The First Hour: Blue Prince | Design Club

[music] [music] Good time zone internet. Hello and welcome to Design Club Live. The only design show on the internet that definitely didn't have a false start. Don't look at me. It's fine. I am your humble host, Will, joined as always by my pal Jeff. Say hi to the people, Jeff.
Hi to the people, Jeff. Hey, everybody. I am Jeffrey Zein, the studio director of Extra Credits, longtime game designer, and more importantly for all of this, the person who has not yet played any Blueprints.
Yes.
Which today will be my superpower because Will has been wanting to do this for a while.
Yes.
Play on stream. And having just gotten back from Gen Con last night,
yeah,
we did not have a lot of prep time this week. And so we've been saving this for a week where we did not have a lot of prep time, but we could do one of the things we enjoy doing every once in a while, which is taking a look at a game I have not yet seen, but that Will has played a good amount of.

Yes. And by a good amount in this case. Um, I will do this with no spoilers. If you know, you know. I have seen the credits. I have six red objects. I have solved a great many shapebased puzzles behind special key locked doors. I have uh discovered many secondary puzzles. I know a great many things. Just trust me, I know a lot about this game. However, we're not going to be talking a lot about a lot of those things. And the reason is that we want this to be like a genuine impression of the first hour without loading with all of the like and then this will be really important like 12 hours from now stuff, right? Because that can be like a really difficult thing when you're um when you're streaming a game or talking about a game is loading expectations or anchoring people to things that are

going to happen later, right? So telling someone, "Oh, you should look at that thing in the room. It'll be important, right?" Robs them of the chance of noticing that a thing in the room might be important. Right? So, we're going to I'm going to take my time. We're going to go through we're going to go through these rooms with Jeff. Uh, and I'm going to give him the opportunity to like look around at everything and I'll go up to stuff. I'm driving because that's how the stream works, but Jeff is going to be in control of all the puzzles. chat.
And oh, I would say and as a quick note, I'm very interested in this because I love rogue likes,
but I'm not a big fan of this kind of of roombased puzzlers.
Yes.
Like never have been.
So, I'm really curious to see what I think of this because it has something I really like, which is rogues rogike progression. I've heard it's very well done,
but it's also in a style of game that I don't typically play a lot.
Yep.

And so we'll find out. Will, you had a question for chat or a message for chat?
Yeah, chat. We don't want to know if if if you have like a helpful hint or like whatever. We don't want to know. We don't want to know because one of the most important things about a puzzle game is you need capital N opportunity to be wrong so that when you are right, it feels amazing. Okay.
The the the the lots of people are like, "Yep, it's, you know, it's super easy to, you know, to just give away the answer or be right or whatever." No, let us be wrong, right? Because a lot of you had the experience of being wrong. Okay.
It's also a really interesting thing that everybody's brain works differently. Things that may be immediately apparent to me might have taken somebody here five, I don't know if it's a playthrough or passes through a room or whatever to see. And there's going to be things you see that you're like, "How does he not see that?"
Right.

Like it's just people's brains and perception work differently.
Yep.
Like this is a noted scientific and social thing. It just it is.
Yep.
And that's also one of the reasons that crowdsource things usually do so well
is different people spot things differently. And if you get a whole bunch of people together,
Yep.
you get to kind of play it becomes a superpower and not a weakness. You're taking the best of everything as opposed to kind of the worst of everything.
Yep. 100%. Okay. So, without any further ado, let's get into the game.
Actually, chat, are Will and my volume levels okay? I feel like Will is a little low to me, but that as long as he's okay to you guys,
I I should be roughly equivalent to you.
Oh, there we go.
Yeah.
Oo. Okay. So, uh, actually, Jeff, I need you to close your eyes real quick.
Okay, eyes are closed.
Chad, I have to set a new profile. If you're wondering, these are my profiles.

Okay, great.
Um,
tell everyone I can open my eyes. Or actually, I'll open my eyes. I'll just take my glasses off.
Okay, you are now good. You are now clear.
All right, glasses back on. Okay, first of all, are you ready? Yeah, I'm bringing a buddy to help. I hear sounds like the ocean in association with raw fury.
Yep. a game by Tonda Ra. So, we're already setting up that it's kind of an aur style thing. Like a game by a person.
Yes.
Is very rare nowadays in the game industry.
Yes.
This is a singular work by a singular mind.

Who's I, Albert S. Sinclair of the Mount Holly estate at Readington to publish and declare this instrument [music] my last will and testament and hereby revoke all wills and codicils here for made by me. [music] I give and bequath to my grand nephew Simon P. Jones, son of my dear niece, Mary Matthew, [music] all of my right, title, and interest in and to the house and land [music] which I own near Mount Holly. [music] The above provision and bequest is contingent on my aforementioned grand nephew discovering the location of the 46th room of my 45 room estate.

The location of the room has been kept a [music] secret from all the staff and servants of the manor, [music] but I am confident that any heir worthy of the Sinclair legacy should have no trouble uncovering its whereabouts within a timely [music] manner. Should my grand nephew fail to uncover this room or provide proof of his discovery to the executives of my will, then this gift shall [music] lapse. In witness whereof I have here unto set my hand this 18th day of [music] March, 1993.
Oh, more modern than I thought.
Sinclair. Yeah, it's like it's it's early 90s in that like computers are a thing, but they're not like a huge thing yet [music]

for like personal use. Day one. All right, welcome to Blueprints. So, you may notice we have freshest little way of HUD. In fact, right now there is one HUD element,
which is 50 next to what looks like footsteps.
Correct. That's it. Everything else, and indeed, most of this is diioetic. So um I will walk us forward and we have two objects here on on this uh desk. I have an envelope which says open only in the event of my death and this blue piece of paper
which looks like blueprint similar to what we saw in the introduction.

Okay. Uh what would you like to do first?
So I also noticed when we stepped the 50 steps didn't change. So that isn't actually like a footstep tracker. Um, Bill, I have a question.
Can we tell like I can't tell right now what's interactable like Okay. Did the thing just appear over the So, like the flower pot is not
correct.
Okay. So, I was curious like if anything had lit up equivalently as we walked in the entrance.
Uh, let's see. Nothing on this side table does. There's nothing interactable here.
There's nothing. That's one of the things about some of these games that just I find really obnoxious is I feel like I have to look over every segment of a room in fine detail to see is a thing interactable.
Yeah.
Some of which only happen when they're close and that just feels tedious to me. Let's start with the letter.
Open only in the event of my death.
Simon, welcome to Mount Holly. You may not remember, but I have fond memories

of your many visits here as a young boy. and I hope these rooms provide you with as much amusement as it did in those lost summer days. [music] The time you read this, I will assume you are fully aware of my last wishes and all the details of the quest. Please do not mistake my intentions in giving you this challenge is a lack of confidence. I assure you nothing could have been further from my mind when I chose you as my heir. With that said, there are a few ground rules of this commission covered in the fine print of my will that I feel I should bring to your attention. No tools or items may be brought onto the estate from the outside. Tools and items found on the estate may not be taken off the estate. You may not stay overnight. I don't suspect that any of these stipulations should prove an impediment for someone as resourceful as yourself, but it is very important to me that you start fresh each morning and not rely on the successes of the previous day. One final word of advice. Do not assume the rooms you find today will be the same rooms you find tomorrow. These grounds have provided me a home for the last half century, and even I am uncertain of which room lies beyond any

particular door. Your grandmother used to say, "Don't go where the path leads. Abandon the path and go where you want it to lead." With all my love and wishes, best of luck, Herbert S. Sinclair.
So, what this is telling me is that every day the house is going to somehow reset.
Yes.
Or at least that's my guess. Um, will somebody in chat asked if there are motion sick reducers?
Yeah. So, some of it's the uh some of it's my mouse settings. [music] Um, and then some of it is going to be in game settings here under accessibility um for motion assist. And I'm going to turn uh I'm actually going to turn my mouse back up and this down to like here. [music] And I'm also going to um turn this up a little bit like 11. Great. Awesome.

