Order of the Sinking Star

Order of the Sinking Star

Released Oct 2026

From director Jonathan Blow (Braid, The Witness), Order of the Sinking Star is a massive puzzle adventure set in a realm of magic and enigma. Solve over 1000 interconnected, hand-crafted puzzles, discover unique playable heroes, master evolving gameplay mechanics, and decipher a grand mystery.

97% positive · 1,658 reviews
Not yet
Recently released, post-launch plans unclear
Low confidence
Recently Launched
Not yet
Recently released, post-launch plans unclear
Low confidence
Recently Launched

Where to buy

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Evaluation

Order of the Sinking Star launched on October 8, 2026, after roughly ten years of development by Thekla, Inc. under director Jonathan Blow. The game shipped as a large, self-contained puzzle adventure containing over 1,000 hand-crafted puzzles across four distinct worlds, with a fully voiced cast and a complete narrative arc. The only DLC listed on the store is the official soundtrack, which also released on October 8, 2026 — there are no unreleased DLC entries and no season pass or expansion pass of any kind. In the launch post, the developer noted that "the game development journey surprisingly doesn't end here" and committed to releasing patches for bugs, performance improvements, and quality-of-life changes including localization refinements. This is standard post-launch maintenance language and does not announce new content. No roadmap, expansion, or named future content has been announced. Because the game launched today, there is simply no post-launch track record yet to assess whether additional content is on the way. It is too early to draw any conclusions about future updates beyond the maintenance patches the developer mentioned.
Evidence
Order of the Sinking Star officially launched on PC via Steam, Nintendo Switch 2, and PlayStation 5. The developer noted post-launch plans limited to bug fixes, performance improvements, and quality-of-life updates — no additional content was announced.
news post · Oct 8, 2026 source ambiguous
high
The only DLC listed is the official soundtrack, which released alongside the game on October 8, 2026. No unreleased DLC entries exist on the store.
dlc listing · Oct 8, 2026 source content shipped
medium

Content

1 of 1 released · no outstanding content

Media

Details

Developer
Publisher
Arc Games
Achievements
32
Platform
Windows
Controller
full support
Steam Deck
Verified
Players
Single-player

About this game

From legendary director Jonathan Blow (Braid, The Witness) comes Order of the Sinking Star, a massive puzzle adventure featuring more than one thousand hand-crafted puzzles designed to put your intellect to the test. You are transported to a realm of curious magic, dangerous contraptions, and vicious monsters. Explore four distinct worlds, each with its own mechanics, characters, and stories, and then watch as they all collide. As the worlds merge, and characters meet one another, puzzle systems intertwine, creating surprising new gameplay possibilities. Explore at your own pace, revisit worlds and return to challenges as you see fit. Discover unique playable characters, master evolving gameplay mechanics, and decipher the deep mysteries of a sprawling, interconnected game world. Blending exploration, storytelling, and ever-progressing mechanics, Order of the Sinking Star invites you into a mysterious, living puzzle unlike anything you've played.

Embark on an innovative puzzle adventure with dozens of game mechanics and hundreds of hours of unique gameplay. Each puzzle builds on the last, introducing new game mechanics that reward curiosity and persistence.

Explore four mysterious worlds, each with its own characters, rules, dangers, and secrets waiting to be uncovered. Come and go as you like, you are free to take on the puzzles you discover at your own pace.

A queen, a thief, a warrior, a wizard, and a talking boat are just some of the heroes of this tale. Each character wields complementary abilities and has captivating stories to tell.

As playable characters begin to meet and worlds collide, the mystery untangles. Through gameplay and notes you collect you learn more about this enigmatic realm. Piece by piece and clue by clue, you’ll uncover the secrets of the Order of the Sinking Star.

History, Foundation & Design Contributions

Order of the Sinking Star has been in the making for nearly a decade since the release of The Witness, born from a desire to push puzzle game design past its traditional limits to create the largest and greatest puzzle game ever made. With Order of the Sinking Star, the development team created a "game design supercollider" – smashing together the ideas from multiple puzzle game designers to create a puzzle landscape that's much more intricate and vast than what has come before. 

The foundation of Order of the Sinking Star is built upon these four brilliant titles:

  • Skipping Stones to Lonely Homes by Alan Hazelden: A serene puzzle game about throwing stones into water to create stepping paths.

  • Mirror Isles by Alan Hazelden: A clever top-down game focused on swapping places with reflections across islands.

  • Promesst 1-3 by Sean Barrett: An abstract grid-puzzler about exploring a cave filled with mysterious beams of light.

  • Heroes of Sokoban (1, 2, & 3) by Jonah Ostroff: A fantasy-themed puzzle game where you manage distinct hero classes (like warriors and mages) with unique movement and pushing mechanics to reach the exit.

While these games inspire and comprise the very beginning of Order of the Sinking Star and lay the foundation of its gameplay, the game as a whole explores the endless, unexpected possibilities of merging these worlds together. 

The game also showcases design contributions from Zach Polansky (Enigmash), Patrick Traynor (Patrick's Parabox), Marc ten Bosch (Miegakure), and several others – including design contributions from Twitch followers over the years.

The Thekla, Inc. team is incredibly thankful for all the support they’ve had for the game over the course of development! 

Last evaluated Oct 8, 2026
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