The House of Da Vinci

The House of Da Vinci is a 2017 puzzle adventure game developed by Slovak indie studio Blue Brain Games. The game is based on fictional events set during the Renaissance.

Blue Brain Games released two sequels: The House of Da Vinci 2 in 2019 and The House of Da Vinci 3 in 2022.

Premise
The story is set up in Florence, Italy during the Renaissance. The player is Leonardo da Vinci's apprentice, searching for the missing master. The player starts the search in Da Vinci's house and has to solve a series of puzzles in different rooms in order to find clues for Da Vinci's whereabouts.

Gameplay
Apart from complex puzzles that are physics based, the player gains access to two lenses with supernatural abilities. With one, they can see hidden codes and with the other they can see what had happened in the past. The player occasionally gets to see letters from their master Da Vinci and also from the antagonists.

Development
Blue Brain Games is an indie team of graphic artists and developers, all of whom are people interested in both 3D puzzle games and the renaissance genius Leonardo da Vinci. The House of Da Vinci was successfully funded on Kickstarter in late 2016. 2,391 adventure game enthusiasts backed the game.

Reception
Merlina McGovern of Adventure Gamers rated the game 3.5 out of 5 wrote that "Although The House of Da Vinci is slightly marred by persnickety mechanics and the occasionally frustrating puzzle, exploring the mind of a genius by reverse engineering his inventions will pull you into a gorgeous Renaissance world and keep you challenged throughout."

AppUnwrapper', in their review wrote, "If you're a fan of The Room series by Fireproof Games and can't wait for the fourth one to release, Blue Brain Games' The House of Da Vinci is the closest thing you can get to the real thing."

Reviewing the iOS version, Emily Sowden of Pocket Gamer said "The House of Da Vinci has two major areas to focus on. One: the unavoidable fact that it's essentially The Room in a different package. Two: the unavoidable fact that it's actually a decent game."

Maria Alexander of Droidgamer rated the game 9/10. The game was rated 9 for aesthetics, 9.2 for gameplay, 8.7 for innovation and 9.1 for value. "The House of Da Vinci is a massive, gorgeous, cleverly designed puzzler that gives The Room, its main inspiration, a pretty good run for its money.", she said.

Borja Ruete of MeriStation rated the game 7/10.

Sequels
On December 4, 2019, Blue Brain Games released a sequel, The House of Da Vinci 2, for iOS. A Google Play Store version was released on February 18, 2020, with a Steam version on May 29, 2020.

On August 25, 2021, Blue Brain Games announced The House of Da Vinci 3, the upcoming conclusion to the trilogy. The game was released in August 2022.