Yeah. All right. So, um Okay. So, that's the letter. And then we also have this blueprint.
Let's look at the blueprints. I'm curious to see if these are going to change every day with the thing.
The Mount Holly blueprint. This will serve as a useful map and inventory log during your adventures. May access the blueprint menu by pressing tab.
Let's press tab.
And here we go. You can't see it behind me, chat, but Jeff can. Jeff has a full screen that's unobstructed by both of us. So, there are um there is a grid of five wide and nine tall. Here we have the entrance hall directly behind me, which appears to bear a quite striking resemblance to the room we now find ourselves in. And all the way at the last rank in the third position, we have a room marked anti chamber. And if I hover over it, it shows up. We also have uh day one and the 50 steps. And then we have an empty inventory box and a thing that says call it a day. We also have

some empty UI elements that we don't know what they're for yet.
I'm curious to see like can you mouse over the entry hall for me? Is there any inventory or items of notes in here?
Uh no. The inventory does not change when we when we do this. But if I right click on or click on entrance hall, I can see this. So, this is uh this says, "Past the steps and beyond the grand doors, admission to Mount Holly is granted by way of a dark and garish lobby suitably called the entrance hall. From here, each guest's adventure begins. However, the three doors that proceed onward do not always lead to the same adjoining rooms. Type permanent blueprint rarity na."
And then I also see there's a directory of rooms, bedrooms, hallways, green rooms, shops, and red rooms. We also have rooms 1 through 12, 13- 24, 25 through 36, and 37- 46.
Mhm.
Interesting.
Oh, so there's going to be multiple things. Like a bedroom might be room 15, but it also shows up under bedrooms is

my guess.
Let's go over here. Bedrooms are empty. These are mostly empty. Interestingly, the entrance hall is not room one. It appears to be room two.
Oh, yeah.
And the anti chamber is room 45. Then room 46 is interesting blank. Mysterious room mentioned in HS Sinclair's will named only by a number. Despite the house's official blueprint only showing a total of 45 rooms, the word of the legal document, the words of the legal document make it apparent that a 46th room in this house in fact exists. Finding this room is your primary objective while on the estate. It is after all your bequest. It's a blueprint objective. Rarity is rumored. Cool. Well, let's try. Let's see. So, I guess what I would do if I actually will I may ask you for a couple of shortcuts here to make this stream faster.
Mhm.
Is [clears throat] this a game that I need to go look at every object in the

room?
Uh, no.
There will be some rooms that have some objects. And for the sake of speed, you can you can simply ask me if there's anything I can you can interact with and I can tell you for any given room.
Um,
sure.
Just to to assume that you could have taken the time to go through and examine each element of all of these things and figured out what you can interact.
Yeah, that's what I don't want to have us doing on stream if it's not like I see there's a magazine or something there.
Yep. Searching the estate can be exhausting. Each time you enter a room, you will lose one footstep. When you no longer have any footsteps left, you will be too tired to continue searching the manor and must call it a day. That is the end of that day. So, we have 50 steps, 50 room transitions that we can do before we're out of steps and we have to end.
Okay,
cool. Um, there are also some pictures

with playing cards on them. There are there is I can't interact with them, but there is this one which uh is a hand holding the queen of diamonds. And there is this one with a hand holding an embellished ace of spades. Um if you uh I don't know if Jeff could see it because of the way our capture works, but the spade icon is very similar to the icon seen in the loading screen. The h the the trileafed holly.
Gotcha. So, as a puzzle game, I'm guessing that there are going to be visual things scattered around that help out. So, like
Ace of Spades and if I was doing this, I would probably also start a notebook.
Indeed, there is one of the rooms very early on says that you should have a notebook. Um, if you were going to play this uh all the way through, or if this is your first experience with blueprints, then yes, you need a notebook. I have seen some truly unhinged notebooks, including my um everexpanding notepad document. I have also seen some beautifully done

scrapbook style notebooks that some streamers have done that have like embellishments and handdone drawings and like you know washi tape like design like it's ridiculous. Um but yes, a notebook is sort of one of the keys to this game. Actually, thinking about if I was truly doing this and was hardcore,
I think what I would actually do, Will, is get a binder, one of the ones that clips open so you can put pages in and out.
Yep.
Because then you could start, you know, a page per room,
but realize you might need two or three pages for a particular room
and be able to go and add more space later.
Yes.
Yes.
Well, tell you what, let's take our first door on the left.
The first door on the left. So when we click on this door, we get a choice.
Oh.
Uh, so interesting.
Our choices. Uh, and behind us, we can see there's like a preview draft
behind me. Yes, it is. We get to choose.
I was not expecting this. Okay.
I'm so pleased that you know nothing

about this game. All right. So, our three choices are a bedroom, which says, "Whenever you enter this room, gain two steps, and has one exit leading to the north." We have a closet, which says it contains two items, but has no exits. And we have a hallway which has uh an exit to the west and an exit to the north.
So using how I'm if we'd already explored another way and actually I might go ask in a minute.
Mhm.
Having a dead end near the beginning where I'm like cool I can get the thing here and go a different way.
Mhm. But since I see this as a drafting thing now, I'd be a little worried about a immediate dead end because I would worry that I might draft something that curtails my ability to take 50 steps. Yes, I I will tell you for free that if you draft poorly and I have taken to calling uh unopened doors liberties in

the style of go or other um games in which we care about our our open potential moves. Um if you eliminate all of those, it is entirely possible to dead end your draft very quickly and end the day with like 40 steps remaining. Uh,
so we were we went left and we're on the bottom of the map, right?
Correct. You can actually
So theoretically that third the hallway would be our most possible thing because we're going along the exterior of the building.
Yes.
And that gives us a straight ahead and a right.
Yes.
So let's draft that one.
Okay. So we'll click the hallway and the door opens. Now it's worth noting as a technicality I have not yet expended a step
because you have not entered it yet.
Correct. So, would you like me to go into this room or would you like to open another door before I go into this room?
I want to open another door just to see. Let's take the one opposite and on the right.
Very well. Here we are offered three choices. A guest bedroom, which will

give us 10 steps. A corridor, which is always left unlocked.
Oh, that tells me there's locks.
And a nook, which says it gives us plus one key. Man, plus 10 steps seems like my guess is something very nice.
Sure.
Uh I don't know how, but I also don't know what the step economy is yet.
Correct.
So I don't know if that is good or bad.
Mhm.
Um the nooks like a dead end, but gives a key.
It goes north.
There is there is an exit to the north
or what would be an exit to the north. It takes a left.
I want to take that one. I don't know how good keys are yet,
but my guess is starting with a key is not a bad thing,
right? We also have no keys right now. All right, so in we go.
And you have chosen Well, because uh I'm going to go grab this key. It's on this table.
Mhm.
And I see a couple books and other

things. So, it looks like there's stuff to look at here.
Correct. I can't interact with any of these books. I can't interact with anything on these shelves. Oh,
is that a chess piece in the
Indeed, it is a rook. Okay,
there's a rook.
Oh man, I'm guessing that there. Yeah, I'm not going to do a notebook. A safety pin open.
There's a safety pin and some kind of uh tree.
Tree.
Okay.
So, what were the instructions on the little side table? Cuz that looks like the steps things. Aha.
A journey noteworthy. As you continue on your adventure, you may want to consider getting something to scribble down your notes and observations. a pad, scrap of paper, or perhaps most fittingly, a journal will prove to be an invaluable tool you will not regret having beside you on your journey. By the way, um uh we were discussing this earlier.
Uh and literally the idea that you would notice and be exasperated by the rook and the nook
was discussed [laughter]

as an object of curiosity. Anyway, um so yeah, and then there's a drawing of a of a journal down here
and that is we can't interact with this this large radio or jukebox. We can't interact with anything here.
So there's nothing on the floor to interact with here, Will, that we have seen.
Correct.
So the best thing if we're if I was playing a full playthrough on this would be I would take out my journal and I would start making notes. I'd note the rook in the bookshelf. I'd note the pictures on the wall.
Okay.
Like I'm thinking of things I would note down.
Okay.
Um that the and I would probably also note Oh, what's the room number?
That's a good question. Let's let's take a look. The this the nook appears to be room 13.
So I would probably actually start in numbering. Room 13 is a nook.
Mhm. And at this point, I would probably

also say that it has an entrance from the south and an exit to the west.
And you would do it in the default.
Oh, that's right. So, I would rotate it 90°.
Well, in this case, uh um it isn't universally true, but we did enter from the west side,
right? and it rotated so that it had a an entrance that was compatible with the place we were drafting from.
Ah, yeah. So, I would probably then once I'd seen one or two of these actually just draw a little square and put markers for doors.
Yep. We also should note the hallway is the first of the eight hallways.
Yeah, that one.
But since we didn't enter it yet, I probably wouldn't have made notes yet.
Yep.
Um, okay. But yeah, picture chess figure. I might possibly note things like bottles on the

wall, but my guess would be from what I've seen so far, picture and chess.
Okay, excellent. Uh, let us onward then.
Mhm. One exit.
We have three choices. A spare room, which goes straight forward. A store room, which contains a key, a gem, and a coin, and no exits. And a lavatory, which contains nothing. but is a dead end.
It's a different color though. It's red. And I did see part of the uh notebook, excuse me, part of the directory said red rooms.
It did indeed.
But I also don't know if I need a red room yet.
Okay. So, this is sort of a very interesting example of the materials versus liberties economy.
Mhm.
Do you want a liberty or do you want some resources? So, my thought at this point would be resources because I know left has two ways I can go and there's a straight ahead door I have not yet
and [clears throat] I want some goodies

because I don't know what I'm I don't even know what the goodies are yet.
Excellent. Okay. So, as we walk in, we're presented with this picture of a a bat flying over a forest
ahead of us.
I see a key.
A key. There's a
I'm curious if I get to keep the resources between runs or days. Interesting. Um, that's a very good question.
A gem. Okay.
And then
so looking around, I see another picture obfiscated to the right or hidden.
Yep.
A couple pictures. Bathtub.
Mhm. And then
I see a pawn.
There is a pawn. I will call out in rooms where they are applicable now that you have asked about them, both the chest piece and the pictures. And but nothing else is select or hot. I'm just going to say hot.
Yep. Nothing else is hot.
And those were the two items we were promised. Correct. A key and a gem.
A key, a gem, and a coin. Yes.

