Jonathan Blow Aims for "Biggest Puzzle Game Ever" with The Order of the Sinking Star

Jonathan Blow, known for the influential indie title Braid, is set to release his latest game, "The Order of the Sinking Star," on Thursday. Developed over a decade with a small team, Blow describes it as potentially "the biggest puzzle game ever made." The game features approximately 1,500 puzzles and is estimated to take around 500 hours to complete.

Blow explained his unconventional approach to game development, prioritizing design over commercial practicality. "Some people decide what to make based on what's practical or what makes business sense," he stated. "It's never been the way that I think." He believes this design-driven methodology results in unique experiences, even if it leads to what he calls "bad business decisions."

The game's design is characterized as a "game design supercollider," integrating mechanics from four pre-existing free puzzle games, with the permission of their original creators. These mechanics are then combined to create novel challenges. For instance, combining the mirror-reflection mechanics from Alan Hazelden's "Mirror Isles" with the stone-skipping path-creation from Hazelden's "Skipping Stones to Lonely Homes" opens up new puzzle possibilities.

Risk and Reward

Blow expressed concern that the game industry has moved away from a culture that valued experimental and innovative design. "Somewhere along the way... this idea that the best designers were trying to always make new experiences... just sort of got dropped by the wayside," he observed.

He also addressed recent public criticism from fellow game designer Alan Hazelden, who in December 2025 accused Blow of being "dismissive of diversity efforts" and "pro-MAGA." Blow stated that he chose to "sit down and focus on the games," believing that players want developers to deliver good games rather than engage in public disputes about political stances.

Regarding artificial intelligence, Blow revealed that it was not incorporated into the development of "The Order of the Sinking Star." While acknowledging AI as an "advancement" and "interesting technology," he questioned the claimed productivity gains, asking, "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 voiced concerns about the future of programming due to AI, suggesting it could lead to a shortage of skilled programmers if newer creators rely too heavily on AI for coding instead of learning foundational programming principles. "A danger is that not many people know how to program in the future," he warned. "And if AI can't really do everything, then the supply of programmers might not be enough to make good stuff."

A New Language

Blow's dedication to his vision extended to technical development. He created his own programming language, Jai, and a custom engine to build "The Order of the Sinking Star." This approach allowed him to tailor the technology specifically to his design goals, contributing to the project's ten-year development cycle.

"I do want the next project after this to be less on hard mode, or really it was nightmare mode, because we did so many things on hard mode at the same time," Blow reflected. "But it's also been rewarding in a certain way. Because otherwise, what else are you in the industry for?"