Dream Realized: Self-taught Stop-Motion Animator Directs Cooperative Platformer, Potentially Nicking It Takes Two's Throne with a Sincere Narrative and Less Relationship-Wrecking Gameplay

Out of Words leaves a bloody good first impression, then a mind-blowing second, third, and fourth—until somehow it becomes crystal clear that this game is the real deal. Imagine a combo of It Takes Two's team-based puzzle solving and the action-packed direction of a Limbo or Inside, all draped in an awesome stop-motion aesthetic, with a heartwarming coming-of-age love story at its core.

You and your co-op partner step into the shoes of Kurt and Karla, two awkward kids finding themselves stuck in their first love tangles. In a meta as hell turn, they drop their tongues and can't speak a word, thrust into a fantastical world where they'll have to confront their feelings in the most literal sense.

Everything is crafted to perfection, from the beautiful stop-motion cutscenes to the custom handmade characters and objects in the game, thanks to a unique photogrammetry process. The world is full of whimsy, with surreal landscapes and cheeky clay men just oozing personality, and the tactile feel of hopping in puddles and exploring is just crushing.

A Boyhood Dream Takes Flight

Developer: Kong Orange, WiredFlyPublisher: Epic Games PublishingPlatforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/SRelease date: 2026

"This is my first game," director Johan Oettinger tells me after a hands-on demo at Summer Game Fest. "It's been my boyhood dream to make games, but specifically to combine my other great love: stop motion." With this dream in mind, Oettinger says he taught himself how to do stop-motion animation and is now the head of Danish animation studio WiredFly.

Oettinger has built the world of Out of Words "on and off" since 2013, but it wasn't until he partnered up with development studio Kong Orange that the project really took off. The game was Kickstarted under the title Vokabulantis in 2021, eventually landing a deal with Epic Games Publishing in 2022, which Oettinger says "opened up all the doors," offering "full creative freedom" alongside support building online play and distributing the game across all platforms.

I bring up the game's history to highlight the raw passion Oettinger, and the entire team, have for this game. The concept of a sugary sweet love story could come off as cloyingly sweet, but everything I've seen exudes a deft and restrained touch, making it completely endearing with an impressive attention to detail.

'Deft and restrained' also perfectly describes the platforming, which is 2D and light on challenges. The section I spent the most time on features a gravity-shifting mechanic, where players swap gravity to cling to walls and ceilings while cooperating to reach the end of the room.

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Game design lead Jeff Sparks tells me that keeping the platforming simple was a deliberate design choice, aiming to make the game enjoyable for a wide variety of players, from hardcore gamers to their babes and partners who might not have the skills for platformers. As someone who's forced my own partner, a turn-based RPG and cozy gaming fan, to play through It Takes Two with me, Out of Words seems a lot safer for our relationship.

In the Style of Limbo

Sparks says focusing on the most engaging and accessible parts of the game takes "a lot of iteration." The team starts by asking "what's fun about the mechanic" at its most basic level, and then figures out how to "onboard players to the mechanic and let them play with it in fun and interesting ways." It's classic platformer design, and it works incredibly well here.

"I love simple games, but I love games where the design is taken very seriously," Oettinger adds. "Where the design is the way the game is written, you could say, and everything else there is to lift that up as a sum of the parts. Where the animation, in this case stop-motion, lifts the design up, and the handcrafted art direction, the sound design, everything is there to lift the storytelling through level design."

More than anything else, Out of Words reminds me of Playdead's games, with the same careful approach to pacing and level design that made Limbo and Inside so creepy-but-compelling. Don't be fooled by the cute appearance, though—there are some dark twists in store.

After a breezy run through an early chapter, the devstake me to a much later section, where the story has taken a darker turn, with Kurt and Karla's emotions running amok. Suddenly, you're no longer controlling a pair of kids—instead, they've combined into this monstrous creature with giant, grasping hands.

Here, Out of Words goes from a traditional platformer into a sort of grappling game, with each player controlling a hand, grabbing walls to swing forward through a town full of terrified clay men. It's a much more intense, horror-inspired change of pace from what the game initially presents, but the goofy, exaggerated pleas for help from the clay guys cuts the tension quite nicely.

Still, that taste of something so different has me really excited to see what the rest of the game brings. The devs envision it as an 8-10 hour adventure you can finish over a few evenings, and after just 30 minutes with the game, I can't wait to see what those hours hold. The fact that my marriage is likely to stay intact at the end of it all is also a pretty big bonus.

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Out of Words, developed by Kong Orange and WiredFly, is set to release on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S in 2026, published by Epic Games Publishing.
Director Johan Oettinger, the head of Danish animation studio WiredFly, has been working on this game since 2013, with the intention of combining his love for stop-motion animation and gaming.
The game's world is full of whimsy, with surreal landscapes and handmade characters, all created through a unique photogrammetry process.
Game design lead Jeff Sparks explains that the team focuses on making the game enjoyable for a wide variety of players, from hardcore gamers to those unfamiliar with platformers.
Out of Words showcases a deft and restrained touch, with its sugary sweet love story and carefully designed platforming mechanics.
The game's design is compared to Playdead's games, particularly Limbo, due to its careful approach to pacing and level design.
The game promises an 8-10 hour adventure, with a darker twist in the later stages where players control a monstrous creature.