A coin. We haven't Oh, and you got the coin. Okay.
And I got the coin. The coin was on uh this box right here. Or no, this barrel right here in front as if to lead us to this picture.
Okay. Uh and so here's the other downside. Now we have to backtrack.
Oh, and that's going to cost us
47
um
46.
But so in some cases, this is also telling me picking a dead end or resource room early on is going to cost us less. In other words, if we'd gone three or four things deep and I'd tunnneled through, then we had to come all the way back.
Yes.
Does that
you would Yeah. Yeah. There are
depending on what you want a particular run to be once you have a better handle on what runs can be, there are two

equally valid strategies. One of them is to dive as deep as you can down a singular chain of rooms, leaving liberties to the sides where possible and then backtrack back to the entrance hall when you finally run out or of resources or hit a dead end or need to go a different way for something in particular. Um there is another theory that you should be doing sort of a wide So there is there is a wide drafting strategy and a tall drafting strategy, right?
Yeah. Oh. Um, to clarify from chat, um, so when I said hot, um, what I kind of meant was something I can interact with, something that if I was moving my mouse or cursor around, I would be able to, it would change to show that it there was an interaction possible.
And since I'm not controlling this and I don't want Will to be just
swinging wildly for me over everything.
Yeah.
Um,
so because there'll be two separate things. There's going to be items of note which may or may not which may not be interactable, but there'll be things

that can be interacted with, like those notes or other things I don't know about yet.
Um, and I'm just I'm trying to make this a good viewing experience and to get not get anybody, including myself, motion sick by having Willy swinging around the room.
Yep.
Because I have a proclivity towards motion sickness in these kinds of games as well.
Yep.
Um, let's open this one.
[snorts]
We have a den which has a picture of a gem.
Mhm.
A guest bedroom.
Is that two exits?
The two exits.
Okay.
A guest bedroom,
10 steps, and a lavatory again.
Um I'm thinking since this is another thing off the beginning that we go with the most possible ways to go.
Okay.
Um so I would say let's select the den. Okay.
Cuz I again I don't want to end up boxing myself into something.
All right. So, here we have the promised gem.

Okay. What room are we in, Will?
This is room number uh the storehouse is room number 12.
Mhm.
This is room number 17.
Gotcha. And oh, actually, I want to see the whole map now. I want to just see how this kind of gets displayed.
Right. So, I'll scoot out the way.
Yep. Cool. Okay. So, I know that I'm very curious. If I go to my left, I'm assuming the this it will have to generate something that can be accessed by both the hallway and the den.
Okay, that's a reasonable surmisal, which we can certainly test.
Um, but if so, that that means like I've seen there's rooms like the bathroom
that only have one entrance in.
Yep. So that tells me that something like that should not be generatable,
okay,
to there. Um, which is also going to be if I want to get certain kinds of rooms,

okay,
um, they're only going to be accessible in certain ways. But let's finish looking around here for a moment.
So, we have a picture of a bridge.
Yep.
And the picture,
there's also going to be some game logic in there that they have to program in. Oh, that could be a really weird way to force room 46, too. I'm thr if it, for example, say it has to be enterable by three directions.
Uh-huh.
And I somehow learned that mapping around to force to say here is a room that is enterable by three directions could be an interesting way to force the game to generate a thing.
Okay. that would not normally be or that might not normally be general. I would also probably have to unlock every other room enterable by three states to force that.
Right. You would have to you you you're um surmising that you could force a drafting state based on surrounding rooms,
right?

Okay.
As a way of doing a puzzle.
Okay.
We also have a pawn. There also
we got another pawn.
There also is an interactable here. It's this chest. And it says the trunk is locked. We can use a key or exit.
Let's use a key.
We'll use a key. And inside our trunk, we find two keys.
Ooh, this tells me that they're actually I'm curious to see if this is random or not. Like if so, I might make a note in here that says this room like last chest was two keys because if that is not a random thing that tells me that entering this room will give me not just what was it a gem but also an additional key.
Yes.
Oh, what time was on the mantle?
The time
actually there's two time piece um lots of time pieces.
There are many. It is now uh what that's uh almost 10 11.
Yep.
And it is important to note the clock is

in motion.
Does the clock to its right um
they all to to save time they all agree.
Okay. They all agree. So let's see how many there were two exits out of this or one.
There are two exits. This one.
Let's take the one to our left. I want to see if that forces a match on the other.
We have a chapel.
Mhm.
A parlor and a spare room which does not
The spare room does not align on its exits.
Correct. [laughter]
I am curious to see actually hold on. What is it? Whenever we enter the chapel, we lose a gold coin.
We lose one coin when entering the chapel. The parlor also has this puzzle icon in it.
Yeah. I want to see what happens with extradimensional space. Well, I want the spare room.
Okay, great.

So, would you like to go into the spare room or backtrack to the hallway?
I want to backtrack to the Let's see. Hold on. Show me the map. How many steps is that?
It would be uh two two steps to go into the hallway.
Those are two steps worth spending. I want to know before I start making lots of hypothesises. Hypothesize about how this all works. Oh, it's now boarded up.
Is now blocked off.
Okay.
So, if you draft a room
Mhm.
that doesn't have an entrance
you can't go through that way. It's a very good hypothesis. Very interesting. This is what you get.
And that's why I wanted to test it so that I could also narrow down my field of hypothesis.
Yep.
On this. So, as long as we're here, was there anything else in the hallway?

Pictures, chest pieces.
Right now, there's a note that says it is a red piece of paper that says doors in the west wing are more likely to be locked. Good piece of knowledge.
Okay,
let's open that door.
Oh, there are also uh pictures.
Oh, thank you.
A rosary and a crowbar.
What was it say? A rosary and a what?
Crowbar.
Crowbar. Okay. All right. We have three options. Closet with two items. A parlor with its puzzle piece. We also have a locksmith that says keys for sale. And underneath it, it has a gem requirement with a singular gem.
Interesting. I feel like I don't have a lot of money to buy keys right now.
Okay.
Just because I have one gold piece and I feel like that will also take a gem just

for me to get the ability to see what's for sale.
Yep. Interestingly, if we'd been going a different direction, the poller would be more interesting to me because I would know the the polar is going to lead to the exact same place as that room I just unlocked.
Yes.
So, I could theoretically safely take the closet here because I'm not actually cutting off any other areas of exploration.
Correct.
And it's going to give me two items.
Very well. The closet it is. Plaza contains a gem.
Mhm.
And if you were to uh wiggle your mouse around, you would find that this sleeping mask is also accessible.
You found a black silk sleep mask. First time you enter each bedroom with the sleep mask, gain five steps.
Oo,
a synergy item.
I'm curious again if this stays with me forever or if these things disappear between runs.
Okay. Um
Um, so I see a hat. Is there anything

else interactable?
Not nothing interactable, but there are two um pictures.
Uh there's a picture of um some kind of jello or pudding or something with a spoon. And then there's a picture of these uh sandy dunes.
Mhm.
The desert perhaps.
And that is all that there is inside this incredibly claustrophobic closet.
What room was that, by the way? Um. H. Oh, what room is this?
Um, nine.
Nine. Okay.
So, closet and store room, which both um look like they're dead endy.
I'm kind of curious to see how they're grouped because that gives me some
thoughts on how other rooms might be as well.
Yes. You mean like
Yeah.
Yeah. If there's like a big if there's like a big cluster of dead end rooms that are like numerically close to one

another.
Yeah.
Um let's take a look at our map again.
So we have the den which goes for we have two directions left.
Yep. Keep talking. I'm going to move me real quick. I'm actually curious to get back to the um spare room because I kind of want to see what happens when we hit the edge of somewhere the edge of the house as well.
Okay. Uh so then let's go this way. Go in here and in here and in here. Or actually, let's actually wait before we enter. Let's look through this door.
Okay, our options are the guest bedroom, parlor, and the bedroom. Parlor leads to the right. The guest bedroom,
the parlor is the only one with an exit. Correct.
The bedroom also has an exit. The guest bedroom.
Oh, it does. Okay. The parlor, though,

goes a different direction. And we're not low on steps currently.
Correct. Um, let's select the parlor so that I know that there's at least one other way this would continue forward.
Mhm.
And then let's go check out the other room.
Okay, the spare room is empty.
It has uh some paint on the walls. Sort of a bluish greenish color. Ladder, which we can't do anything with. Some paint um and nothing else. I wonder how many people take a do a digital notebook and take a picture like from the entrance
of each room to like post in like this is room 23. Here's the picture.
A good the the the variety of these is significant.
Um
variety of what? Sorry.
Uh
oh. And actually the spare room actually kind of shows itself there like that. Okay.
Yes, it does. Uh and the spare room is uh room number three.

H. Oh, interesting. Okay, let's see what's through the door then. Unless you think I'm missing anything.
No. All right, we have three options. A lavatory.
Mhm. [clears throat]
A west wing hall and a drawing room. And the drawing room says you may draw new floor plans while drafting in this [music] room and has a gem requirement of one.
So, let's see. The lavatory is not a bad pick here. Like it it does mean that only through the par can we continue.
Correct.
Um the west wing hall like one of the ways we know is going to be cut off. Same with the drawing room.
Yep.
Um on the chance the gems and other things disappear at the beginning of each day.
Mhm.
I feel like we might as well spend one. And then I'm also kind of curious to see what that bonus is.
Okay,
so let's try the drawing room.

