Wayout is an early use of first-person 3D perspective, featuring a small gameplay window but smooth 360-degree movement. You are trapped inside one of 26 mazes (composed of 90-degree direction changes) and must find the exit. The game records how many movement units you use up, and saves the best scores to disk. Up to nine in-progress games can also be saved.

You have a compass and a map-making kit, enabling the game to automatically map the areas you explore. These can be stolen by the Cleptangle beast, but you can chase him to get them back.

You can't push against the wind without finding a special way of overcoming it. Fireflies automatically move with the wind, and can serve as a clue to its direction.