There were all kinds of games on display at Summer Game Fest 2025: scary games, thrilling games, funny games, but only one game was making everyone cry. I played a demo of the game alongside the developers, and I won't pretend otherwise: It messed me up, too. The incredibly moving experience came from my time with Out of Words, the debut from the creative team of Kong Orange and WiredFly. In speaking with the team, I was moved by their emotional maturity and thoughtfulness. Out of Words is an adorable co-op puzzle-platformer, but more than that, it's an exercise in heart-on-your-sleeve vulnerability.
"I am a bit of a romantic," game director Johan Oettinger told me, describing the relationship between the game's playable characters, Karla and Kurt. Typically, "they can talk about anything. But they find themselves in a moment in their relationship with something new in the air." But sadly, Oettinger added, "they can't find the words" to say how they feel. Out of Words is a coming-of-age love story about the things we want to say but don't know how.
Something is in the way of them being honest with each other, and that premise, combined with Oettinger's soft-spoken way of speaking about this game he clearly loves so much, was already getting me pretty misty before I even played. It was like I'd walked into a poetry reading where, by chance, a demo of a gorgeous, stop-motion animated video game was also taking place.
"I love stop-motion," Oettinger told me, admitting it's like the "extreme sport of animation" due to how unforgiving it is. He explained to me that creating this game had been his dream since he was 11 years old, when he played The Neverhood, a 1996 stop-motion animated game developed in collaboration with Stephen Spielberg's Dreamworks. "All the cinematics [of Out of Words] are fully stop-motion, animated frame by frame in front of a camera. And everything in the world is also handcrafted. Every element you see, every picture you see, has literally been touched by a human being. The grass, the strings are cut out of paper with scissors. The little cliffs and surfaces and books are cut up and 3D-scanned, the surface of the water is cellophane, and so on."
As players explore the world, searching for the words to say what they need to say, they'll come to find the true antagonist: "doubt itself," as Oettinger put it. The mechanics of the game will change often to reflect the story. In a portion I played, Kurt and Karla had to learn to trust each other, sharing possession of a light that would help them float above gaps. At first we stumbled, vanishing into pits of darkness with every mistake. But soon, we were able to pass the light back and forth with dance-like chemistry, catching each other with well-choreographed trust falls. Whatever shape the gameplay takes as the story goes on, it's meant to be approachable for players of all skill levels. "The dream is that you're able to play with your child, or your non-gamer partner, your non-gamer parents, take them on this journey with you," game design lead Jeff Sparks told me.
Morten Søndergaard, the game's poet--yes, that's his actual job title--met Oettinger in 2012, and the pair bonded over similar experiences and a shared vision. "I always wanted to make language something tangible," Søndergaard said. "I'm a little dyslexic, actually, and so I keep bumping into language. Language is something that bumps into me, and I bump into it. Meeting Johan and starting the work on Out of Words was a dream come true, to be able to be in language. [Karla and Kurt] are in language. And so they are going through language. And I think language is a trust system in a way, and language is also a game. Language is something we play with, 'play on words' and all that. So, it all comes together in this symphony of emotion."
"When Morten came to me with the idea of, 'Wouldn't it be cool to fall into language?' I fell in love, not only with Morten, but also with that idea," Oettinger added, "because I am dyslexic myself, and we've combined this with my love of coming-of-age and stop-motion, and it turned into the game I've been dreaming about making. I want to make something that, if I found this as an 11-year-old dyslexic boy, it could just show me, 'Okay, this is how language can be. It's not something a belittling teacher is trying to push into you.' Then I would have discovered so many things I love much earlier, and it would have opened my world. I could say to my mother, 'Look, mom, let's play this together. This is why I love games.'"
The room was getting weepy by this point, and the team had told me crying had been a running theme of Summer Game Fest in the Out of Words booth. Oettinger shared a touching example from earlier in the day where he was explaining the game to a translator who would then translate his words into Japanese for their colleague, and the translator couldn't help but cry as they reshaped the words, which to me seemed sweetly similar to what the game is trying to do itself; through this transformation came raw emotion.
Out of Words has been in development for years, but the game's director told GameSpot it's actually been his dream to make this game for most of his life.
Everyone was being so sincere and vulnerable, and it was quite unlike any video game demo I've ever been a part of, to be totally forthcoming. I believe emotional vulnerability is the purest form of beauty. When people, especially two people together, can open themselves up to potentially be hurt but are instead rewarded for their honesty with the other person's empathy and acceptance, it's one of the most extraordinary things that can happen to us as human beings. I'm elated to see a game taking on this idea with such a delicate hand and artful eye. Suffice it to say, by the time my 40 minutes with the team was nearing its end, I knew it would go down as one of my favorite experiences I've had in my career.
"Art, for me, has to be deeply personal. That's where it gets honest, when it comes from personal experience. I mean, the moment there," Oettinger said, pointing to an image of the main characters, "I think we all have our story of that moment where we can't find the words. And in my case, a girl is standing there in front of me, and Karla is, of course, based on that girl from when I was that age, Sarah, and maybe that's a little Johan," he hinted, "and I lost her. She was my best friend. In that moment where I couldn't find the words, what if I could fix the inner language, and then I could say what I wanted?"