In the drawing room.
Oh, we can see out the windows.
We can
I'm curious if this would be true if um we picked an interior room actually. Will, can you tell me that? I'm curious if for the game if they changed the rooms
based on like if
if you had drafted the drafting room not here,
these would be blocked off.
That's what I was curious.
There would still be windows, but they wouldn't have the outside visible like if this side were like if it were here.
Yeah, that's what
Yeah, it would not be visible.
Cool. Yeah, I said I was just kind of curious on how
Yep.
that works. So, we spent a gem. I see the gem disappeared.
Correct. We have
Oh, is that a readable thing?
It is indeed. We have drawing floor plans. Each time you click on a door, you will draw three floor plans from which you must select one to draft. However, there are some items and rooms that will allow you to redraw if you do not like your initial three options.
Uh, okay. So, we have

we have all
lots of pictures.
We have lots and lots of pictures. Some of them are of horses. Some of them are of people uh walking. Um I think everyone is in motion. No one is No one is standing still. Uh
yeah, that is actually one of the things I was going to note.
Yep.
I see my boarded off room. I see a telephone.
Not interactable.
Mhm.
We also have
fireplace.
Yep. We also have uh this portrait uh of
looks like the gentleman who died.
Yep. Uh
oh. The time is is the time different than what it was on the other Well, it's different, but I don't know if that's time passing.
Yeah, it it has advanced.
Oh, will it advance proportional to the number of steps taken?
No.
Okay. Because that I was wondering about that because there are rooms that give more steps back and I was curious if we were going to get weird time flopping.

Good question. No, we are not. Cool.
Um,
is there anything else here that I should notice if I hunted around?
Yes.
Okay.
Um, if you observed this closely,
you would note that this chair is that chair.
Yep.
And you would also notice that the candalabbras in the background, one of them is a skew. And if you hunted very carefully and ran your mouse over every inch
Mhm. you would discover that that is interactable.
Ah,
and that when you pull it,
so this would be one of the things I hate, which is slowly going over. That's at least a pretty good a decent clue.
Correct. There are very few cases in which you are playing hunt the magic pixel.
Mhm.
In this case, the hint is that it is this way in this picture, right? which is why I prefaced it with it being in

this picture.
Yeah.
Right.
It is a spot the difference puzzle.
Correct. Uh and you are to note that this is taking place in this room. That this this drawing is in this room. So we have a safe here. It has a numerical code.
Um I'm guessing it's not going to be 1 2 3 4 5.
It is not. So, I won't even bother with it at this point because we don't have sets of numbers, but I would be noting that whatever room number this is has a safe with a code that we need to find.
Yes. Also, the pictures uh for this room, uh there's also a chest piece in this closet.
Oh, there we go. Another pawn.
And over here, if we look, we have a plane
and a blueprint. And if we note on the blueprint, it is the blueprint of the house.
Mhm.
And the room that we are currently occupying

is labeled the letter E.
Lettered what? Sorry.
E. So there may be another puzzle with letters or other things.
Mhm.
45 specifically does not line up with alphabet. Um, hold on a sec. It's also E is letter um five, but this if you counted across from the bottom would be the sixth room.
So it's not that
correct.
So it will be something different than those.
Yes.
And this is where I can see the taking time to write down journaling things.
Yes. Becomes very important.
Yeah. Uh, okay. Let's continue on.
Yep.
Let's open.
Yep. Might as well take this door.
Okay. So, we have three choices. A pantry,
a corridor, or a courtyard. And the

courtyard crossed to gem. But we also have this other button which we didn't have before entitled redraw floor plans.
Um, I'm going to ask a question, Will, just for answering.
Does that save? In other words, if we don't use it here, will that save for another or does that only work here? This one only works here because we are drawing from the drawing room.
Ah, okay.
Which says that you may draw new floor plans while drafting in this room.
Okay. Um, courtyard cost us a gem, but is good because it gives us two possibilities
based on where we are that the other route does not because the polar leads to the right. So, this would let us
go from here to the right and straight ahead.
Yep. The pantry gives us four coins, which sounds interesting, and lets us continue moving along this path.
Mhm.
Uh the corridor um is straight and I see an always left unlocked.
Yep.
We do have three keys though, so that's

the unlocked is less valuable to me right now.
Yep.
Um we could also try a redraw. Four coins is the most coins I've seen so far of anything. So, that seems like a lot,
but is four coins worth more than the opportunity to go straight ahead.
And getting us down to one gem.
Sure.
And uh part of it being the first playthrough is I don't know,
right? But or even trying to like there's enough good options that I don't really the redraw is not as interesting to me.
Correct. If we'd gotten three dead ends, it would be an easy redraw.
Mhm.
Which can happen by the way.
Yeah.
Especially if you haven't been eliminating them. Like it could be lavatory closet store room. That does happen and has happened to me and it sucks as much as you think it does.
Yeah.
Yeah. Let's try the courtyard. Let's get

some Let's have some variance. Okay, fingers crossed, chat.
All right,
what are we fingers crossing
that this shows up or something in this spot? Uh, the courtyard um has a high likelihood of having one of several specific items show up. This is the metal detector.
It gives us a greater chance of finding coins and keys.
Nice. So, for some reason, the way you said that makes me think that I'm going to be losing my inventory every day.
I will tell you that the letter which we read at the very beginning does indicate that that nothing can be taken. You must
Oh, that's right. Nothing can be taken out. Uh I don't I didn't quite connect it with that exact um
consequence
meaning that, but I understand now like Where am I?

I'm a little too tall. Okay. So, there are also several dirt spots, but I have like little mounds of dirt, but I can't interact with them.
Mhm.
Uh, and then there are two doors.
Yep.
So, an interesting thing I'm also thinking about here is that I get 50 steps.
Mhm.
So, I know this now. I know certain rooms can give me more steps.
Mhm. I need to find a specific room that I assume is going to be hard to reach based on other things. Um, and I know I can't take anything out.
Mhm.
So, the key to unlocking room 46, I'm going to guess, is going to be some combination of things, which also is going to require a fairly good run.
Indeed, it is.
So, let's see. Let's look to the right first of all. Like is there anything else I missed looking at here?
No.
Okay.

Okay. We have a lavatory.
Mhm.
Which goes nowhere. A bedroom which goes north and gives us two steps when we enter whenever we enter. Then we have an observatory which um goes sort of southish uh into a dead end and costs a gem. So, the bedroom goes the way we would need it to.
Yes.
And gives me an extra step. I don't know how valuable that is yet.
And yes, and as Graz correctly points out, uh, we do have the sleeping mask in our inventory. So,
Oh, that's right. So, it would give me seven, not two.
Correct. The first time we go in.
Yeah. Um, the observatory is interesting, but it basically gets rid of our last gem and as a it's equivalently a dead end.
Yes. And we have I have seen several lavatories that red rooms appear, but I've never entered one yet.
Correct.
This is not a bad spot for that because I at least have one other exit.

Will can we back out without choosing?
No.
Okay.
Once you once you click on the door, in fact,
once you have drawn four plans, you must select one to draft. You are stuck here until you make a choice. So, if we want, the safest thing would be a bedroom because we know we're going to go up in steps and have an exit.
Mhm.
Um, so we could pick that and then go check the other door and be happy enough to select a dead end there.
Okay.
So, let's do that because that lets us continue this path.
Sure.
And now we're going to go check this door. I also want to comment that you're doing a thing that a lot of first- time players don't do, which is gain information before spending resources.
Um,
this is part of my I've played a lot of games bot.
Yes.
All right. So, we have three choices. A chapel. Whenever you enter the chapel, you lose one coin.

Mhm.
The pantry.
Now, that has exits to the right. Is that one straight ahead as well?
Yes. That that has ex exits north and east. So, both of the ways we want to go, but there's a gating mechanism on this, which is this would be my last coin.
Yes.
Or we could take a pantry and go up four coins. But important to note, the pantry does not give us an additional liberty here, right? Because the liberty is the same as the one we would get from the bedroom.
Yep.
And we have the garage, which costs our last gem, but would give us three key.
And we currently have three.
We currently have three.
Are there any exits from the garage? It looks like no,
there are not uh in in sort of like so in this you have this thing, but I will note that if you observe it carefully, the garage does have a picture of a garage door on it.
It is a garage with a garage door.
All three of these are tempting.
Um the pantry to me is interesting because like I'm interested in the chapel, but if we go in the chapel and

go through one of the doors, we can't come back through here. until we find more gold.
Okay.
At least that's what it tells. Like it may be if I have zero that it just doesn't take one from me,
right?
But I don't know that yet.
Yep. Okay. That's
one of the two ways it goes also will lead to the place that the other door goes.
Yes.
So that is less valuable.
Right. So we have a risk in return for a liberty or we can gain a guaranteed resource,
right?
In exchange
and we could retrace some steps to go to the other way and try and go broad.
Yep.
Or we could do the garage and basically end up with six keys and see if the garage door actually does anything.
Yes. But the only place that we've uh it is important to note that the only place we've run into to spend keys thus far is on that trunk. And we we it's been informed.
I also know some doors may be locked in the West Wing and we're in the West

Wing, I believe.
Yes, we are.
Um,
Q West Wing theme song. Anyway,
screw it. Well, I want coins.
Okay, coins it is. Let's go into the pantry.
Mhm.
Interesting. There's a beeping sound and the metal detector has appeared in the top right. And as I get close to these coins
Mhm. It beeps and then it goes away. So
So I'm curious if like if there would have normally been like two here and the metal detector made it four.
Interesting. Okay. It did. We we did get the four we were promised when we drafted it. And I will also remind you that we did see the pantry before we picked up the metal detector and it also said four.
Okay. Um what's our note say? Our note, Bridget, please pick up some more fruit before Friday as we have just been informed that we may have an extra guest exploring the house next week. 50 chef 50 steps should be more than enough. So, I think an even spread would be ideal.

