OS Order of the Sinking Star
Dispatches Full Atlas
The Game Design Supercollider

The Game Design Supercollider

Foundation of the whole game

DOSSIER

What this entry covers

Rather than starting from one core concept, Thekla smashed together the ideas of multiple puzzle designers into a single interconnected universe. The studio calls the result a game design supercollider, and describes the game as having a combinatoric explosion of possibilities rather than one central mechanic.

The Game Design Supercollider in-game screenshot
PLATE A · DESIGN-SUPERCOLLIDER

PROTOCOL CHAIN

How to work this entry

01 STEP

Read each realm as a designer's prior game. The North is Heroes of Sokoban, the East is Mirror Isles, the West is Promesst, the South is Skipping Stones.

02 STEP

Expect the collision to be the point. Every realm works alone and only becomes unique when fused with another.

03 STEP

Do not look for one unifying mechanic. The design is explicitly built from four incompatible rule sets.

04 STEP

Recognise that the Gold Rooms are the mechanism that makes the supercollider concept playable rather than theoretical.

FIELD NOTES

Reading The Game Design Supercollider in play

The Game Design Supercollider - Reading the board before you move
FIELD NOTE 01

FIELD NOTE 01

Reading the board before you move

Read each realm as a designer's prior game. The North is Heroes of Sokoban, the East is Mirror Isles, the West is Promesst, the South is Skipping Stones.

The Game Design Supercollider - Working the chain in order
FIELD NOTE 02

FIELD NOTE 02

Working the chain in order

Expect the collision to be the point. Every realm works alone and only becomes unique when fused with another.

The Game Design Supercollider - How this entry reads in motion
FIELD NOTE 03

FIELD NOTE 03

How this entry reads in motion

Do not look for one unifying mechanic. The design is explicitly built from four incompatible rule sets.

PLATE WALL

The Game Design Supercollider screenshot 2
PLATE B
The Game Design Supercollider screenshot 3
PLATE C
The Game Design Supercollider screenshot 4
PLATE D
The Game Design Supercollider screenshot 5
PLATE E
The Game Design Supercollider screenshot 6
PLATE F
The Game Design Supercollider screenshot 7
PLATE G

SOURCES

Where this entry comes from

Each record below backs a specific claim on this page. Tier 1 is the developer or publisher speaking in their own words, tier 2 is established press, and tier 3 is creator coverage. Quotations are rendered in written form; the exact spoken wording from the source is kept underneath each one for verification.

  1. 01 TIER 1 - OFFICIAL Steam (Thekla, Inc. official store description) VERIFIED 2026-10-11

    Rather than starting from one core concept, Thekla smashed together the ideas of multiple puzzle designers into a single interconnected universe. The studio calls the result a game

    “With Order of the Sinking Star, the development team created a "game design supercollider" – smashing together the ideas from multiple puzzle game designers to create a puzzle landscape that's much more intricate and vast than what has come before.”
    OPEN SOURCE →
  2. 02 TIER 1 - OFFICIAL Steam store page (Thekla, Inc.) VERIFIED 2026-10-11

    Entity identity and official naming for The Game Design Supercollider

    “From legendary director Jonathan Blow (Braid, The Witness) comes Order of the Sinking Star, a massive puzzle adventure featuring more than one thousand hand-crafted puzzles designed to put your intellect to the test. You”
    OPEN SOURCE →

GRID RELATIONS

Cross-board links

Dossiers reference each other directly, so no entry is a dead end. Outbound links leave this entry; inbound links arrive from elsewhere in the atlas.

OUTBOUND → 5

INBOUND ← 8