Arc Games and Thekla announce narrative puzzle adventure game Order of the Sinking Star

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The team behind the games Braid and The Witness, Thekla, has revealed their next project: Order of the Sinking Star. This narrative puzzle adventure promises over 1,000 uniquely designed puzzles and hundreds of hours of gameplay. It’s currently slated for a 2026 release on PC via Steam, with plans for other platforms and a specific release date to be announced later.

Jonathan Blow, founder of Thekla and the lead designer of Order of the Sinking Star, describes the game as his most ambitious and collaborative project yet. In a recent announcement, he explained that the game is the result of many designers combining their ideas to create a puzzle experience that’s larger and more complex than anything they’ve made before. Blow believes they’ve truly pushed the boundaries of the puzzle adventure genre, and he’s excited to share more details as the 2026 launch approaches. The game features design work from a talented team including Alan Hazelden (A Monster’s Expedition), Sean Barrett (Promesst), Jonah Ostroff (Heroes of Sokoban), Zach Polansky (Enigmash), Patrick Traynor (Patrick’s Parabox), Marc ten Bosch (Miegakure), and others.

Arc Games CEO Yoon Im shared that the announcement of Order of the Sinking Star is a significant milestone for the company, the development team led by Jonathan, and signals a promising year ahead. They are proud to support Jonathan in creating his most ambitious game to date, believing Order of the Sinking Star will be a leading and groundbreaking puzzle adventure for today’s players. Im emphasized that this announcement is only the first step in what will be a transformative year for Arc Games.

Here is an overview of the game, via its Steam page:

About

Created by the acclaimed director of Braid and The Witness, Jonathan Blow, Order of the Sinking Star is a large-scale adventure game packed with over a thousand carefully designed puzzles. You’ll enter a strange and magical world filled with tricky devices and dangerous creatures. The game features four unique worlds, each with its own rules, people, and stories, which eventually begin to connect and overlap. As these worlds collide, the puzzles become even more complex and offer surprising new ways to play. You’re free to explore at your own speed, revisit areas, and tackle challenges whenever you like. You’ll encounter a variety of playable characters, learn constantly evolving game mechanics, and unravel the secrets of a huge, interconnected world. Order of the Sinking Star combines exploration, storytelling, and constantly changing puzzles to create a truly unique and immersive gaming experience.

Key Features

  • Master a Thousand Interwoven Challenges – 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.
  • Choose Your Path, Roam at Your Pace – Explore four expansive, mysterious game 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.
  • Take the Helm of Some Unlikely Heroes – A queen, a thief, a warrior, a wizard, and a talking boat are just some of the heroes of this tale. Each character wields complimentary abilities and has captivating stories to tell.
  • Decipher an Epic Tale – 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.

Watch the announcement trailer below. View the first screenshots at the gallery.

Announce Trailer

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2025-12-12 04:46