Five apples, five bananas, five oranges. The enclosed amount should cover expenses, but please bring back any change from the order and leave it in the pantry. And if we go over here, we find a banana is selectable. And we'll click on the banana. And that gives us three steps. We are back. So I now that though know there is a fruit tally and part of my puzzle brain thinks that there may be something interesting if we get all the fruit.
Okay. Very interesting.
Um [snorts] is there anything else of I see pictures. Oh another playing card one for the first time in a while.
We have an one that is uh on its to to all reasonable observation identical to the one in the front hall. This is a queen of diamonds and this is an old car style.
Yep.
It's a car. Um, is there anything else of note andor openable?
Not to the best of my knowledge.
Okay.
Uh, so I assume we would like to draft off of this room.
Yes.

So, we're now we are now good with coins and keys.
The door is locked. Would we like to use a key or back up and try someplace else?
Let's see. How far back was that? That's two.
Well, since we didn't see floor planes, I can back out, right? So, it would be two. one to the courtyard and then one to the bedroom to draft again. But the bedroom also gives us two steps when we enter and gives us five.
And we haven't actually gone in the bedroom yet.
Correct.
Let's go to the bedroom then because we might as well explore that rather than spend a key.
Okay.
Okay. So, as we entered, we got two steps and then five steps from the sleeping mask. So, we're back to 43.
Um
I think I see a chest in there, too. I see a picture.
You do. There is a tie and the other one is over here. It's some kind of like a high tea.
Yeah, serving tray.
Yeah, snacky serving tray thing. Um, we also have a pawn. We do have a chest. And we also over here have a postcard that says, "Greetings from Readington."
Mhm. And a picture of the house.

And a picture of the house.
Um, the big finger pointing I would be noting the finger pointing down thing just if I was taking notes on it.
Mhm. Uh, let's check out what's in the chest.
In the chest, you find four coins and two a pair of ivory dice plus two die. While drafting, you may use dice to roll new floor plans.
So, I'm guessing I get two uses of that.
We do have a two up in the in the HUD.
Yep, there we go. Okay. Um, is there anything else of note?
Not particularly. Okay, let's try the door then.
Okay, we have a chapel
with three exits
with three exits only. One of which connects to the pantry and one of which goes right. The guest bedroom
and at this point we could afford to lose money because we have

more money. plenty the guest bedroom which would give us 15 which would deadend this whole side of the exploration um but would give us 15 steps which would be easily enough to get back to the parlor like we'd come out net ahead
Mhm.
and I'd actually get to see if there's anything interesting in a bedroom.
Okay. Um the observatory um dead ends us again.
Yep.
We'll take our last gem.
Mhm.
So my current thought is chapel.
Okay.
Because we can spend the coins. It's our first red room.
Okay.
And I'm kind of curious to see what red rooms are.
Okay. Chapel it is.
So we walk in. There's a clunk sound and we lose it.
I heard and the coin disappeared.
Oh, chapel rank four.

Is that the first room that's had a rank under it?
No, they all do. Um, this is just uh it's
first time I've noticed it.
Yeah, it's the first time you've noticed it. We're in the fourth rank.
Uh, Feldar asks, "If he took the observatory, would the door to the pantry be locked?" That's a really great question. [music]
Uh, objects of note,
there's a bishop. bishop.
There's a bishop.
Makes sense.
In the chapel. Um, there's nothing. There are a bunch of candles, uh, but nothing we can interact with.
The artwork is different because it is stained glass.
Correct. And we have
And I see lots of what looks like statues.
Correct. Um, it's also worth noting uh that the if if you were um if you were being thorough in your observation, you would note that there are as you as you noted stained glass, there are Roman numerals under each of these.
Oh, and they're not sequential. We went 1 2 4 3.

Correct. So, in order they are one, this one that's holding uh like a hoe and dressed like a gardener. Two. This [music] one's dressed in a baker's hat.
Yeah. Or one. Yeah. Three.
Three has a a pitchfork. Um, four has a has a chimney.
Oh, it's funny. Like it was far enough away in the screen. I mistook that for a two initially.
Yeah. Um, five is over here. It's a broom.
Yeah. Uh,
so this tells me that there will later be some sort of puzzle in here where we come back with a combination of windows to look at, tap or interact with or break or something.
Okay. Yep. That the these being uh these being um numbered is sort of my giveaway for that. Uh and yes, we do have many statues.
Um will let's see for the exits here. Is that the pantry when we
Yes, [clears throat] that is the pantry.

And it is It is open now.
Yes, it is open. If If we had been swift, we would have noted when we walked in and turned immediately left that the that the [music] pantry door opens as we walk into this room.
Okay, so we got rid of a lock
by choosing one that connected to here.
Right. So, instead of spending a key,
we spent two steps, right? So again, we're we're engaging in that resource exchange economy,
right?
Well, we also got we hadn't explored the room behind us either yet.
Correct.
So there are there is one new way out.
Yep. It's this door.
Let's check [music] it.
Okay, we have a lavatory.
So there is nothing particularly interesting about the room being red that read that I noted so far. No, other than this is I will say the only room that has had a penalty so far.
Um penalty for entering. Some of the others

had a penalty for unlocking like the key.
They have they have a cost. Yes. But this has this has a detriment every time we enter.
Yeah. Okay. So lavatory is a dead end.
Mhm. Guest room is
the guest bedroom.
Yep. Corridor is not
right.
We also have two rerolls.
Let's try a Let's try a reroll here. We haven't tried one yet.
That would be my move as well. An unlucky reroll. So, we have a utility closet, which is a dead end and is marked breaker box,
which is an interesting thing.
We have a budoir,
which will put a which is equivalently a dead end.
Correct. We have a nursery that says, "Whenever you draft a bedroom, gain [music] five steps, but it costs one gem."
Mhm. [clears throat] So, let's see here. So, we could

we could do something like the utility closet, find out what a breaker is, and save our rroll for the poller to make it less likely that we'll get boxed in
at that point. It will take us 1 2 3 4 5 six steps to get over there.
Correct.
But we're also at 42 steps
at this point. So, not the end of the world.
Yep.
The bour doesn't guarantee us anything.
Budoir also gives us five steps because of the sleeping mask.
If we walk
because of what?
Because of the sleeping mask. If we walk into it, it is
Oh, did it say bais as well?
Okay. It says bedroom. And I'll I'll tell you for freezies if we um if we had looked in the bedroom, we would note that the bedroom is in the bedroom category and is
Oh, okay. So, this would count as a bedroom.
Yes.
And it is also worth noting here that

whenever you draft a bedroom, bedroom is in purple.
Gotcha. So, the nursery is also a bedroom.
Yes. So, for our last gem, we could basically get something that would let us enter, get a whole bunch of steps, and every time we drafted a bedroom after, give us even more.
Yes, but it would leave us without gems.
Right. I'm kind of curious about the breaker box as well.
Okay,
I'm going to save the roll for later. Let's try the breaker box. Like, I want to know what that is.
Okay. So, as we go in
Mhm.
we hear the hum of machinery, which will be ducked because we'll be talking over here. There's um theater.
Two pictures.
Yep. And some kind of plant.
Mhm.
Uh and then if we click on this, this is interactable. We have danger. Toggling or breaker switches may result in unexpected loss of floor plane functionality. Please call DC power if you require assistance.

We have a key card entry system which is currently labeled on and we can toggle it off and on again.
We have three um
we have
everything interestingly is not on. So I'm guessing the garage door would not have worked.
Okay,
let's toggle it on in case we draft the garage later.
Okay, we have the dark room and the gymnasium, both of which are on right now. And then
for the moment seems fine because I don't know.
Yep.
There is a fourth room that your head's kind of blocking.
Yep. Uh it is crossed out.
Can we tell it ends with an E t? Oh, never mind. I can look.
C A B I N E T might be cabinet.
Yeah. And there's also no switch on it.
There's no switch on it. That is correct. Also worth noting, if you hover your mouse around, you would find that

these are selectable. And if I start clicking things, you can turn them all green, turn one of them blue. If
I turn it blue and then click on it next to a red one, it turns purple. And I can just [music] sort of click on these and get different colors. Uh, this seems like a puzzle that may become interesting later, but I have no idea what it does right now.
This would be a thing to note down about the breaker,
though. I might try and turn everything green just on the theory that green is good.
Uh,
but I also probably wouldn't spend the time on my first time. It's also kind of hard to do that like as you as you go through because it has to be gray to turn green. But if something
at this point I would actually go to the internet and look up puzzle for so and so turn green and see what happened.

