On Thursday, Jonathan Blow, celebrated for his indie classics Braid and The Witness, will debut his newest puzzle game, The Order of the Sinking Star. Developed over the course of ten years by a small, dedicated team, the game reportedly offers about 1,500 puzzles and may demand up to 500 hours to complete.
Unmatched Complexity in Indie Gaming
Showcasing Blow’s unwavering commitment to innovation regardless of market demands, The Order of the Sinking Star aims for brilliance rather than mass appeal. Due to its extraordinary length, only a minority of players are expected to finish it. Blow, however, embraces this outcome, explaining, “Some people decide what to make based on what’s practical or what makes business sense. It’s never been the way that I think.” He recognizes that holding fast to pure design can amount to “bad business decisions,” yet he insists that such choices often lead to work that stands apart for its creativity and individuality.
Described as a “game design supercollider,” the project merges the core mechanics of four independently-developed puzzle games—with full approval from their creators—into four interconnected worlds presented from an overhead perspective. Systems from games like Alan Hazelden’s Mirror Isles, which relies on mirror-based movement across islands, and Skipping Stones to Lonely Homes, where players toss stones to build traversable paths, are combined here. This leads to an invitation for players to solve brain-teasing hybrid puzzles unlike anything found elsewhere.
Industry Critique and Creative Risk
According to Blow, shifts within the gaming world have empowered him to take creative risks and tackle unusual projects. He observes diminishing innovation within the field, lamenting that many designers have abandoned the quest for novelty as the industry becomes more established.
Having rarely avoided contentious opinions, Blow has previously condemned games like Farmville as “evil” and has described aspects of World of Warcraft’s design as “unethical.” Recently, though, his own efforts have come under fire from designers whose work inspired elements of The Order of the Sinking Star. In December 2025, Alan Hazelden, whose games contributed key mechanics, posted on Bluesky to clarify distance from Blow, accusing him of being “dismissive of diversity efforts” and “pro-MAGA.” Blow has opted not to answer these allegations directly, instead stating he prefers to “sit down and focus on the games,” pointing out that players are in search of great gameplay rather than debates among creators.
Regarding artificial intelligence, Blow maintains a skeptical stance, having deliberately excluded AI from The Order of the Sinking Star’s production pipeline. He concedes that AI represents a noteworthy advancement but questions its alleged impact on productivity: “If you’re saying you’re ten times as productive and it’s been 3 years, you should have been able to do thirty years of work. So where’s this output of 30 years of work?” Blow’s principal concern centers on the possibility that the adoption of AI could undermine programming fundamentals for newcomers and, as a result, restrict the industry’s potential for further breakthroughs.
Building from Scratch and the Value of Creative Struggle
Rejecting the path of least resistance, Blow eschewed industry-preferred engines like Unity and Unreal for this latest project. Instead, he built both a proprietary language, Jai, and a tailor-made game engine specifically for The Order of the Sinking Star. This insistence on full technical ownership was a major factor in the project’s ten-year production timeline, enabling the exact realization of his vision.
He has described the process as “nightmare mode” due to its intense demands, though he acknowledges that few experiences are as fulfilling. While he expresses hope that future pursuits might proceed on a less punishing schedule, Blow is quick to note the satisfaction that comes from overcoming such formidable odds, remarking, “Because otherwise, what else are you in the industry for?”
With The Order of the Sinking Star, puzzle game fans are about to encounter an extraordinary challenge, as the indie community continues to grapple with the balance between creative aspiration and financial realities. Whether or not the majority finish all 1,500 puzzles, Blow’s new release is poised to inspire discussion and awe in equal measure for its scale and its creator’s conviction.