Cartoon Crime: The $2.99 Two-Person Open-World Crime Game That Shipped Nine Updates in Nine Weeks

At a Glance

• Cartoon Crime launched in Steam Early Access on August 26, 2026 (12:51 UTC), developed and published by BuBa Games, a two-person studio in Istanbul (SteamDB, retrieved 2026-10-27).
• Launch price: $2.99 / £2.75 / €3.11 — a 40% launch discount off $4.99 (SteamSift, retrieved 2026-10-27).
• Nine numbered updates shipped between August 31 and October 20, adding Steam co-op, skateboards, 36 new islands, a Skypark obstacle course, a Wild West desert continent, and zombie-infested hidden labs.
• The signature feature: instant switching between third-person and classic top-down cameras, an intentional nod to the GTA III / Vice City era of crime sandboxes.
• Early Access is planned to last roughly 6 to 12 months, with full 13-language support at launch.

Most Early Access launches are lucky to ship one meaningful patch in their first month. Cartoon Crime has shipped nine. The low-poly open-world crime game from BuBa Games — a two-person team in Istanbul — launched on Steam on August 26, 2026, and its update cadence since then reads more like a live-service schedule than a tiny indie’s backlog.

What Is Cartoon Crime?

Cartoon Crime is a single-player open-world action game where story missions, exploration, mini-games, and sandbox chaos share the same streets. You take missions, earn money, buy weapons, recruit bodyguards, and switch freely between a third-person camera and a classic top-down view — the overhead mode giving the game an old-school arcade crime feel (Steam, retrieved 2026-10-27).

At launch the map comprised two cities and two islands, with a total size the developers estimate as close to GTA: Vice City’s — a developer-side comparison, not an independent measurement (Gamizm, August 25, 2026). Shops, gyms, cinemas, bowling alleys, billiards tables, and arcade machines are enterable, and civilians, traffic, and police react dynamically to the trouble you start.

In an interview published two days before launch, co-creator Burhan Doygun described the project’s origin in plain terms: the team wanted “the kind of open-world game we enjoy playing ourselves. A game where the world does not constantly tell you what you should be doing next.” He was explicit that the inspiration is the freedom of GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas — not their scale: “We are a tiny indie team. What we want to capture is a similar feeling of freedom, but in our own colourful, cartoony world” (Indie-cent Exposure, August 24, 2026).

The Nine-Update Timeline

Since launch, BuBa Games has maintained a pace of roughly one update per week. The full sequence, per the game’s Steam news feed (SteamPeaks, retrieved 2026-10-27):

• Update 1 (Aug 31) — a new cave area, extra interiors, Quest 18, seven achievements, and animation polish.
• Update 2 (Sep 10) — two new quests, a bank location with an associated heist quest, and a baseball mini-game.
• Update 3 (Sep 14) — the big one: Steam Co-op goes live, alongside overhauls to graphics, shadows, character models, AI, roads, and interiors.
• Swimming, seaports & drivable boats (Sep 17) — swimming added, plus drivable boats and new seaports.
• Update 4 (Sep 20) — skateboards and a city skatepark with a scoring system; some NPCs now skate the streets too.
• Update 5 (Sep 23) — a new starting island with a house, dock, and two boats; 36 new islands; sharks, turtles, and crabs; a mansion and sports car.
• Update 6 (Sep 30) — another island, heavier vehicle collisions with visible impact damage, sushi trucks that permanently boost max health, and four new languages (Korean, Swedish, Italian, Arabic).
• Update 7 (Oct 4) — Skypark Island with a 20-minute obstacle course worth $20,000, Mission 21, enterable cathedrals/hospitals/police stations/cinemas, gun-shop basement ranges, and marine police who chase you onto land.
• Update 8 (Oct 14) — Welcome to the Wild West: an entire desert continent with Redstone Canyon, a nuclear power plant, volcanic islands, the Dustwing Airfield, drivable desert tanks, and Mission 22.
• Update 9 (Oct 20) — steam trains crossing the desert, a zombie outbreak around the nuclear plant (with player infection), two hidden underground labs with alien experiments and wrecked UFOs, and police tanks joining five-star chases.

Why the Update Cadence Matters

The content volume is remarkable given the team size, but the kind of updates stands out just as much. Update 3’s Steam Co-op mode turned a solo sandbox into something you play with friends, and subsequent patches have repeatedly returned to co-op sync fixes — vehicle, boat, pickup, health, and NPC state (Steam news, Update 7, October 4, 2026). Update 8’s notes mention improved damage synchronization between players and remind co-op groups that everyone needs the latest build before heading into new regions.

The team has also used updates to deepen existing systems rather than only bolting on content: police spot you faster and exit their cars to engage more often (Update 8), wooden barrels now shatter properly (Update 9), and gun-shop basements double as shooting ranges (Update 7). BuBa Games has said performance work runs alongside every content drop, “while keeping the same visual quality” (Steam news, Update 9, October 20, 2026).

The Studio and the Tech

BuBa Games builds Cartoon Crime on its own C++/OpenGL engine — unusual for a two-person team, and part of why the low-poly look runs with frequent performance passes rather than visual compromise (iGameMag, October 23, 2026). The studio describes Early Access as deliberate: “We want to see how players interact with the city, missions, combat, police, activities, and other features, then use that feedback to help shape the game” (Steam, retrieved 2026-10-27).

The game supports 13 languages at launch — English, Turkish, French, German, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Russian, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Italian, Arabic, Korean, and Swedish — and includes Steam Family Sharing, adjustable difficulty, and save-anytime. The developers estimate 6 to 12 months in Early Access, with new missions, activities, regions, weapons, vehicles, and character options planned on the road to 1.0.

Frequently Asked Questions

When did Cartoon Crime launch, and what does it cost?

Cartoon Crime entered Steam Early Access on August 26, 2026 at $2.99 / £2.75 / €3.11 (a 40% launch discount from $4.99). It is Windows PC only.

Who makes Cartoon Crime?

BuBa Games, a two-person independent studio in Istanbul, Turkey. Co-creator Burhan Doygun has described it as “a very personal project” inspired by the freedom of classic open-world crime games.

How much content has been added since launch?

Nine numbered updates in nine weeks (August 31 to October 20, 2026), including Steam co-op, skateboards, 36 new coastal islands, Skypark Island, a Wild West desert continent, steam trains, zombies, and hidden underground labs.

Is Cartoon Crime multiplayer?

It is primarily single-player, but Steam Co-op was added in Update 3 (September 14, 2026), with ongoing sync fixes in later patches. All co-op players must run the same build.

How long will Cartoon Crime stay in Early Access?

The developers estimate roughly 6 to 12 months, stressing that the timeline is an estimate and that they would “take the time needed to improve the game rather than rush toward a specific date.”