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Jonathan Blow's puzzle game Order of the Sinking Star releases with about 1,500 puzzles

Order of the Sinking Star, Jonathan Blow's first game in about a decade, is due out Thursday with roughly 1,500 puzzles. The BBC interviewed Blow; Screen Rant's review praised the game while noting frustrations with its story and voice acting.

2 outlets · 0L · 2C · 0R First reported Account updated
Image: BBC News
Image: Screen Rant

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The story, neutrally told

Centre · 2Order of the Sinking Star, a puzzle game from American developer Jonathan Blow and his small team at Thekla Inc., is due to be released on Thursday, according to the BBC. Centre · 1Blow says it has roughly 1,500 puzzles and estimates it could take around 500 hours to complete. He calls it "the biggest puzzle game ever made". Centre · 1Screen Rant's reviewer cited "apparent 1,000+ puzzles" and said they could not think of another puzzle game of comparable scale.

Centre · 1It is Blow's first project since The Witness, and he is best known for the 2008 puzzle-platformer Braid. The BBC reports it took ten years and began as a simple "design experiment". Centre · 2The game has four worlds viewed from overhead, built on the mechanics of four existing free puzzle games by other designers, used with their permission. Those ideas are combined to create new puzzles. One example is Alan Hazelden's 2014 game Mirror Isles, whose mirror-swapping mechanic is combined with Hazelden's Skipping Stones to Lonely Homes. Centre · 1Blow made his own programming language, Jai, and used it with a custom engine to build the game. He says this let him build something "tuned and authored very specifically" to his aims, and that he would like his next project to be less on "hard mode".

Centre · 1Blow says AI was "not part of the pipeline at all" for the game. He is sceptical of claims about AI productivity and worries that fewer people may learn to program. Centre · 1The BBC notes that in December 2025 Hazelden publicly distanced himself from Blow in a Bluesky post, describing him as "dismissive of diversity efforts" and "pro-MAGA". Blow has not responded publicly to these critiques and told the BBC he decided to "sit down and focus on the games". Centre · 1Screen Rant's review calls the game a "Maxed-Out Puzzle Game Masterpiece", praising its visuals, atmosphere, orchestral soundtrack and generous undo function. It says the game can feel overwhelming, is not exactly beginner-friendly, and teaches its rules less patiently than The Witness.

Centre · 1The reviewer criticises the cryptic narrative, which they say is hard to follow at first, and some voice performances, though they say neither undermined their esteem for the game.

Every sentence links to the reporting it rests on. The pill in front of each says where its sources sit: Left, Centre or Right when one side supplies at least half of them, Mixed when they are evenly split. The number is how many outlets it cites.

Left0 outlets

No left outlet in our sources has covered this story yet.

Centre2 outlets

Framing
The BBC runs a creator profile and interview about why the game took ten years, with Blow's views on the industry and AI. Screen Rant publishes a very positive review focused on gameplay, visuals and sound.
Emphasis
The BBC stresses scale, Blow's uncompromising approach, the custom language and engine, and his AI scepticism. Screen Rant stresses puzzle design, presentation and the undo function.
Leaves out or plays down
Screen Rant does not mention the Hazelden criticism or Blow's views on AI. The BBC includes no hands-on assessment of the game's quality.
Charged language
“biggest puzzle game ever”“Masterpiece”“utterly sublime”
For example
“For ten years, Jonathan Blow has been working with a small team on what he believes is "the biggest puzzle game ever made".” — BBC News
“Ingenious, frustrating, and utterly sublime.” — Screen Rant

Right0 outlets

No right outlet in our sources has covered this story yet.