Swansea, Wales – 23 July 2026
It’s taken a year, way too much coffee, and a smidge of masochism, but we’re delighted (and sleep deprived and relieved) that multilingual word game Character Limit is now available on Steam, for Windows and macOS.
You’ve got twelve spaces (your Character Limit. See what we did there?) and a never-ending supply of letters waiting to overwhelm you. Form words to clear space, score points, and survive as long as possible in this fast-paced, arcade-style typing puzzle.
It’s simple… until it’s not.
If you’ve ever wondered what would happen if someone looked at a relaxing word puzzle and thought, “This needs more existential pressure,” then… well… that’s basically how we got here.
Built by the two of us at Hotel Outlaw in Swansea, Wales, Character Limit somehow grew from a small idea into something that won Third Place in the DreamHack Birmingham 2026 Indie Playground People’s Choice Award. We’re still not entirely sure how that happened, but we’re incredibly grateful.
Over the past year we’ve obsessed over letter frequencies, argued about dictionaries, debated whether countdown timers are fair, and generally discovered that making a word game is far stranger and harder than we’d ever imagined. Especially for our first release.
Launch features include:
- 12 Letters. No Mercy. A constant stream of tiles testing your reflexes, focus, and vocabulary.
- Multiple Game Modes: Endless, Empty the Bag, and extra challenges. Each a unique time attack survival puzzle with its own flavour of stress.
- Daily Play: One round for everyone, one chance to be the best in the world.
- Assists: Clear vowels, shift the rack, or throw in a wildcard to save yourself.
- Clean and Tactile: No clutter, no filler. Just crisp visuals, punchy feedback, and satisfying flow.
- Built for Keyboard, Mouse, or Touchscreen: Type, click, or if you’re fancy, touch your way to survival.
- Steam Achievements and Leaderboards for the main game modes.
- Welsh Language Mode: Because developing an English language word game was too easy.
- Future plans include adding more challenge modes and expanding the language roster even more.
Character Limit is available now on Steam for US$7.99, with an introductory 20% launch discount available for a limited time.
If any of that sounds like your sort of thing, we’d genuinely love it if you gave Character Limit a look. Meanwhile, Malcolm os going to have a lie down.
⸻
Steam Store
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4121620/Character_Limit/
Launch Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_KU_WbxnDM
Press Kit
https://impress.games/press-kit/hoteloutlaw/character-limit
Media Contact
Hotel Outlaw
Email: enquiries@hoteloutlaw.co.uk
Website: https://hoteloutlaw.co.uk
Press enquiries, interview requests, review requests and content creator enquiries are all welcome.
About Hotel Outlaw
Hotel Outlaw is an independent game development studio based in Swansea, Wales, founded by Malcolm Owen and Emma Williams. Character Limit is its first release.