Solo developer Michael Cosio and publisher Assemble Entertainment unveiled a new gameplay trailer for The Skin Stapler at the Horror Game Awards Showcase 2026 — Midsummer Night’s Scream — on June 1st, and confirmed the game is heading to PC in Summer 2026. The reveal follows a successful Steam demo period that put the game on horror fans’ radar, and this trailer arrives ready to put it back at the top of every watchlist.
The Skin Stapler is a short atmospheric horror game set in a decaying 1980s city called Carrion City — a rain-soaked, neon-lit urban nightmare drenched in VHS slasher aesthetics, grindhouse grime, and noir atmosphere. You play as Detective Dick Slater, a down-and-out cop on the trail of a killer who stages grotesque crime scenes and leaves behind warped audio tapes mocking the police and hinting at something much darker underneath the city. Think giallo filtered through exploitation cinema filtered through a late-night cable horror block, with dark B-movie humour to keep the descent from ever feeling routine.
Carrion City and What to Expect
The game’s design philosophy is unusual for the horror genre: it is explicitly a short, atmospheric experience built around story and tension rather than combat mechanics or survival loops. Rather than padding a thin concept into a longer game, Cosio is leaning into the compact runtime as a feature — building toward “an unsettling descent into madness” over a focused, curated experience. The narrative expands beyond Slater mid-game as danger spreads and the truth about Carrion City’s corruption closes in, with the player taking control of multiple characters as the story escalates.
The visual direction is the strongest immediate selling point. The neon-soaked, rain-slicked aesthetic channels the specific kind of ’80s grimy beauty that productions like Maniac and Pieces stumbled into by accident and that The Skin Stapler appears to be constructing deliberately. The contrast between the visual atmosphere and the dark, dry humour in the dialogue is exactly the kind of tonal balancing act that separates genuinely unsettling horror from the kind that just piles on shock. The “nearly censored scenes” promised in the feature list suggest Cosio isn’t pulling punches.
The Skin Stapler — Key Features
Meet the Dev — MIX Summer Game Showcase
Alongside the online showcase reveals, The Skin Stapler is an exhibitor at the MIX Summer Game Showcase running June 1–5 in Los Angeles. Solo developer Michael Cosio is on-site on June 5 — horror fans, press, and content creators in attendance have the opportunity to meet him in person and go hands-on with the game. The MIX showcase regularly surfaces some of the most interesting indie horror projects ahead of release, and The Skin Stapler is well worth seeking out if you’re there.
A Steam demo is already live. If the new trailer has your attention, that’s the place to start. Summer 2026 for full release.
Wishlist The Skin Stapler on Steam