Order of the Sinking Star names its voice cast before launch

• Emily O'Brien (Death Stranding, Starfield) as The Queen
• Liam O'Brien (Critical Role, The Legend of Vox Machina) as The Warrior
• Darin De Paul (Overwatch, Marvel's Spider-Man) as The Wizard
• Anjali Bhimani (Overwatch, Ms. Marvel) as The Bard
• Erica Luttrell (Apex Legends, Steven Universe) as The Sailor
• Matthew Waterson (X-Men '97, Hades II) as The Druid

Blow himself turns up too, in what the release calls "a special appearance" in the game. The supporting cast includes Erik Braa, Andrew Kishino, Jamieson K. Price and Sabrina Fest.

"A cast of unlikely heroes are among us," the announcement says. The game's own feature list describes its playable characters as "a queen, a thief, a warrior, a wizard, and a talking boat", among others.

What kind of game it is

The heroes might sound like a fantasy party, but this is a puzzle game first. Arc Games calls it "a massive puzzle adventure featuring more than one thousand handcrafted puzzles." You explore four separate worlds, and each one has its own mechanics, characters and stories. Later on, those worlds start to merge, and their puzzle rules combine. The August announcement says the design isn't linear, so if you get stuck in one realm you can hop to another world and come back whenever you like.

Polygon reports the game builds on several indie Sokoban games, the box-pushing puzzle genre, including Mirror Isles, Promesst and Heroes of Sokoban. Polygon also reports Blow has said it would take players more than 500 hours to solve every puzzle. But there's a clear ending you can reach without solving more than 1,000 puzzles, Polygon's preview explains. Blow walked Polygon through three layers of play. First you learn each mechanic, like pushing rocks, moving through mirrors and building stone bridges. Then you combine them in harder rooms. After that comes a late-game layer he's keeping quiet about.

If you played The Witness, that'll sound familiar. That game taught its rules through the puzzles themselves and never spelled anything out.

The voice cast matters more here than you'd expect for a puzzle game. Arc Games' August launch-date announcement said players would "piece together a deep, enigmatic mythos through exploration, cryptic notes, and professional voice-over narration from a talented cast of actors." It also called the game one of the most-played demos during Steam Next Fest.

The credits question

The road to launch hasn't been smooth. Polygon reports that some of the developers whose games it builds on, including Mirror Isles creator Alan Hazelden, have distanced themselves from the project because of Blow's outspoken public persona. In July, Game File, Stephen Totilo's newsletter, raised questions about how those developers would be credited. Totilo had noticed that an in-game slab with Hazelden's name on it in a Switch 2 demo build was missing from the later Steam Next Fest demo.

Arc Games' 18 August announcement named several of those designers. They're Alan Hazelden (Skipping Stones to Lonely Homes, Mirror Isles), Sean Barrett (Promesst), Jonah Ostroff (Heroes of Sokoban), Zach Polansky (Enigmash), Patrick Traynor (Patrick's Parabox) and Marc ten Bosch (Miegakure). It said the game also includes design ideas from Blow's Twitch followers over the years.

"Order of the Sinking Star simply wouldn't exist without the incredible designers who helped work on it over the years," Blow said in that announcement. "By creating a kind of game design supercollider, we were able to bring together ideas from some of the most brilliant puzzle designers in the industry."

Blow told Game File, "Contributors to the game will be credited." Polygon reports that after its interview, a PR representative confirmed the game will carry full credits, including the names of the developers whose games were licensed for it. They'll be shown in a "special way in-game in the iconic style of Jonathan Blow," and also listed on MobyGames and in press materials.

Who's making it, and when

Thekla, Inc. is an independent studio in Denver, Colorado. Blow founded it in 2009 and runs it. It made The Witness, which came out in 2016. Blow's earlier game, Braid, came out in 2008. Arc Games' release says the studio focuses on "making games with high artistic and technical quality", and it calls Order of the Sinking Star "the studio's most ambitious and massive puzzle adventure yet." The game's official announcement trailer ran at The Game Awards in December 2025, and a release-date trailer followed on 18 August.

Arc Games, the publisher, started out in 2008 as Perfect World Entertainment. It's best known for Neverwinter, Star Trek Online, the Remnant games and the Torchlight series, and it's also published smaller games like Frosthaven and Have a Nice Death. It calls itself a publisher of AA and indie games across North America, Europe and Asia.

Worthplaying reported the pricing details on 24 September. The game costs US$29.99 at launch. There are three bundles at 10% off. One comes with Mewgenics, one with Animal Well, and one with the game's original soundtrack. You can buy the soundtrack on its own too.

There's a demo on Steam now, and your progress carries over to the full game.

Order of the Sinking Star launches on Thursday, 8 October. Switch 2 owners have had a steady run of releases lately, including Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave on 17 September. Nintendo's next big remaster, Zelda: Ocarina of Time, follows on 5 November, as covered in Zelda: Ocarina of Time comes to Switch 2 on 5 November.

Until then, the official trailer's the quickest way to meet the main heroes and hear the actors who play them.