Jonathan Blow’s new Sokoban epic sounds brilliant — but I have questions

Why this matters: Jonathan Blow is back, and he’s turning Sokoban into something bigger

Jonathan Blow doesn’t release games like most developers-he releases them the way comets pass through the sky: rare, bright, and hard to miss. Order of the Sinking Star caught my attention because it’s not just a new Blow game; it’s the result of a decade of tinkering, public prototyping on Twitch, and an explicit attempt to push a modest puzzle archetype-the Sokoban box-pushing formula-into a sprawling, handcrafted experience. If you care about puzzle design as craft, this is the kind of project that could matter.

• Key takeaway: Blow has turned four niche freeware puzzle ideas into one “game design supercollider.”
• What to expect: a big overworld of linked Sokoban screens, rewind/reset tools, character abilities, and handcrafted puzzles.
• Why to be wary: still greyboxed in places, ambitious scope, and this is Blow’s first project with a publisher.

Breaking down the announcement

At a surface level, Order of the Sinking Star is a Sokoban-inspired puzzle game where you guide a deposed queen across a tiled overworld made of dozens—if not hundreds—of individual puzzle screens. But Blow calls it a “game design supercollider” for a reason: it intentionally fuses mechanics from four freeware titles—Promestt, Heroes of Sokoban, Mirror Isles and Skipping Stones to Lonely Homes—so the player isn’t just pushing boxes, they’re juggling interacting systems. Expect classes that push or pull, mirror-cloning mechanics, teleport swaps, and environmental toys like goblins and dragons you can pit against each other.

Mechanically, Blow adds two modern conveniences that change how you approach Sokoban: a traditional level reset and a granular rewind that returns you to a specific position in time. In a puzzle game where a single misplaced move can ruin progress, rewind is a necessary quality-of-life upgrade that lets players experiment without constant punishment. That’s particularly important when multiple mechanics interact and produce emergent, unexpected results.

Why this matters now

Blow built much of this as an engine test for Jai, his game-focused programming language, and he’s shown iterations in talks and streams for years. The project’s long gestation matters because it’s not a quick indie riff—it’s a deliberate attempt to explore combinatorics in game design. We’re in a period where indie puzzle games are finding mainstream holes (see Baba Is You’s influence), and Blow’s project could push the “Sokoban” lineage into a new era of design thinking and polish.

The gamer’s perspective: what to expect (and what to worry about)

If you loved The Witness or Braid for their moments of epiphany, expect similar payoffs here: Blow wants to create those little “illumination” moments where mechanics click together and refract into new solutions. That’s why thousands of handcrafted puzzles—rather than procedural generation—are apparently essential. Handcrafting lets designers place those aha moments intentionally, but it also raises the bar on content quality and polish.

On the flip side, the preview shows a lot of greyboxing and rough edges. Blow is explicit about keeping levels readable—graphics won’t get in the way of puzzles—but greyboxing is a quiet reminder we’re not looking at a launch-ready product yet. Also notable: Thekla is working with a publisher for the first time. That could mean better marketing and distribution in an oversaturated market, but publishers bring schedules and expectations. Will this slow the iterative, player-driven development style that’s been visible on Blow’s streams? That’s worth watching.

Context and implications

Blow has a reputation for designing games about systems and understanding. The Witness taught players how to extrapolate from small rules to large landscapes; Braid made time manipulation central to everything. Order of the Sinking Star seems to pick up those threads and apply them to combinatorial, rule-driven puzzles. If it lands, it could influence how designers think about modular mechanics interacting—especially in puzzle and systems-driven indies.

There are also market realities. Puzzle games can be niche, and the “Sokoban” label won’t sell itself. The publisher deal suggests Thekla knows the game needs more than word-of-mouth to cut through the noise. As a player, I appreciate that level of ambition, but I’ll be paying close attention to whether the game keeps the handcrafted moments and avoids bloat.

TL;DR

Order of the Sinking Star is Jonathan Blow taking Sokoban’s simple rules and deliberately complicating them in fascinating ways. Expect handcrafted puzzles, multiple worlds, rewind mechanics, and emergent interactions that aim for genuine “aha” moments. It’s exciting and ambitious—but still in progress, and the scope plus new publisher involvement raises real questions about polish and timing. For puzzle fans who like systems that surprise you, this is one to watch as we head into 2026.