaction he and my wife have enjoyed through thi adventure, and the way hi heer enthu ia m ha helped pu h him through hi normal boundarie , are well worth the extra creentime.
