Out of Words is a handmade stop-motion co-op platformer built from real clay, moss, and heart

Out of Words is a stop-motion co-op 2D platformer where every single asset — blades of grass, moss, stone, character puppets — is physically handmade in the real world. IGN got a 20-minute hands-on demo at Summer Game Fest with game design lead Jeff Sparks, and the preview paints a picture of something genuinely unlike anything else on the horizon.

The story follows Kurt and Karla, two best friends on the edge of adolescence who can't bring themselves to say what they feel. That failure to communicate costs them literally — they lose their mouths and all their words, and get pulled into a mystical world called Vokabulantis. Their missing mouth manifests as a small creature named Aleph, who grants them abilities as they progress. The whole setup is inspired by a poem by Danish poet Morten Søndergaard, and Sparks told IGN the team ran hundreds of co-op mechanic prototypes trying to make the gameplay mirror the emotional narrative between the two characters. One early mechanic — anti-gravity sections where players walk on ceilings and walls — was among the first the team ever conceived, and it carries its own narrative allegory.

The demo jumped across several acts to show off different environments and moods. One area leaned dark and unsettling, with spookier creatures and a heavier atmosphere that tied directly into the story. The visual craft throughout is striking: artistic lighting and bokeh techniques are used to sell depth and focus, and the physical textures of clay, moss, and stone read beautifully on screen. Sparks himself said it felt surreal to see areas he'd worked on rendered at that level of finish. IGN also flagged a making-of video showing the full puppet construction process for one character — worth watching if you want to understand the sheer labor behind every frame.

Out of Words has been on the radar since last year, when it was flagged as a potential must-play two-player co-op. The Summer Game Fest demo only reinforced that. No release date was confirmed during the preview, but what's there already looks polished and purposeful — a rare thing in an era where handcrafted art is increasingly the exception.