Braid and The Witness Creator Thekla Unveils Narrative Puzzle Epic Order of the Sinking Star at TGA 2025
The Game Awards 2025 delivered no shortage of major reveals, but one of the most intellectually ambitious announcements came from Jonathan Blow and Thekla Inc., the acclaimed studio behind Braid and The Witness. During the event, the team officially unveiled Order of the Sinking Star, a large scale narrative driven puzzle game currently scheduled to launch on PC in 2026.
Blow describes Order of the Sinking Star as the biggest project he has worked on to date, both in scope and collaboration. The reveal trailer, now available via the official announcement trailer, immediately reinforces that claim. The game presents an expansive interconnected puzzle world where players manipulate and merge distinct environments while solving more than one thousand handcrafted puzzles. This approach signals a dramatic escalation in scale compared to Thekla’s previous work, positioning the title as one of the most ambitious puzzle adventures ever attempted.
In an accompanying press release, Jonathan Blow emphasized the collaborative nature of the project, calling it a design supercollider that fuses ideas from multiple puzzle designers into a single cohesive experience. According to Blow, the result is a puzzle landscape that is significantly more intricate and expansive than anything the studio has created before.
Order of the Sinking Star brings together an unusually strong lineup of puzzle design talent. Confirmed contributors include Alan Hazelden of A Monster’s Expedition, Sean Barrett of Promesst, Jonah Ostroff of Heroes of Sokoban, Zach Polansky of Enigmash, Patrick Traynor of Patrick’s Parabox, and Marc ten Bosch of Miegakure, among several others. Thekla states that the team has pushed the boundaries of complexity and depth within the puzzle adventure genre, aiming to deliver a system rich enough to sustain long term discovery and interpretation.
Publishing partner Arc Games echoed that sentiment. In a statement, chief executive officer Yoon Im described the announcement as a defining milestone for both Thekla and Arc Games. He characterized Order of the Sinking Star as Jonathan Blow’s most ambitious vision yet and expressed confidence that the title will emerge as one of the most innovative puzzle games of the generation. According to Arc Games, the TGA reveal marks only the beginning of a broader rollout planned throughout the coming year.
At present, Order of the Sinking Star is confirmed only for PC. However, the official press materials indicate that additional platforms and release timing will be revealed later. This strongly suggests that console versions are under consideration, even if they do not launch simultaneously with the PC release.
With its unprecedented puzzle scale, high profile design collaboration, and narrative focus, Order of the Sinking Star stands out as one of the most intellectually driven projects announced at The Game Awards 2025 and one that puzzle enthusiasts will be watching closely as 2026 approaches.
Do you think Order of the Sinking Star can surpass The Witness in scale and impact, or does its ambition risk overwhelming players?