And there therein lies one of the big problems of this game in attempting to find that answer. Yes. And that is the tricky part because like something like this depends on the day. Some days I might be like I'm interested. Other days I might be like this feels like an excessive chore. That is not why I'm here to play a video game.
Correct. I will tell you as well that there are zero puzzles in the game which require brute forcing. All of the solutions or all of the logic needed to give you the solutions is present in the game. There are some moon logic puzzles. Moon logic being a term from old point and clicks wherein the solution to a puzzle which required you to have a piece of cheese was to click on the moon
because everyone knows that the moon is made of cheese. Your character reaches up and grabs a hunk of cheese off the moon and that's how you solve the puzzle. There's very little of that. There are some leaps in logic that are

required. [music] Um, but you don't have to brute force anything.
Yeah. Um, okay. Shall we shall we linger here or go elsewhere?
Um, give me one second if you can vamp for 20 seconds.
Can indeed. Yeah, chat. Um, I I think that this is one of the big problems, right? Or this is one of the big places where it's difficult and I will shout them out. This is one of the places where the blueprints wiki is super helpful. Um, there is a challenge later on which has a realworld timing component with a ticking clock. It gives you a real world timer and gives you a complex intellectual challenge with a ticking clock. I have no interest in being timed on a test again. I have been out of grade school

for longer than some of you have probably been alive. Um I'm not interested in taking a timed uh sort of test. Uh so I looked up all the answers. No shame whatsoever because that's not a thing that has any interest to me, right? I I looked at I looked at everything that was being asked of me. I knew how I could discover what all the answers were and had no interest in doing it with the constant sound of a ticking clock in my ears. So, I looked it up and to my shock and surprise, the blueprints wiki is phenomenal at this. The blueprints wiki, if you are playing blueprints and stuck, is what is in my opinion the best place to go because it will give you information without giving you a solution. It will give you the hints that are available in game for most puzzles without giving you the solution. It will also spoiler like um things that you haven't like,
hey, later on you may find X which leads

to Y and if if if X isn't something obvious, it will spoil what X is and then tell you in spoiler tags, this is the kind of thing that this is, open at your own peril. They're very thorough with spoiler tags. So in that respect there there is a resource that is available but if you just go blind googling around you will get spoiled on some pretty major stuff for later. So highly recommend blueprints wiki specifically. Um
um
it is not a fandom wiki. No it is the wiki.gg. That is correct. I do not shout out fandom wiks.
Cool. Let's go check out our one remaining path. And I've learned about circuit breakers.
You have uh the fastest way is through the bedroom. So, it's worth noting. We walked in, went down to 39, and back to 41.
Oh, that's right. Because it is our

first time entering.
It's not our first time entering. The um the bedroom uses the word whenever.
Oh, okay.
Rather than when you draft. Oh, that is [snorts] a thing I would have noted as we went through then.
Yep. Correct. All right. Into the parlor we go.
Okay.
Here.
We have not been in here yet.
Yep. We've not been in here. There are some uh windows closed. Uh and over here we have And it's kind of interesting. I have a small beef with this. We have a metal detector and it doesn't beep for this key. It's kind of weird. If I can pick this key up. A rather curious windup key, a component of the parlor game.
There's a note. Dear Herbert, it was a great honor receiving the invitation to dine at your estate with the Oldmsums this past Thursday. If I'm being frank, it had been quite a while since we had been seen in decent society, and we were beginning to worry that my wife's wit had lost its charm. I have no solution that my company is rival to hers. If I

can refresh your memory, we both spent much of that evening discussing our mutual love of games and puzzles, and I had mentioned to you a rather singular parlor game. I had played some years back involving three boxes of different colors. You had pressed me to write down uh pressed me to write with the particulars of games of the game when I found the time, and I've included with this letter all the details you will need to share with guests should you be inclined to play this confounded game. Always your friend M. Lowry.
Okay, so now I did see three boxes walking in. So here's the instructions.
There will always be at least one box which displays only true statements.
Mhm.
There will always be at least one box which displays only false statements.
Only one box has a prize within. The other two are always empty.
Okay. So now we have a logic puzzle.
We know one is always true, one is always false.

This is the black box. This box is blue.
Yep.
This is the black box. This box is white. The black box is not empty. So, let's see. Both of those things are false on the other two.
Demonstrably false.
Um, let's see. One thing is always true.
So by process of elimination that one has to be true.
Yes.
Because the other two are false.
Yes. Which means this box is not empty.
Right. Which means that is the one at this point to spend the thing on.
And we receive our prize. Two gems. Because we're only doing one run. I'll tell you for freezes.
This changes every run. Oh, I'm guessing that because that was a very easy logic puzzle
and they ramp so far

up. There are some that make my head hurt. Like this th this is notoriously difficult at the top end.
Gotcha. Um and there's only one exit and we've seen everything else.
Only one exit. We've seen everything else except for this weird thing.
Got a picture of grandpa again.
Yeah. staring at. Oh, and uh there's a fishing rod and a forested between trees.
Yeah.
No chest pieces.
Uh there's a black chest. There's a black pawn behind this.
Is that the first black pawn we've seen? I feel like it is, but I could be wrong since I'm not
I believe that is the first black pawn and indeed the first black piece we have seen.
Yeah.
Yes. All other pieces we have seen have been white. There is a white bishop in the chapel. There is a golden pawn in the bedroom. There's a golden pawn in the drawing room. There is nothing in

the spare room hallway closet or pantry. There's a gold pawn in the store room, a white rook in the nook, nothing in the entrance hall, and a golden pawn in the den. So yes, that is the first black piece we
Good memory. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Um, do me a favor. Go back to the blueprints for a second.
Pick a room like uh the bedroom for me.
Yep.
Or click on it. Um, okay. Entry, bedroom, rarity, commonplace, drafted one. Okay. I was just kind of curious like at this point what it was saying about
um, let's do me a fair click on the chapel. Rarity commonplace again. Is there a sort by um rarity?
There is not.
Okay,
that would be cool. There is not.

Click on the courtyard for me. That's
standard. Okay. Interesting. I see two dots, one of which is a brighter purple. Mhm. But this is a two dot rarity and commonplace rooms are a one dot rarity.
Oh, I see. I'm curious. Is that one dot? Okay. So, I'm guessing if we saw more of these, I would see that the rarer it was, the more dots there would be and that each was a slightly different color.
Yes.
Okay. I was trying to figure out if there was some sort of puzzle based on the colors. It didn't have enough information yet.
That's an interesting observation. Uh onwards.
Let's do it.
We shall go.
Okay.
So, let's see. This is our very last walk uh traversal space, correct?
Yes. So, we have a kitchen.
Okay. So, we need somewhere with at least an exit.
Correct. So, that means our only viable option here is the kitchen.

Mhm. Bunk room counts as two bedrooms. I'm curious if that means I would get a lot of steps.
A very interesting question. Do you want to know the answer because we won't be able to take it this or or at this point?
Sure. I'd love to know the answer to that because I'd get that on the next run.
Yes. If you walk in with the mask, it counts as it when it says it counts as two bedrooms, it counts as drafting and entering two bedrooms in all respects.
Cool. So, if there was a puzzle that was your house needs at least four bedrooms, this would count as two.
Yes. If you had the nursery and you drafted this, you'd receive 10 steps as well.
Mhm. Let's We have enough gems. Let's draft the kitchen rather than use a redraw.
Okay. In we go. Uh
I see a note.
We have We have a note right here. It's It weirdly turned into a shopping basket icon. So, if we click on this,

we have a note that says, "Today's main the main course is served only in the dining room. Today's main course is glazed salmon, lemon glazed salmon, char cajun spice salmon, lemon butter sauce served over spinach leaf plus 20 steps plus an additional 10 steps if you have an aquarium in your house.
The mount
in your house now your inventory. So that means we've somehow discovered an room with an aquarium is my guess.
Yes, aquarium in this case is highlighted blue. We can also purchase a banana, which tells us it is plus three steps for two coins. We can buy a club sandwich, which is 15 steps for eight coins. We can buy a chef salad, which gives us plus five steps for every green room in our house.
I'd have to go back and look at my So, at the moment, I don't feel like we need more steps. So,
correct.
This is basically food equals. So, I've now discovered we since we had the banana before, food equals step

economy or trade money for steps.
Yep.
Or excuse me, food for steps. I see pictures.
Yep. We have a grandfather clock and a padlock.
Can I open the fridge?
No, you are not allowed to refrigerate. I will say there is an interactable.
Oh, yeah.
Interesting.
But it doesn't do anything.
Talk to me. It currently doesn't do anything.
Correct. It currently does nothing.
Nothing of note. I'm curious if there's a turn on the water
thing later.
We can't interact with any of the kitchen stuff and we're good to go.
Let's see. Was there one or two exits from here? One,
just one to the north.
Let's check it. A passageway takes two gems,
but is also the only way that would allow us. the budoir dead ends to the left and the guest bedroom dead ends.
So, we could spend our last two gems,

but we would open up at this point um two directions instead of one.
Yes.
Or we could use our last roll in hopes of getting something interesting
right now. I'll tell you for free in the interest of not dead ending our run right now.
Mhm.
The passageway is about as good as it's going to get. And
I was kind of guessing that
two liberties is pretty good right now. Um
probably
res if resources disappear, there's no reason to hoard them.
Correct. Okay. So, the passageway this way is blocked off.
There's a door and door. You can also It's a
very unfinished passageway.
It is. You can also look up and see these uh lights and ducts. It's also just an interesting thing. Don't believe we've had another room with these uh ducts in it yet.
Yeah. Um,
let's check to the right. The right is the one with the uh less um navigational options because of where the edge of the house is.

