Out of Words Director Details Stop-Motion Art Style, Co-Op Story at Shacknews E4
Out of Words director Johan Oettinger used a sit-down at the annual Shacknews E4 showcase to walk through the stop-motion craft and co-op storytelling behind his upcoming game, confirming it marks the first video game ever produced by his 20-year-old animation studio, WiredFly. Shacknews reported that during the event, Oettinger spoke to the game’s general plot, the art style, and what players can expect from this co-op adventure.
WiredFly’s 20-Year Wait for a Stop-Motion Video Game
Oettinger told Shacknews that bringing physical, hand-crafted puppetry into a game has been a long-held ambition. “This is a big dream of mine,” Oettinger said regarding the art direction for Out of Words, “to make this game particularly, or games like this. My studio is turning 20 this year. We’ve always made all kinds of stop motion [media], but this is [our] first stop-motion game.”
According to the outlet, he went on to say that he’s dreamed of making a hand-crafted stop-motion game since he was 11 years old. That timeline lines up with an earlier interview given to But Why Tho?, in which Oettinger described Out of Words as “a passion project 20 years in the making since he founded his own stop-motion animation studio, WiredFly, with work that spans commercials, artistic short films, and music videos.”
Kurt and Karla Lose Their Words in Vokabulantis
Out of Words follows Kurt and Karla, two young protagonists who tumble into the fictional realm of Vokabulantis after losing the ability to speak. Speaking to But Why Tho?, Oettinger described the pair as a coming-of-age couple: “the Danish video game Out of Words is a coming-of-age story between two characters, Kurt and Karla. The long and short of it is that Kurt loves Karla, but she is about to move away.”
The muteness gimmick is deliberate design, not just a visual quirk. Oettinger explained to the same outlet that the story deliberately withholds dialogue between the leads so players are forced to communicate for them, adding of the game’s emotional core: “She tried to tell me, but she just couldn’t get the right words out, and I lost her. This is the story where I don’t lose her. I think it’s something that everybody can really resonate with, because everybody has something that they’ve left unsaid.”
The project began life as an idea from Danish poet Morten Søndergaard, who co-developed the concept with Oettinger. He credited that origin to Shacknews and other outlets alike, describing the collaboration as one built around “this little poetry film that we then grew when we met each other through this idea, and then we built this whole world around the idea of falling into language.”
Co-Op Only, By Design
Out of Words is built exclusively for two players, whether on one couch or across a cross-platform online connection, according to Wikipedia’s entry on the game, which notes Out of Words is a cooperative platform adventure game that features two-player collaboration, with players controlling Kurt and Karla as they explore Vokabulantis using teamwork, and the game supports both local couch co-op and online cross-platform multiplayer. Oettinger has previously told other outlets that the mode isn’t about competition but about players losing themselves in a shared experience together, echoing the studio’s stated aim of building a low-barrier “gateway” game for gamers and non-gamers alike.
Delay Pushes Launch Into Early 2027
Out of Words was originally aiming for a 2026 release after its reveal at Summer Game Fest 2025, but Kong Orange and WiredFly confirmed in late May that extra development time was needed. Vice reported that in a message from the team posted to the game’s official account, the developers said, “Good things take time, and we need just a little bit more to get Out of Words molded into the shape we want it to be,” with the studios specifying “early 2027” as the new target window, meaning the game could land anywhere between January and April.
Vice also noted that fan reaction to the delay skewed sympathetic, framing the setback within a broader wave of stop-motion and dedicated co-op titles following the success of Hazelight’s It Takes Two, observing that “thanks to Josef Fares’ Hazelight Studios, the concept of pure co-op adventure games that are only playable with a friend has become increasingly popular post-It Takes Two,” with more small studios designing games exclusively for two-player teamwork.
Where Kiwi and Aussie Players Can Find Out of Words
Once it lands, Out of Words is confirmed for PC exclusively through the Epic Games Store, alongside PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch 2, meaning ANZ players will be able to access it through the same regional storefronts already carrying WiredFly and Kong Orange’s earlier previews. With no local pricing or exact release date locked in yet, Australian and New Zealand fans of couch co-op titles like It Takes Two and Split Fiction will want to keep an eye on Epic’s regional storefront listing as the early-2027 window approaches.
For a studio that spent two decades making commercials, short films and music videos entirely by hand, the jump into interactive stop-motion is as much a personal milestone for Oettinger as it is a technical one — and one he’s framed, across every interview so far, as merely the beginning. He has previously told outlets, including CGMagazine, that Out of Words is intended as “two-player co-op only, and it’s not about points or being the best. It’s about working together and discovering a story together through characters.”
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