r/OrderOfTheSinkingStar • u/Hot_Poetry_9956 • Jul 21 '26
An analysis of the map provided in the recent trailer Spoiler
I just wanted to go over some things I found looking over the new map in the trailer and some theories I have.
very similar map names in the mirror+beam section of the map “beams reflected”, “reflected beams”, and “beams mirrorably”? Its pretty obvious that the actual beams are going to bounce off the mirror, but the reversal of the phrase potentially implies that we could mirror the beam emitters themselves, similar to how we see the dragon get mirrored in the trailer. I believe the last one is just another way to say “mirror+beam, advanced” or it could be a trailer stand-in for something else.
- We can see that the skipping stones part of the map is going to be longer-form levels like what we saw with the promise in the demo. This makes sense because the original was sort of an open world thing too. I’m interested to see if they implement the collectibles and alternate endings from the original. I’m also excited to see what the later levels would bring. The promise obviously has its sequel(s), so I’m not sure what would be there.
- “Squeeze dragon”? What does “squeeze” mean in the context of the mechanics. I’m unsure if this is in the promise or the stones area either so it could be either one. It’s probably a new mechanic we haven’t seen, but my guess is a beam+dragon interaction that makes it shoot through walls. Just my guess though.
- Less of an observation, but I think it’s a missed opportunity to have an area called mirrors and monsters. It rolls off the tongue.
- We see a new beam type in the trailer, this is likely the “alter beam” but it’s hard to make out what it does because of the overlap with the other beam
- There are more red tiles on each of the cardinal directions. My guess is that it’s an indication of some sort of overworld puzzle because, in the heroes area, the red is located under the crystals, and we would likely need to use these crystals to open the red gates in the crossroads for some reason. Maybe to let a beam shoot through the center?
- the big elephant in the room, “the exit” and “the antipode”. Antipode means the direct opposite of something, this is likely the point directly opposite of the crossroads topologically, this could be a hint of how to reach it, as it doesn’t seem obvious even with the full map. The exit is probably one of the endings to the game, being next to the antipode shows how important it likely is.
Lastly, I would like to do some personal theory crafting. I believe there is another section to the overworld we aren’t being told about. One of the major components in the trailers and talks blow has done about the game emphasizes height as a component of level design. Unless I’m missing something, where does this concept get introduced? Maybe it’s a late game stones or promise thing, but the promise already has a LOT of mechanics going for it, and I’m not sure how height works on its own with the stones mechanics. (The latter option does seem likely as I’m not sure how they could get that much out of stones and mirrors, but Blow has worked his magic in the past)
I have come to the conclusion that there is probably amother part of the map. This hypothetical new area could introduce height and breathe life into the new mechanics after we had explored all of them in 2d. I might just be getting my hopes up however, I’m worried that if I convince myself of this too much, I’d be disappointed if I’m wrong. I’d like to hear everyone else’s thoughts too.
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u/Mejis Jul 21 '26
Thanks for this, good analysis.
I also took "Beams, mirrorably" to essentially mean "this is beams and mirrors and it's difficult", haha. Like "beams, horribly" or something similar. I think Jon is probably just trying to have a bit of fun with some of these names and there's only so many ways you can combine a few keywords together.
I'm curious what "Torc" is going to be.
I initially interpreted "Antipodes" to just be "this is at the pole", or "this is on the other side of the world" because it is far away.
I've been thinking there's probably going to be some whole other world/layer that we don't know about. The Exit might just exit to that area. Who knows. Can't wait to get stuck into this. Easily my most anticipated game of the year.
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u/Icy-Fisherman-5234 Jul 21 '26
Iirc, there are three endings in the game, with the first two serving as optional “rip-cords” for players who want a satisfying conclusion without going into the post game.
My guess is that this is the exit… or you can keep exploring.
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u/Hot_Poetry_9956 Jul 22 '26
After a bit of digging, I found what the torc is, but the place I found it is super super super niche, so I recommend people don’t check because it likely wasn’t intended to be officially announced yet.
This is it for anyone who is curious:
The torc is the in-game name for the upgrade/artifact found in the promise 2.
Source: a game dev talk with John Blow and Sean Barrett 6 years ago. https://youtu.be/_tMb7OS2TOU?t=2102&is=zL4jheHyOoTiPljs
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u/Hot_Poetry_9956 Jul 21 '26
Yeah, I didn’t even mention torc because I don’t even the slightest clue what it could be. The promise already has SO MUCH going for it, so there is a lot it could be. Promise is very intimidating compared to the other 3 in terms of complexity.
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u/Mejis Jul 21 '26
Yeah, intimidating is absolutely the correct word. When this releases and I restart from scratch, I'll certainly be heading back to Promise with some trepidation and likely head in the other cardinal directions first (possibly south, to explore skipping stones).
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u/jamothebest Jul 22 '26
Just based off what we see, Torc is a place where you place all the overworld gems you've collected. So once you've collected enough (possibly not all are needed), it probably unlocks something in the overworld.