Doors locked. Would you like to use a key?
Yes, it is. We have [music] an office, locksmith, and a lavatory. Unfortunately, the locksmith and office both cost gems. So,
and we have to make a choice at this point. So, it's going to or we could use the roll. But I think I'm going to save the roll for our very last thing.
Okay. The lavatory it is. So, now you're going to get
And we keep getting lavatory showing up and I haven't seen one yet. So,
we'll tell you this is frustratingly devoid of interactables. Uh, we can't even see out. I mean, we kind of see like a little a little pavilion out the window, but uh there's nothing really to interact with here.
So, we have some pictures. What I'm also noting here is um there is at this point parts of the house which are now there

will never be a way to get to on this run.
Yes.
Though I'm guessing that's fairly common.
Yes. Uh, we also have a an amperand and um some kind of that
go back to um our map or blueprints.
Mhm.
Or um so this is our second red room.
What do fair show me what number the lavatory is?
Lavatory doesn't have a number. Uh the lavatory is the first of the eight red rooms.
Okay. So it is a non-numbered room.
Correct. Oh, so there can be more than actually if we search through all the rooms, would we find it in there?
No, there are 46 rooms. All of the ones that are in between 1 and 46 are
so there are actually more than 46 rooms in the house.
Correct.
So there also that would mean there's

more than possibly 47 rooms in the house.
Yes. That is an reasonable, logical assumption based on the information that you currently have.
That is very weird to me that it does not show up on any of the 1 through 46. Was the chapel the same?
It was.
Okay. So, the chapel didn't have a number. In addition, neither the passageway nor hallway, courtyard, nor bedroom nor kitchen have a number. They are simply part of their categories.
Ah,
the kitchen is the second of eight shops. The courtyard is the third of eight green rooms. The lavatory and chapel are the first and second of eight red rooms. The hallway is the first and the passageway is the fifth of eight um hallways. And the bedroom is the first bedroom.

Okay. So, this is a thing I hadn't really noticed before because I'd assume it was also showed up if we'd been mousing over uh the rooms directory.
Yes.
That is an interesting thing to me that there are some things that do not count as rooms.
Correct.
Okay. Though, like a passageway feels fine not being named a room.
Sure.
Except for the fact that it takes up a slot of a room.
Correct. Okay, let's go try the passageway
to the north. Not locked. We have one option. It is the corridor.
Um, we're going to take that because I want to save our roll for a dead dead end.
There's a bunch of uh moving boxes and autram and the like. Here.
Yep.
Um, there is a chart showing a growing rate. There's like a rate graph, a bar graph, and there's this uh mining cart

looking thing.
Uh and then let's open this door. We have uh one option that leads us forward, and that is the budoir.
The rumpus room would lead us forward, but we have no gems. Oh,
correct. Um and would have given us eight coins.
Yeah. [snorts] Let's check out the budois.
In the budois, we find two coins here
with a metal. Oh, and one more on the floor.
One more on the floor.
I'm curious if that would have been there if the metal detector wasn't.
You want to know?
Sure.
No.
The those extra resources spawn as a result of the metal detector being present in your inventory. as opposed to us just missing it in the metal detector giving us a clue that it's there.
Correct.
Okay.
So,
actually, does this room always have two coins?

No.
Okay.
If it's not listed, the the the what is listed on the blueprint when we draft it is the minimum. Everything else is a slot which may or may not have an item depending on stuff.
Okay,
we'll leave it at stuff. I've gone way too deep into that rabbit hole. Stuff. Depending on stuff.
Fair.
Um, so no, it does not. We We do have a picture of a theater and uh stag deer or stag.
Um,
anything else in here? Was that Was that a picture on the mirror?
It is. And indeed, it is a picture of Christmas. It appears to be in a room not dissimilar to this one. It also has a safe wrapped up in it. Um, there's presents underneath.
Oh, that's a turn wheel safe, not a key code safe.
Well, there there is a key code like punch thing on it. But there is a big

Oh, is there okay?
Yeah, there's if if you look quite closely, you'll see that there's the same key pad code. And indeed, if we wander around, we will find that that safe is located in this wall. Ah,
but we also do not yet have a key code for it.
That is correct. A safe is a weird Christmas present. That's true. I will also give you a freebie that many people in chat may not know.
Okay,
there is an in-game date. This is day one. There is an in-game date.
The room is decorated for Christmas if you come on December the 25th, which is very nice. Um,
is there anything else if I looked around for a while?
Nope. There's a candle missing here. That's kind of weird. Oh, it's just that picture. Photograph doesn't do anything.
And we don't like have a candle to go put in the candle holder.
No, not that I've ever found.
Okay, let's check the door.

Last key, but we don't really have an option.
Yep.
They have the east wing hall as our only way forward, but it gives us both a north and south. Yeah. So, we don't need a reroll yet. Let's use that. And let's see
in the east wing.
Let's look through here. And then I want to try south because south we have we might as well take a dead end if there is one and it's unlocked.
Mhm. Yep. There's nothing of note here. Uh there are a there's like a cliff or beach or something and a coat.
Mhm. It is locked unfortunately.
Okay,
this is not though. We have the dining room as our only way forward. I will also give you a freebie, Jeff. We have locked out more times than

is reasonable at this point uh with getting very lucky on doors not being locked and uh number of path number of paths forward. If this were one of my runs, I'd be done by now. But you know, uh,
it's my superior gameplay, Will. And
100% it. It's not blind beginner's luck. Uh,
we'll take the dining room.
Okay. There's
You're not yet rank eight. So, I'm guessing that means you get more. This is a room where you get steps because dinner or food equals steps.
Yes. Uh, there is a golden pond in the
Interesting. I would have been calling those white pawns. Is there
Sure, that's a white pond. Golden pond. Okay. Oh, so white and gold two are bent the same.
Yeah.
Okay. Um, anything else of note besides the pictures?
Oh, and we have a plane and a window. Uh, that is broken.
All save for one
one pane of glass.

Uh,
let's see. Yep. Let's check that room. That
is locked.
Okay,
chat, give me your luck. Give me your luck because this is it. If this is locked, we're done. Well, we're about out of time anyway.
I know.
Uh we are we have no options. We could open this and hope that it has a key in it or we can redraw.
What is the the maze chamber leads Oh, never mind. to the budois.
Oh, and it that is a decrease.
Less likely to find items laying around in your house. Yes.
Interesting. a debuff,
but it is also a bedroom.
Still a debuff.
It is a debuff. Yes.
And security needs a gem to get in. View inventory of all currently items currently in the house.
Yep.
Wouldn't we have seen those already, though? Oh, this is like if you missed a

thing.
Correct.
Okay.
If you don't have the um metal detector, it's very possible to miss some stuff.
Cool. Uh,
well, let's use our rroll.
Using our reroll. The only thing we could take is the bunk room. So,
which we might as well.
Yep. Now, if we're extremely lucky, No, this has two gems, not two keys. Uh,
oh, now we get some gems. So, we if we had had this before, we could have drafted other rooms.
Yep. Uh, importantly, if we explore around, we see a bunch of uh, children's toys. We have a lockpicking or a lock
kit,
and we take that.
We have we have two pawns. We cannot
Okay.
Um, and then if we go over here, important. Very important. Say hi to the hamster.
Um, we have some trophies. We have
How is that hamster still alive?
Great question. Next question. Um, we have a pudding and a a fan of some kind.

Um, we have uh traditional accutra of children from a bygone age. Uh, and then if we go right here,
we have a book.
Oh,
today is a good day because Simon is at camp and he is not as much fun as my friends. I will not have to share my toys. I will not have to share my room and I will not have to share my snacks. Having a younger brother is not as much fun as they told me it would be. But today will be a good day because he is at camp. Herby is mean and really stupid. And today is a good day cuz I threw away his airplane. I also have more fun at camp than he has had in his entire life. Today is a good day cuz I got my brother in trouble for reading my private journal without my permission of writing mean things in it, too. He also threw my model airplane in the bushes outside, but I got it back. And if he doesn't again, he will not get to go to the park on Friday. And I will make sure he gets no presents for his birthday. I don't need any present pre presents because I have my brother's book because

he won't stop writing about me. Today is a good day because I know he cries when he can't find his book even though he is older. He is a crybaby. [snorts] Today is a good day because today my brother returns from college and I get to finally return to him the book I took from him a long, long time ago. Hopefully you find it as hilarious as I do. I honestly have no idea how we survived sharing a room. All things being said, I wouldn't have it any other way which is crossed out. I still would rather have had a sister. Congrats on the diploma and welcome home, Simon. And we have a hamster. And that is a first run of blueprints. Uh hopefully I have left you with so many more questions than answers. Um
yeah. Oh, I did want to do one thing. Uh chat let me know I missed a thing earlier. Uh and we have enough steps, so I'm going to go rectify that. Um
okay. I missed an interactable in a room that I forgot about because it's hidden kind of very well. Um, and I wanted to go grab it if we had time. So, I'm going

to I'm going to backtrack a little bit. Uh, what do you feel about the parent child duplication in the dire uh directory, aka the bedroom being a bedroom? Like there like a a a room being both part of a cate like the name of a category and a thing. Um, I don't mind it. Oh, where is it? It's It's in here. It's not this. It's not this. Where are you?
Oh, [snorts]
it's this. It's this picture of this bird.
Blue bird with a bathing suit.
Yep. Oh, that's true. A, we can also do that. Yeah. There is also a question which many players uh ask on um um and and don't really think about. This room doesn't have three exits.

