A side-scrolling brawler based on the Cyberpunk: Edgerunners anime was in development at Shantae studio WayForward in partnership with CD Projekt Red, according to a report drawing on a former developer's online portfolio.

MP1st, which broke the story on 27 July 2026, discovered the project details in the publicly accessible portfolio of a former WayForward developer. The game was codenamed Project Gemini and carried the Cyberpunk: Edgerunners branding in its internal logo. IGN and Eurogamer both corroborated the report the following day, with Eurogamer noting the Gemini codename and a development window spanning 2025 to 2026 at WayForward (Eurogamer).

Project Gemini was conceptualised as a "rollback-driven" 2.5D brawler, meaning it was built around rollback netcode — a technique that smooths online play by predicting players' inputs and correcting them on the fly rather than waiting for both connections to sync. References in the portfolio materials mention "rollback-safe architecture" and "online transport integration," signalling that online multiplayer was a core design pillar rather than a bolted-on feature.

CD Projekt Red classified the project as Research & Development, a designation studios use for experimental or exploratory work that has not been greenlit for full production. It is unclear how far the game progressed or whether it was ever intended for public release.

Adding a layer of uncertainty, the same report notes that WayForward had a separate, unannounced Unreal Engine 5 project based on a licensed intellectual property. A vertical slice — a polished, self-contained segment used to pitch a game to publishers — was delivered, but funding was delayed and development halted. It is unknown whether that UE5 licensed-IP project and Project Gemini are one and the same.

WayForward is best known for the Shantae series of colourful platformers, making a gritty Cyberpunk brawler an unusual fit on paper. The studio has a long history of work-for-hire on licensed properties, from Adventure Time to Disney's DuckTales, so a foray into Night City is less surprising in that context.

The news arrives amid a difficult stretch for WayForward. The studio underwent layoffs in September 2025, a period that coincides with the Project Gemini development window. Whether the two are connected is not confirmed.

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, the 2022 Netflix anime produced by Studio Trigger, was a breakout hit that reignited interest in the Cyberpunk 2077 universe after the game's troubled 2020 launch. CD Projekt Red has since leaned into that momentum with Edgerunners-themed content in Cyberpunk 2077 itself. A standalone brawler would have extended the brand into a new genre entirely.

For now, though, Project Gemini appears to exist only in the fragments a developer left behind — a codename, a logo, and the bones of netcode that may never carry a real match.