Jonathan Blow, the same name behind Braid and The Witness, returns with a third project that bears his signature from the very concept: Order of the Sinking Star, coming October 8th to PC, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch 2. Development is by Thekla Inc., the team behind The Witness, while publishing is handled by Arc Games.
The game is a narrative adventure set in a realm of magic and puzzles, with over a thousand interconnected, hand-crafted puzzles, designed to flow into each other rather than stand alone as separate levels. Blow already demonstrated with The Witness that he can build an entire island as one big puzzle: here the project seems to go further, with four different sets of mechanics that combine over the course of the campaign and multiple playable heroes to discover along the way.
The release date was announced in December at The Game Awards, along with the first trailer. In June, a PC demo was made available for a week during Steam Next Fest, a useful opportunity to get a feel for the mechanics before launch. Initial estimates suggest hundreds of hours of gameplay for those who truly want to master the game, though only getting a feel for the controls will tell you how long it will last.
Those who loved The Witness will find familiar ground, with one significant new feature: a real storyline to follow, an element that was often left in the background in Blow's previous works. We'll keep you updated as October 8th approaches.
