Empire of Sin News

Good business is about making your own opportunity and acting quickly on it. At least, that’s what Dean O’ Banion thinks, when he spots a whiskey truck stopped at a red light and decides to rob it single handedly. He has the entire load sold twenty minutes later. 

That’s the type of attitude befitting a man who grew up hard, on the streets of a place called “Little Hell”. As the name suggests it relies on stealing and debauchery as its daily economy. For a hell dweller though, Dean doesn’t see himself as a devil. In fact the front he presents to the public is the exact opposite. He’s at Mass every Sunday and one of his closest friends is the parish priest, Fr. Higgins.

He also runs a flower shop in the heart of Chicago. It’s the perfect front; who would suspect the friendly man in the florists would have a backroom set aside for shadier dealings? The flower shop is the top choice for most mob funerals, which means Dean can drum up business for one enterprise, by unleashing a little hell of his own through his other vocation. It’s win win. Running rackets with street gangs in his youth has really paid off. Dean has perfected the art of double ended enterprise, making money hand over bloody fist. 

Dean is a natural talker. Perhaps it’s his Irish roots, but he can talk his way into the best parts of a deal before the other party even knows what they’re agreeing to. He’s got connections that run far and wide and even though Chicago’s North Side is his usual stomping ground, Dean has aspirations, as well as guts to go after a wider territory. He may have come from nothing, but that doesn’t mean he has to stay there, or be satisfied with the little bit of the city that's already under his heel. As any good business person knows, you’ve got to expand to survive, and Dean is prepared to supply more flowers to more funerals in order to tighten his grip around the entire city of Chicago. 


[h2]Dean O’Banion Dictograph Conversation[/h2]
Chicago Police Dept.
File: #01584



Status: Open investigation
Date of exchange: 02/16/1920
Date of transcript: 02/17/1920
Stenographer: G. Avery

The following transcript is a verbatim exchange between Dean O’ Banion and his second in command George Clarence “Bugs” Moran. The audio signal was captured via a dictograph planted by an undercover officer; in Schofield’s [Mr. O’ Banion’s flower shop], on 736 North State st., Chicago. 

Storebell rings. Faint shuffling sounds. A man can be heard singing softly, then coughing.

Moran: ’Ey, Deano? Ya in here?

Muffled voice sounds in the distance. 

Moran: Yeah, it’s me. [unintelligible mumbling]

Background noise and footsteps can be heard, growing louder. A man clears his throat. 

O’Banion: Mornin’ Bugs.

Moran: Hey arch killer. Whaddaya doing back there?

O’Banion: Keep ya fuckin’ voice down! I’m open for business here. 

Moran: Chrissakes, alright. Relax wouldya?

O’Banion: You gotta buzz on Bugs?

Moran: I stopped by our friend O’Sullivan’s on my way here. I got thirsty. 

O’Banion: Uh-huh. It’s ten fuckin’ thirty in the mornin’.

Moran: Ah, I skipped breakfast. 

O’Banion: Explains why ya so loose.

Moran: Ah Save ya ‘holier than thou’ shit for Higgins, c’mon!

O’Banion: ’Ey! Ain’t nothin’ wrong with tryin’ to follow the Lord’s word outside a church y’know. 

Moran: [Lowering voice] Only when it suits ya.

O’Banion: Howzzat?

Shuffling sounds. Somebody sniffs.

O’Banion: Did ya tell him what I told ya to?

Moran: Every word.

O’Banion: Did ya…punctuate it like I asked?

Moran: Yup. I mean it took a little while…but he got the message, eventually. 

O’Banion: You sure? He didn’t…fall asleep on ya did he?

Moran: Nah, he was singing his understandin’ when I got to leaving. 

O’Banion: Good. Good! [Clap sound] Shouldn’t be any issues with payments then. Now, about later-

Storebell rings. Faint shuffling sounds. Footsteps heard entering. 

O’Banion: Oh, hiya Frankie! What can I do ya for?