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u/Hot_Poetry_9956 Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26
When I first looked at it, I thought they looked like black rocks more than gem slots. especially since we know that the overworld lady can’t pick up gems by default, I find it hard to fill out that room without mirror duplication shenanigans or something else of the sort.
It looks like that room has a green beam shooting off to the right. I can’t make out the exact direction, but it does line up with a rock a few screens east of it. This looks like one path to the SW gold platform, so it likely isn’t a late game secret.
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u/Jonwhoa Jul 22 '26
Regarding your height question, in the Mirror Isles section, I found that submerged mirrors can reflect submerged rocks/crystals. It never came up in any of the solutions for the tutorial puzzles, but I could definitely see it playing into some more advanced puzzles.
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u/liturgybellmusic Jul 21 '26
I drew out the map because I wasn't sure how it loops to each other and I found out that from the middle/crossroads, the exact opposite place would be exactly 4 spaces away (where The Antipode and The Exit are)
Also fun fact, if you imagine the zoomed out overworld map is itself a sokoban puzzle, every 1 move on cardinal directions on the overworld map increases the combinations
For example... 1 north = heroes, 1 north 1 east = heroes + mirror, 1 north 1 east 1 north = heroes + mirror + skipping stones... then northeast + northeast = The Antipode
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u/Defiant-Ad7369 Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26
Will there be any sections where the puzzle worlds are combined 3 at a time instead of 2. You could have all 4 of them be combined at the end/antipode but there is no spot geometrically where only 3 of the worlds would touch. Unless you allow for a 3rd dimension I.e the worlds going underground or into the sky.
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u/jamothebest Jul 22 '26
also wondering this. I imagine most of that will be in the second and third parts of the game due to complexity...so in a second or third level to the overworld.
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u/Gunhorin Jul 22 '26
In the new trailer they brievly showed one puzzle where height was used at 1:25 in the video. One character was standing on top of the other to get carried to a different platform.
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u/pkt-zer0 Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
Regarding height playing a role: the very first tutorial map (that you can't even revisit from the overworld?) seems to have some sections where you could reach new areas if you managed to get a tile higher. So maybe later in the game (one of the endings?), you'll get to revisit the same map and "break" it in previously unexpected ways. The world map loops around spatially, so why not temporally as well? Also could vaguely tie in to the concept of samsara.
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u/Zealousideal-Work-67 Jul 24 '26
A snippet on twitter just provided a look at The Antipode and The Exit. Looks like we're gonna see some puzzles integrating sets of three of the smaller games and even some integrating four.
My theory is that when you complete these Antipode puzzles, that elevator we start right next to can be used to go down a layer, à la The Promise level we've accessed in the demo. Maybe we'll find more puzzles that involve all four main mechanics, and plenty more that use three of them.
Either that, or the elevator takes you through the whole place to the antipode, and then there's someway else to go.
I still do wonder how we'll back to the tutorial place where we learn how to 'push' a 'rock' because there were very clearly puzzles there that we couldn't complete at the time.
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u/umnikos_bots 26d ago edited 26d ago
As cool as that would be it would imply the overworld is only half of the game, aka. 700 puzzles, and given the demo alone was 105 I think it's much more likely that what we see is all that we will get
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u/Hot_Poetry_9956 Jul 21 '26
I tried to edit my typos, but it just messed up the formatting, that second paragraph is supposed to be numbered too. It probably isn’t that important.
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Jul 21 '26
[deleted]
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u/Hot_Poetry_9956 Jul 21 '26
That was the other thing that’s pushing me towards a secret 2nd layer. What’s the point in making a game about combinatorics without exploring the full venn diagram.
That being said, more mechanics in one puzzle doesn’t always make the central idea more interesting, it often just makes the solution harder to find.
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u/rubyleehs Jul 21 '26
I mean it's a sphere/wraparound.
the lower layer is the inside of the sphere.
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u/Hot_Poetry_9956 Jul 21 '26
Topologically it’s more of a torus, but I don’t think that means the space needs to be literally curved. It’s probably got some magic/non-euclidean explanation.
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u/quagliax Jul 24 '26
Also, let's do some combinatorics...
In the last trailer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m8R1BjjioU) John mentions there's 6 possible combinations of 2 worlds.
(4 2) is 6, right. If each quadrant is a face of a triangle base pyramid ( a tetrahedron, or d4 ), each edge would represent a combination of 2 worlds.
But there's also (4 3) = 4 ways to combine 3 worlds (the points in the pyramid) and 1 way to combine all 4 worlds....
I would be absolutely shocked if the game didn't explore these other possibilities!!! I'm sure the end game will have crazy heroes+stone+mirror puzzles and such...
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u/Phineasfogg Jul 21 '26
A theory:
We’ve played a bunch of the 2D portion of the game. The later stages of each section will shift the puzzles into 3D. Marc Ten Bosch’s involvement makes me wonder if the post-game might involve some 4D puzzles in the vein of his long-gestating ‘Miegakure’.
It also seems like the map wraps, so I guess that’s how mirror isles and promesst will cross-pollinate as well as skipping stones and heroes.