Cop Bastard is launching on PC in October. The solo developer behind it, who goes by targim, confirmed the news on the game’s Steam page, alongside a trailer and a reworked demo. The pitch fits in a single line: a hard-boiled detective, early-nineties Osaka and corridors packed with yakuza. The game draws on old-school shooters and the action films of the era, and puts all its chips on the gunplay. There’s no exact day in October yet.
At a glance
Cop Bastard launches on PC in October, published by Retrovibe, with no exact date announced so far.
It’s an old-school corridor shooter built around guns, speed and waves of enemies.
The free demo has been updated with controller support, new enemies and John Woo-style finishers.
Cop Bastard is a shooter that cuts to the chase
On the Cop Bastard Steam page, the developer describes the game as a fast corridor shooter that strips out anything slowing the action down. You play a no-nonsense detective in early-nineties Osaka, up against wave after wave of yakuza. The mood borrows openly from the gritty action films of that decade.
The listing describes a game pared back to the essentials. The developer has dropped puzzles, perks, upgrades, aiming down sights and character builds, keeping the guns, the tight corridors and one mechanic that sets the tone: spitting in your enemies’ faces. Expect gore, pounding music and chaotic fights, in a modern engine dressed up in retro style.
A refreshed demo ahead of launch
The release announcement, posted on 17 September, came with a new demo prepared for the Boomstock 2026 event. The developer lists a long run of additions. Controls can now be rebound, the crosshair size is adjustable and controllers are supported. The demo also includes every language from the full game, along with a new menu, a reworked HUD, better sound and prettier visual effects, in the developer’s own words.
On the action front, Cop Bastard now lets you cancel a reload by switching weapons. John Woo-style finishers let you keep shooting an enemy after the killing blow, emptying the magazine before they hit the floor. New enemies turn up, kamikazes and foes in iron masks, and the enemy AI has been reworked. A smaller update on 23 September added an option to turn off head bobbing and fixed several bugs players had reported.
A one-person project years in the making
Cop Bastard is the work of a single person, who speaks to players in the first person in every announcement. The project has taken its time. In November 2025, a big demo overhaul added a tutorial and checkpoints, and targim was then aiming for a December release, or January 2026 if polishing took longer. In the end, the release slipped all the way to this autumn.
In June 2026, the developer was still promising that the final version would be significantly better than the demo, with new weapons and new enemy types, and many gameplay systems improved along the way. targim also made clear that the demo only shows a small part of the finished game, with much of the remaining work aimed at making the action more intense, more satisfying and more polished. It’s a path that echoes other solo creators we follow, such as the maker of Whispers in the Fog, a one-man horror project.
What to know before October
For now, Cop Bastard is only announced for PC on Windows, and its price and release day have yet to appear on Steam. The free demo is still the best way to find out whether this very direct style is for you, especially as your feedback can still make a difference: the developer openly asks for comments under each announcement.
The game joins what is shaping up to be a busy autumn for small productions playing on nostalgia. On the indie front, RetroSpace and its eight endings came out on 1 October, and the exact Cop Bastard date will go into our release calendar as soon as it’s confirmed.
Upcoming release dates and major updates are tracked in our games calendar, which you can filter by platform.