Jonathan Blow’s first game since The Witness is now available. Order of the Sinking Star, a puzzle game from Thekla, Inc. directed by Blow, the creator of Braid and The Witness, launched October 8, 2026 after roughly a decade in development since The Witness released in 2016.
Launch Platforms, Price, and Bundles
Arc Games posted the launch announcement to the game’s Steam community page on October 8, 2026. Order of the Sinking Star is available on PC via Steam and Steam Deck, on Nintendo Switch 2, and on PlayStation 5, and it is also available through NVIDIA GeForce NOW. It is Steam Deck Verified and costs $29.99. Three launch bundles are on Steam at 10% off. They are Order of the Sinking Star plus Mewgenics, Order of the Sinking Star plus Animal Well, and Order of the Sinking Star plus the Original Soundtrack. The Original Soundtrack is also sold separately.
Puzzle Design and Voice Cast
Order of the Sinking Star features more than 1,000 handcrafted, interconnected puzzles across four expansive worlds, each with its own characters, rules, dangers, and secrets. The structure is non-linear and open. A player stuck in one world can leave it, cross the hub, and work in another world, then return later. Thekla describes the design as a “game design supercollider” that combines ideas from multiple puzzle game designers. The voice cast includes Emily O’Brien as The Queen, Liam O’Brien as The Warrior, Darin De Paul as The Wizard, Anjali Bhimani as The Bard, Erica Luttrell as the Sailor, Matthew Waterson as The Druid, and a special appearance by Jonathan Blow. In the broader puzzle genre, our IN & OUT review looked at another recent puzzle game. Kinetic Publishing’s indie showcase recently revealed five indie games, including a new Sam Barlow title.
Reception and Day-One Update
Thekla’s announcement, titled “The Next Game is Out!”, on the official The Witness Steam community page on October 9 says the game is “already receiving Overwhelmingly Positive reviews and critical acclaim” and that owners of Mewgenics and Animal Well get a discount. Review scores highlighted by the publisher include Shacknews 10/10 (“Order of the Sinking Star is a masterpiece”), MonsterVine 10/10 (“One of the Best Puzzle Games Ever Made”), Screen Rant 9/10, Metro 9/10 (“The puzzle game of the generation”), GameSpot 8/10, and Nintendo Life 8/10. A day-one update on October 9 downgraded the Steam SDK version the game uses to fix incompatibilities some players reported, and shipped a number of smaller fixes.
