Order of the Sinking Star

Presentation

Order of the Sinking Star is an adventure and puzzle game developed by Thekla, Inc. and published by Arc Games. Directed by Jonathan Blow, creator of Braid and The Witness, it offers an adventure built around solving more than 1,000 handcrafted puzzles. Its fantasy universe combines magic, creatures and mysterious locations in an experience where observation, logic and the gradual understanding of rules are the main forms of progression.

The adventure is organized around four distinct worlds, each featuring its own characters, mechanics and mysteries. Players explore a central area connecting these regions, allowing them to choose much of their own path. Rather than imposing a linear sequence of challenges, the game encourages players to move to another region when a puzzle proves difficult, then return with newly acquired knowledge. Discoveries made in one world can therefore change how challenges elsewhere are approached.

Gameplay notably draws inspiration from Sokoban, a puzzle genre based on moving objects within confined spaces. This principle develops into a variety of situations: pushing blocks to open passages, manipulating reflections, using teleportation effects or interacting with light-based mechanisms. Each series of puzzles gradually introduces its own rules before expanding them and combining them with additional constraints. The difficulty primarily comes from understanding these interactions and anticipating the consequences of each movement.

Players control several playable characters with complementary abilities, including a queen, a thief, a warrior, a wizard and even a talking boat. Their individual capabilities directly influence how puzzles can be solved. As the adventure progresses, the different worlds begin to connect and their mechanics start to interact. This development transforms initially independent problems into more complex situations requiring several sets of rules to be understood and applied simultaneously.

Progression does not depend solely on the number of puzzles completed. Exploration also reveals hidden passages, encounters with different characters and notes that gradually provide insight into the story. The narrative unfolds through player discoveries, connections between the worlds and clues scattered throughout the environments. Puzzles therefore contribute directly to exploration rather than forming a simple sequence of isolated challenges.

With its nonlinear structure and numerous puzzle systems, Order of the Sinking Star emphasizes experimentation and learning. Players can quickly restart a puzzle or undo previous moves to test alternative solutions. This freedom to experiment supports an adventure whose complexity gradually increases as the different mechanics begin to interact.

Key points

• A puzzle adventure directed by Jonathan Blow, creator of Braid and The Witness.
• More than 1,000 individually handcrafted puzzles, based on varied rules and interactions.
• Four interconnected worlds, each featuring its own characters, mechanics and secrets.
• Nonlinear exploration, allowing players to switch regions and revisit previous challenges.
• Several playable heroes with complementary abilities, directly influencing puzzle solutions.
• Sokoban-inspired mechanics, progressively combined to create new situations.
• A narrative built around discoveries, clues and connections between the different worlds.

Conclusion

Order of the Sinking Star presents an adventure in which puzzles serve both as the main challenge and as a means of discovering a mysterious universe. Its four-world structure allows distinct rules to be introduced before gradually bringing them together, changing the way players understand and approach problems.

Freedom of exploration, character-specific abilities and interconnected mechanics give progression a cumulative dimension: every new piece of knowledge can become useful elsewhere in the adventure. The game therefore combines spatial reasoning, experimentation and narrative discovery, within a structure where gameplay mechanics contribute directly to unraveling the central mystery.

Good to know

Order of the Sinking Star was released on October 8, 2026, for PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC. It was developed by Thekla, Inc. and published by Arc Games.

The project was directed by Jonathan Blow, known for Braid (2008), based on time manipulation, and The Witness (2016), focused on exploration and environmental puzzles. Order of the Sinking Star continues his work on learning rules through experimentation.

The gameplay foundations notably draw from several independent puzzle games: Skipping Stones to Lonely Homes, Mirror Isles, Promesst and Heroes of Sokoban. Their creators, including Alan Hazelden, Sean Barrett and Jonah Ostroff, contributed to the development of the puzzle systems. Other designers, notably Patrick Traynor and Marc ten Bosch, also contributed to the project.

Puzzles primarily use grid-based spaces, in which characters and objects follow specific movement rules. Players have access to features that allow them to quickly undo actions or restart a puzzle. Completing every puzzle is not required to reach the adventure's main ending.

The game is designed for single-player and can be played offline. It does not feature multiplayer or cooperative modes.

The PC version, available on Steam, supports achievements and Steam Cloud saves. The soundtrack is also available separately on the platform.

The game features English voice acting and text and subtitles in several languages, notably English, French, Spanish, German, Italian and Japanese.