Hi Everyone.
I’m Connor, producer at COPA and Narrative Lead on The Department.
A couple of weeks ago, we endeavoured to restart our TikTok account for the gaming studio. We didn’t expect things to blow up; we just took it as a given that that’s what you need to do as an indie studio looking to get a new game off the ground. None of us had seriously used TikTok before and, as such, we had some pretty low expectations as to what was possible.
Welp, in the span of 2 weeks we jumped from 400 followers to 5.5k (and counting). We just passed 2.7k followers on Instagram and we got an automod show up in our Discord server because the algorithm assumed we were getting DDoS’d. It’s been a bit of a ride.
Suddenly there’s been a surge of interest in the game, and as such we figured it was time we updated this Steam page and gave an in-depth update of where the project is. So let’s take it from the top.
What is The Department?
The Department is a single-player, narrative-driven detective sim set in a fictional city in South Wales. You’ll be playing DS Morgan Phillips, a new transfer who finds himself in a new country, new culture, and a sinister conspiracy set to tear the city apart.
The game puts you in the shoes of a Detective Sergeant. You’ll be tasked with investigating crime scenes, interviewing suspects, and drawing conclusions based on the evidence at hand. The game isn’t going to give you the answers; rather, we want you to think like a detective. We’ll give you the tools to do that; ways of organising your evidence and investigating your theories, but we’ll never hand you the answers. If you’re wrong, you’re wrong.
The game draws on real-world policing experience. Our Game Director, Osian, served ina Welsh Police Force . He wanted to see a game that better reflected what being a police officer actually felt like, and put players in a world where choices matter, where there are no second chances, and where how you solve the case is just as important as actually solving it.
We’ll talk more about the specifics of the game as we get further into development.
What The Department isn’t
Since the surge of interest, we have had a lot of people asking about the scope of the game, and the same few questions have arisen. We’d like to address these so that people don’t feel misled.
The Department is not an open-world armed response sim. Judging by the frequency these questions come up, it’s clear there’s a lot of interest in that kind of game. Just so we’re all on the same page: we would love to make that kind of game too. In fact, we’re often talking about exactly what we would do if we had all of the time and money in the world. But The Department is a small indie project with a small (though extremely talented and good-looking) team. We’re keen to over-deliver, and a big part of that is not over-promising. If The Department does well, then you can be sure we’ll be keen on making a bigger, more ambitious sequel.
Who’s funding you?
For the past 2 years, we have been self-funding development. This has mostly been with the intention of building a proof of concept, developing the business, and attracting outside investment. In April this year, we received funding from Creative Wales to take the game to an early access stage. You can read more about it here.
It’s been a huge boon to us. It means we have gone from working on The Department around other projects to being able to dedicate a team of developers to the game full-time. Our intention is to get the game out in early access for mid-2026.
We are actively seeking publishing partners for the project. But for now, we’re focussed on making the game.
How far into development are you?
We’re in early-stage development.
As I mentioned earlier, we’ve been working on the game for two years. The development portion of that time (stuff that wasn’t spent on business development) was geared towards building a vertical slice. We showed this off at GDC 2024. We’ve learned a lot since then, and since going full-time we have basically scrapped that first iteration of the project, saving what worked for later implementation and rebuilding new stuff from scratch.
We’re hoping to have something to show you (cinematics and early gameplay) by the end of 2025.
How can I get involved?
Right now, just let us cook. Keep up with us on Instagram & TikTok, stay involved in the Discord server (Osian likes to give Welsh lessons whilst he’s rendering cinematics), and if you’re able, wishlist the game on Steam. Wishlists and active communities are two of the things publishers look for when deciding whether to partner with a project, so that helps us out a lot.
Otherwise, we look forward to sharing more about the game as and when we’re ready.
Diolch yn fawr.