It has four.
It has four.
We're allowed to go.
Walking outside counts as one.
Correct. It does. So over here we have a gate. We can see a path beyond and a thing. It doesn't open. Um, here we have
we had a key, so it wasn't that it lacked a key.
Uh, well, yes, correct.
It didn't lack a key that we had.
Correct. Uh, we can make a wish.
And it does cost us a coin. And we throw a coin in the fountain. Um, and then we'll we'll do some spawn.
Herb up. Yeah. Uh, let's see. We have this blocked up entrance thing. We have this little observing post,
a vista,
little vista. We can see some stuff down here and a waterfall and misty mountains, all that

bench. We have a dark spooky passage. We go down here. We kind of vaguely see torches.
Where's our flashlight? Uh, we don't have one. We didn't find one.
Is that a findable thing? I assume
maybe. Okay.
Maybe.
So, all of that cost us one step, correct?
And then passing that threshold is another one.
Another step.
Yep. We have a closed uh thing here in this rock wall with some power lines leading away from it.
Was that openable?
Great question. Does not interact. We go over here. We have another gate.

Very similar to the gate we just passed, but we can't interact with it even to shake it like we could the the wooden gate. Um, I'll go
camp.
Yeah, I'll go I'll go this way. We have this this big old um hazard [music] striped door, which we can't interact with.
I'm curious if one of those is the garage.
Very interesting. Uh, we have the campsite. Do the rules set forth in your great uncle's will. You are not allowed to stay in the estate overnight. Luckily, however, your scouting seals have been put to good use to fabricate a very respectable off-site sleeping. May call it a day at any time from the blueprint menu tab to return to the campsite.
Okay, so this is this becomes the starting point.
Correct.
Uh kind of. Um also, uh you will note
the bird from the drawing is in our tent.
Um and I don't believe there's anything

else. Oh, there's this up here. Uh, we can't get into this orchard, but if we click on this, you're given the opportunity to put in a date.
I'm curious if Oh, apples give extra steps.
They were on the list of fruit.
Yeah. Does this mean every day it's going to take me two steps to get back to the front door after this?
No. The beginning of every day you walk in the front door with 50 steps. Okay.
Any other questions before we before we take parting thoughts, Jeff?
No. Like this was a this felt like a pretty good first run.
It is. It's a it's an incredibly good first run and it accomplished a thing which um I think is very important for for many first runs, which is uh it left you with far more questions than answers. At least I hoped. Um,

so yeah, uh, Blueprints is great. Um, there is a lot of strategy and long-term planning and lots of note-taking and, um, I really love it. Uh, I have sunk way too many hours into it. Um, I if you do not like puzzle games, it will not be for you. I highly encourage you to look up as little as possible. I have done as much as I can. I think I slipped up once um and gave away a little more than I should have in one particular place. Uh you can check the VOD to see if you can find it. Go back and scrub. Um but uh don't look up anymore. If this looks like a game for you, I highly encourage you to go and get it and play it for yourself. It is one of the indie darlings of last year that got overshadowed by Claire Obscure. I think it is a fantastic game. Um, it does have one major flaw in my mind, which is if you're a fan of rogue likes, you can't suspend in the middle of a

day.
Once you begin a day, you must finish it. You cannot save and quit in the middle of a day. It will call it a day if you save and quit.
Is there actually a max number of days? In other words, do you hit day 100 and it's like, "Sorry, you didn't do it in time."
No.
Okay. So there's no real penalty for having to call it a day.
Correct. Um Oh yeah, that's true. There is an end of day summary. That's that's true. That is important. Uh let's let's go back. I forgot about that because I was going to
Oops. I just closed that screen. Let me open it back up.
It's it's also small enough that you can
Oh, never mind. I'll just watch it there. Tomorrow you will wake to find the rooms of the estate as well as your current inventory will have been reset.
Yeah. So call it. Okay.
Mount Holly, a midsize vista. Total rooms 23. Rank reached 7. Steps taken

51. Items found three. You go. That's a picture of our house on day one.
[music]
Will we be able to look at uh each day at a picture and review? Like on day five, can I go back and look at 1 2 3 and four?
Yes. There is a place where you can do that. I don't think we ran into it.
And then we're given two options. Save and continue or save and quit. And save and quit takes us back to the main menu. Uh so we can start another day. Yeah. So, it's interesting. Like, this feels very well done. I don't think that this is the game for me, but I'm glad I got to experience it. And at some point, if I get a hankering for this kind of game, this would be the one I go play.
Yeah. Uh, yes. Uh, Christopher asks, "Rank is just the row." Yes, rank is

just the row. Um, uh, yeah, Richard, that was that was my hope. Um,
actually, keep going. I'll be back in 30 seconds.
Yeah. Um,
don't want to end quite yet.
Yeah. Uh, chat, I I I hope this has been an adequate exploration of the um of the of the game uh for you all. Yeah. Um is one of is you want to hard focus one puzzle at a time? Yes, that is true. That is very worth noting because it is this mashup of um rogike and puzzle game, right? you are not always able to solve the puzzles that you would like to solve in a given run because you are simply not given the opportunity to which is a thing that some people do find aggravating. Um so that is uh that is very much a thing. uh while Jeff is coming back a bit. Uh yeah, I think some people find it

aggravating. Some people um if you begin to adopt a yolo uh attitude towards it, it becomes much more bearable, at least for me. Um while Jeff is sitting back down, a quick moment of business. There will be a breakfast this Friday. Matt has returned from Gen Con as well. There will be a show this Friday. There will be no stream tomorrow as I prepare for that show. Oh, sorry, be no stream on Thursday as I prepare for that show. It's Tuesday. I have a whole stream tomorrow. I'm playing a thousand times Resist. Um, come join me for that. If you've played it before, come join me and tell me nothing. Don't tell me anything. Um,
let's see. Did you Oh, and if you happen to be watching this in the next couple weeks, we are currently running our uh Extra History Calendar Kickstarter. We're off to a very good start, but we would love to get more people checking it out. Um, it'll be a link in chat or if you just Google extra history kickstarter,
yeah,
you will see it for our 2027 calendar this year. We also have a deck of playing cards and fridge magnets amongst

other things that come with it. Uh, the art is beautiful. It's done by both David and Val this year. Um, but um,
we're closing in on a thousand backers, Jeff. That's wild. A thou I'm just I'm overwhelmed. like the the money number is great and wonderful and helps our studio run. One of the things that humbles me every year is that there are a thousand homes around the world that have our art hanging up and see it every day. That's one of the really cool things. Like just like one of the coolest things as a streamer is someone's like, "Yeah, you're on the TV and my dad's watching too." Like that's weird, right? That like you use us as your kitchen calendar is like so cool to me.
Oh, 100%. But I want that in our houses.
Yep. Absolutely.
Go check it out. It's cool.
Um,
yeah, it's interesting. Final thoughts on that as a rogike, too. Like
I see, maybe we'll talk about that another week. I need to parse more of that. But it's also really well like

this is the kind of game that you can do with a small team. Like certain games you can't certain game like you can't make Call of Duty with a oneman or a fiveman team.
Correct. This is also a game that if there had been 50 people on it, like this isn't a 50 person game.
Correct.
Okay. It could be. I don't know if I think it would be overdone.
I think
in that fashion. The only thing that I will say that might have benefited from a broader design team is that the more puzzles you do, the clearer it becomes that all of the puzzles are made by the same designer, which is a good and bad thing. If you like those puzzles, great. But if you begin to get to the part where there are puzzles upon layers of puzzle, it can be a little frustrating if you're not in sync with that singular designer,

right?
Um, and that is a risk with all puzzle games, right? Especially a puzzle games.
Um, but
and that is the pro and the con. Like
if there had been a 50 person team, there would have been like three or four puzzle designers,
right,
on this game. And part of the worry on that is that they overdo it. Like if your job for a year is to think of puzzles and there end up being 15 puzzles you work on,
like you're getting almost a month per puzzle.
Yeah.
Like sometimes that leads to people making unnecessarily complex or canver or other kinds of puzzles.
Yep.
Um which pros and cons,
right? I will say that you immediately because of the way that you approach the room, you immediately gleaned two um facets of the game which are I will confirm puzzles for later. What you use them for and how you use them, I will not say, but both the chess pieces and

pictures are elements of puzzles that you will discover later on in playthroughs. Um
was guessing that otherwise it's kind of weird the way that they were put around all the time.
That is correct. Cool. Uh, cool. Thank you all so very much for joining us. Like I said, we'll be back on Friday with uh breakfast and next week we'll be back with a design club. Uh, we think we've got a couple of options of topics to talk about. We'll hash it out this week and get back to you uh on and I will be able to tell you on Friday when we do breakfast what design club is going to be next week. So, please join us for all of that. Uh, I've been Will. That's been Jeff. I think all that's left is uh to say bye to the people. Jeff.
Bye people. Jeeoff. Thanks everybody. Have a great week.
Bye y'all. [music]
[music]