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In Two The Paint Co-Op Horror Splits Players Between Two Worlds
One player is trapped inside a dark 19th-century mansion. The other is wandering through a handcrafted world hidden within classical paintings, and neither can see what the other is doing. That is the setup behind In Two The Paint, an upcoming asymmetrical horror puzzle game from Thai indie developer Paper Key Games, which has now opened its Steam page for wishlists.
Designed exclusively for two-player online co-op, the game follows siblings Andre and Edel after they become trapped in separate worlds. Escaping means uncovering their family’s secrets and solving puzzles together, but almost all of the information required to do so is deliberately divided between both players.
Neither Player Can See the Whole Puzzle
Communication is effectively the central mechanic of In Two The Paint. Players cannot see each other’s screens, leaving them dependent on voice communication to describe clues and work out how information found in one world applies to the other.
One example has a player discover instructions explaining how a generator should be wired, while their partner is the only person who can actually interact with the machine. Progress therefore relies on describing what each person sees clearly enough for the other to act on it.
It is an approach that recently caught our attention in Indonesian co-op puzzler Two & Two: Agents, where both players similarly receive different pieces of the same puzzle. In Two The Paint pushes that idea further by giving each side a completely different style of play.
A 3D Mansion Meets a Handcrafted 2D Painting World
Andre and Edel’s perspectives are visually distinct as well. One player explores the family’s abandoned mansion in first person, searching its rooms and hidden passages for clues. Their partner instead plays through a 2D point-and-click adventure inspired by classical paintings, travelling between canvases and encountering increasingly strange scenes.
The mystery connecting both worlds gradually digs into the siblings’ family history, with creatures lurking inside the paintings and environmental storytelling revealing what happened before their arrival. A first playthrough is expected to take around three to four hours, but Paper Key Games is encouraging pairs to swap roles afterwards. Puzzle solutions are randomised between runs, while each perspective contains information and moments the other player never experiences.
That focus on purpose-built two-player design also follows other recent co-op projects such as On Any Journey, which similarly makes interaction between two players fundamental to the experience.
Paper Key Games Turns a Passion Project Into a Commercial Release
In Two The Paint began as a part-time project from a group of friends before evolving into the first commercial project from Thailand-based Paper Key Games. The team has since brought the game to events including gamescom asia 2025 while gradually building its presence within Thailand’s indie development community.
In Two The Paint is planned for PC via Steam in Q1 2027, although its public Steam listing currently stops short of displaying a specific release window. Pricing has yet to be announced.
