Ukrainian studio RetroStyle Games unveiled Flame and Blame during the Ukrainian Games Festival 2026, held from August 17 to 24, and the game already has its own page on Steam, where players can add it to their wishlist and request access to its playtest. The project is a first-person co-op physics comedy for up to four players, who take on the role of the least qualified firefighters ever to hold a hose, and it is planned to launch on PC in 2027.
The premise is as simple as it is ridiculous: the town is on fire once again, and when someone calls for professionals, they get the players instead. On the game’s Steam Community hub, RetroStyle Games describes the project as a first-person co-op firefighting simulator that also works as a comedy, because its firefighters are very bad at their job. The official tagline sums up the spirit of the game perfectly: “Bad at fires. Great at friendship.”
Hoses, axes and one very confused panda
Every callout in Flame and Blame begins at the fire station, where the team suits up and grabs its gear before getting behind the wheel of the fire truck and rushing to the scene. Once there, the firefighters hook their hoses up to the nearest hydrant and start attacking the flames. That is exactly where the chaos begins, because the hoses are driven by physics and are wild enough to throw their own operator across the room.
Along with the hose, players carry an axe to smash through doors and walls, and the store page makes it clear that subtlety is not part of the job description: one of the examples it gives is flooding an entire house just to save a single lucky plant. The community post that celebrated the game’s debut at the festival goes even further, inviting players to answer the alarm, save what they can and cause more damage than the fire ever could.
The flames are not the only danger on the scene. Firefighters will also have to watch out for live wires, gas and the occasional fire tornado, which is why the developers point out that the fire is actually the least of the team’s problems. Between the hazards and the unpredictable hoses, every building turns into an obstacle course where things can go wrong at any second.
The rescue side of the job is just as important. Civilians trapped in the smoke must be dragged out, given an oxygen mask and brought back to safety. The list of things to save also includes pets, houseplants and, as the Steam page proudly highlights, one extremely confused panda. When the situation gets desperate, players can even bounce someone to safety off a trampoline, all with the goal of getting everyone clear before the entire block goes up in flames.
The second half of the title is no accident. The official description encourages players to blame each other when everything goes up in smoke, putting the friction between teammates right at the center of the comedy, alongside the physics-driven mayhem. In other words, the game does not only measure how many people, pets and plants make it out alive, but also how well the crew survives its own mistakes.
Up to four players, and the blame is shared
Flame and Blame was built with co-op as its main focus. Players can team up online with up to three friends to share the hose, the axe and, of course, the blame, while taking on callouts that are far too big for a single firefighter. The game can also be played solo, although the studio admits that every fire is funnier with backup. According to its Steam listing, the game supports single-player, online co-op and Family Sharing, and it includes in-game chat.
The user-defined tags on Steam help complete the picture: Online Co-Op, Party Game, Parody, Funny, Comedy, Job Simulator, Time Management, Physics, Automobile Sim, Team-Based, Simulation, Colorful, Stylized and Cartoony, among others. That mix points to a game that combines the pressure of handling several emergencies at once with the absurd physics of a party game, plus time behind the wheel of the fire truck, all wrapped in a colorful and lighthearted visual style. Officially, Steam lists the title under the Adventure genre.
On the technical side, the minimum requirements listed on Steam call for an Intel Core i5 processor or equivalent, 8 GB of RAM, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 graphics card or equivalent and 5 GB of available storage. The page lists Windows 7 or later as the minimum operating system, although the Steam client itself has only supported Windows 10 and later since January 1, 2024. The game will offer its interface in 20 languages, including English, Spanish from both Spain and Latin America, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Brazilian Portuguese, Polish, Turkish and Ukrainian.
The Steam page also includes an AI-generated content disclosure. RetroStyle Games explains that it uses generative AI tools to help produce some pre-rendered visual assets, including concept art and promotional imagery used on the store page. The studio states that all AI-assisted output is reviewed, edited and art-directed by its team, and that the game itself contains no live-generated AI content.
RetroStyle Games bets on its own projects
RetroStyle Games is both the developer and the publisher of Flame and Blame. The studio is based in Kyiv, Ukraine, and was founded in 2010. For most of its history, it has worked as an art outsourcing company, offering a full cycle of 2D and 3D art production, from concepts to game-ready assets, characters and animations. Its list of art partners includes 11 bit studios, Relic Entertainment, 4A Games and Zynga.
In recent years, the team has been focusing more on its own games. In July 2024, the studio launched Codename: Ocean Keeper in Steam Early Access, a roguelike with dual-stick shooter and strategy elements in which players explore the ocean floor aboard a giant spider robot, drilling tunnels in search of resources and fighting off hordes of sea monsters. Ukrainian outlet Mezha compared its vibe to Vampire Survivors and Dome Keeper. Developed in Unity, the game was described at the time as the studio’s first in-house project.
In a blog post on its official website, RetroStyle Games explained that the company now works under three pillars: outsourcing, developing its own games and creating asset packs. In that same post, the studio describes itself as operating from Ukraine’s capital despite the war, blackouts, rockets and drones, a context that gives every new release from the team an extra layer of merit.
For now, Flame and Blame does not have an exact release date or price, and it is simply listed as coming in 2027, with PC as the only confirmed platform so far. Since the game has not launched yet, its Steam page does not show any user reviews. Players who want to try it early can request access to the playtest from its Steam page and will be notified when the developers are ready for more participants, while the wishlist remains the easiest way to stay updated on the next callout.
Would you trust your friends with a fire hose, or would you be the first one to blame them? Tell us in the comments if Flame and Blame is going straight to your wishlist!