Berita
Out of Words creators fueled by ongoing positive fan reaction
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Brian Crecente
The video opens with close-ups of a team of artists from WiredFly deftly poking and prodding the detailed minutiae of the game’s two lead puppets: Karla and Kurt. We see fingers gently pulling on the socks of one leg, tweezers coaxing a tiny zipper up a tiny jacket. And then a shot of the two characters, both mouthless, staring straight into the camera.
That segues into a stop-motion animated scene from the game, starring Prince, before launching into a montage of gameplay.
“Prince is, of course, the star of the show as he takes it upon himself to give Kurt and Karla new names,” Jeff Sparks, the game’s Design Lead, told Epic Games Store News. “We also tease a few fun little details on the gameplay side towards the end. Did you spot our beloved Elder Carp character swimming in for a close-up? Or maybe some of my favorite new creatures, the searchlight frogs! Better look out! There's so much more to show, but we hope people really enjoy these early glimpses at all the great things to come.”
Game Director Johan Oettinger added that the film director in him is very happy to show off what the team is working on.
“We get to lift the lid a little bit on some of the opportunities we are exploring with alternative camera framings and angles here and there,” he said.
The cooperative platform adventure game is the co-creation of the stop-motion animation artists from WiredFly and game developers at Kong Orange, and is being published by Epic Games.
During Summer Game Fest, I had a chance to chat with Oettinger about how the game’s evocative and captivating art was used not just to empower the game’s story but also to deeply connect with the game’s mechanics.
But it wasn’t until after that June interview that the overwhelmingly positive reaction hit the studio. Sparks said it blew the team away.
“It really seemed to resonate with the people who sat down to play with us in the way we hoped it would. In some cases, it was a very emotional experience for them, which confirms our belief that we're really onto something special,” he said.
“Playing with Hideo Kojima and getting such a glowing review from him was totally surreal too!” Sparks continued.
After Kojima’s time with the game, he took to social media to write that Out of Words is "simple, gentle, and beautiful.”
“It’s the kind of game we need in an age where we’ve lost the true meaning of ‘words’ on social media,” he added.
Oettinger said that everyone on the team feels “Blessed that the response was this great.”
“We are doing something we believe in, that we find amazing, and that's the only way we can do this,” he said. “And we have to make decisions and create based on that on the day to day. That's how the game comes into existence. We can't really do it any other way if we are to pull through here, so knowing it also resonates out there is a tremendous boost.”
While the game was already years into development, that positive reaction reinforced the creative process that the studio has been using to create Out of Words, Sparks said.
“It’s a very painstaking project to work on where we put a ton of love and care into every moment,” he added. “The handcrafted nature of the world, the deliberate overlap between the story and the mechanics—it’s a long process, a labor of love.”
It also reinforced for Oettinger that everything the team is working on for the game—its emotions, visuals, game design, and narrative—is coming together to deliver an amalgamation greater than its parts.
“Seeing players being swept up by it all at once was very rewarding,” he said.
Out of Words releases on the Epic Games Store in 2026, and Sparks wants those looking forward to playing it to know that everyone is working hard to make the game into something truly special, “from the musicians to the developers and everyone across the whole studio.
“We can't wait for players and their loved ones to go on this journey. As Kurt and Karla move through the strange world of Vokabulantis together, working to get their voices back and exploring their changing relationship, we hope that both players experience a true connection with them... and with one another.”
Johan Oettinger added that he has a more personal goal for the game.
“I'm always aiming to hold what we do up to 12-year-old Johan and see if he keeps losing his chin on the floor of what we put out. He's a hard critic, but this trailer surely hit the mark.”