Out of Words comes out in 2026 on Epic Games Store, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. Co-op will be playable locally or online with cross-play, making it easy to bring the Kurt or Karla from your own life into the game with you.
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"I am a bit of a romantic," game director Johan Oettinger told me, describing the relationship between the game's playable characters, Karla and Kurt. Typically, "they can talk about anything. But they find themselves in a moment in their relationship with something new in the air." But sadly, Oettinger added, "they can't find the words" to say how they feel. Out of Words is a coming-of-age love story about the things we want to say but don't know how.
Something is in the way of them being honest with each other, and that premise, combined with Oettinger's soft-spoken way of speaking about this game he clearly loves so much, was already getting me pretty misty before I even played. It was like I'd walked into a poetry reading where, by chance, a demo of a gorgeous, stop-motion animated video game was also taking place.
"I love stop-motion," Oettinger told me, admitting it's like the "extreme sport of animation" due to how unforgiving it is. He explained to me that creating this game had been his dream since he was 11 years old, when he played The Neverhood, a 1996 stop-motion animated game developed in collaboration with Stephen Spielberg's Dreamworks. "All the cinematics [of Out of Words] are fully stop-motion, animated frame by frame in front of a camera. And everything in the world is also handcrafted. Every element you see, every picture you see, has literally been touched by a human being. The grass, the strings are cut out of paper with scissors. The little cliffs and surfaces and books are cut up and 3D-scanned, the surface of the water is cellophane, and so on."
As players explore the world, searching for the words to say what they need to say, they'll come to find the true antagonist: "doubt itself," as Oettinger put it. The mechanics of the game will change often to reflect the story. In a portion I played, Kurt and Karla had to learn to trust each other, sharing possession of a light that would help them float above gaps. At first we stumbled, vanishing into pits of darkness with every mistake. But soon, we were able to pass the light back and forth with dance-like chemistry, catching each other with well-choreographed trust falls. Whatever shape the gameplay takes as the story goes on, it's meant to be approachable for players of all skill levels. "The dream is that you're able to play with your child, or your non-gamer partner, your non-gamer parents, take them on this journey with you," game design lead Jeff Sparks told me.
Art, for me, has to be deeply personal. That's where it gets honest, when it comes from personal experience.
Morten Søndergaard, the game's poet--yes, that's his actual job title--met Oettinger in 2012, and the pair bonded over similar experiences and a shared vision. "I always wanted to make language something tangible," Søndergaard said. "I'm a little dyslexic, actually, and so I keep bumping into language. Language is something that bumps into me, and I bump into it. Meeting Johan and starting the work on Out of Words was a dream come true, to be able to be in language. [Karla and Kurt] are in language. And so they are going through language. And I think language is a trust system in a way, and language is also a game. Language is something we play with, 'play on words' and all that. So, it all comes together in this symphony of emotion."
"When Morten came to me with the idea of, 'Wouldn't it be cool to fall into language?' I fell in love, not only with Morten, but also with that idea," Oettinger added, "because I am dyslexic myself, and we've combined this with my love of coming-of-age and stop-motion, and it turned into the game I've been dreaming about making. I want to make something that, if I found this as an 11-year-old dyslexic boy, it could just show me, 'Okay, this is how language can be. It's not something a belittling teacher is trying to push into you.' Then I would have discovered so many things I love much earlier, and it would have opened my world. I could say to my mother, 'Look, mom, let's play this together. This is why I love games.'"
The room was getting weepy by this point, and the team had told me crying had been a running theme of Summer Game Fest in the Out of Words booth. Oettinger shared a touching example from earlier in the day where he was explaining the game to a translator who would then translate his words into Japanese for their colleague, and the translator couldn't help but cry as they reshaped the words, which to me seemed sweetly similar to what the game is trying to do itself; through this transformation came raw emotion.
Out of Words has been in development for years, but the game's director told GameSpot it's actually been his dream to make this game for most of his life.
Everyone was being so sincere and vulnerable, and it was quite unlike any video game demo I've ever been a part of, to be totally forthcoming. I believe emotional vulnerability is the purest form of beauty. When people, especially two people together, can open themselves up to potentially be hurt but are instead rewarded for their honesty with the other person's empathy and acceptance, it's one of the most extraordinary things that can happen to us as human beings. I'm elated to see a game taking on this idea with such a delicate hand and artful eye. Suffice it to say, by the time my 40 minutes with the team was nearing its end, I knew it would go down as one of my favorite experiences I've had in my career.
"Art, for me, has to be deeply personal. That's where it gets honest, when it comes from personal experience. I mean, the moment there," Oettinger said, pointing to an image of the main characters, "I think we all have our story of that moment where we can't find the words. And in my case, a girl is standing there in front of me, and Karla is, of course, based on that girl from when I was that age, Sarah, and maybe that's a little Johan," he hinted, "and I lost her. She was my best friend. In that moment where I couldn't find the words, what if I could fix the inner language, and then I could say what I wanted?"
Out of Words comes out in 2026 on Epic Games Store, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. Co-op will be playable locally or online with cross-play, making it easy to bring the Kurt or Karla from your own life into the game with you.
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