Frankie: [Breathless] Fella’s, ya gotta help me. It’s an emergency, I need somethin’ for the lady.

Moran: [Laughs] You in the doghouse again, Frankie?

Frankie: Like ya wouldn’t believe.

Moran: Let me guess, caught in ‘Dark Desires’ with ya pants down?

O’Banion: Better fuckin’ not be, else I won’t be servin’ ya! This ain’t no shop for brothel rats.

Frankie: Nah, Nah it ain’t like that, it’s fuckin’ Valentine’s day. I went and forgot it…again.

Sounds of laughter.

Moran: Oof. That’s gotta cause a stink.

Frankie: Second year runnin’. I swear to God, this fuckin’ holiday. One of these years it’s gonna get me shot!

O’Banion: So ya need flowers?

Frankie: Yeah, yeah. Gimme like what…a half dozen roses?

Sounds of Laughter.

Frankie: What? What’s so funny?

O’Banion: Lemme ask ya somethin’: How much do ya love ya lady? 

Frankie: Huh? Whaddya mean?

Moran: It’s a simple fuckin’ question. Do ya love her or is she somethin’ that just uh…tags along?

Frankie: She’s the love of my life.

O’Banion: Alright. Well, half a dozen roses ain’t gonna cut it then.

Moran: Yeah, that’s what ya get for the tag along, when ya remember the fuckin’ day.

O’Banion: What you need is a far…grander gesture of your love. 

Sounds of footsteps.

O’Banion: Might I suggest this fine bouquet here. Two dozen Darcey roses, arranged around a single Tibet rose at it’s centre. 

Moran: That’s a beauty. Say Dean, does the vase come with that bouquet.

O’Banion: Indeed it does, Bugs. Wouldya look how fuckin’ white that Tibet is, huh?

Moran: Lemme tell ya Frankie; ya bring that home to the lady, she won’t just say she forgives ya, she’ll show ya how much she does.

Frankie: Jeez…I dunno fellas. Seems a little outta my price range.

O’Banion: Ah…Don’t worry about it.

Frankie: Huh?

O’Banion: Look, right before ya came in here, Bugs and I were talkin’ about some work we gotta do. I tell ya what, you go along with Bugs later and this bouquet is all yours...no charge.

Frankie: Really? What kinda work is it?

Moran: Call it manual labor. Some rearranging of furniture and basic, y'know uh…touch ups.

Faint shuffling sound. 

O’Banion: There’ll be cash payment too, so ya can buy something extra for the lady to go with the bouquet.

Moran: Sounds good to me, Frankie. You get the lady a nice piece of jewelry, you won’t have to remember Valentine’s day ever again.

Frankie: Yeah. Alright, deal. I’ll do it. 

O’Banion: Great! She’s gonna love this, Frankie.

Rustling sound and footsteps.

Moran: Hey, how’s ya brother?

Frankie: Peter? He’s good.

Moran: Ah, bring him too. Could always do with more muscle.

Rustling sound.

O’Banion: Here ya go.

Frankie: Alright, I’ll tell him. Hey, thanks Dean, ya really helped me out here.

O’Banion: No problem.

Footstep sounds, growing faint.

Moran: Ey, be home at 6:30. I’ll call ya. 

Frankie: Sure thing, Bugs.

Moran: [Raising voice] And tell ya brother!

Storebell rings. Door closes. 

Moran: Well, that was a freebie. 

O’Banion: Nah, Bugs. That was God. I’m tellin’ ya, I don’t pray every day for nothin’.

Moran: Sure it was. Say, I’m starvin’. Ya wanna get somethin’ to eat?

O’Banion: Nah, I got orders to do here. 

Moran: Alright. I'll be back later.

O’Banion: Sure, sure. God bless.

Footsteps sound, growing faint. Storebell rings, the door closes. Sighing. Footsteps sound, growing faint. 

End Transcript

 

[h2]Father Higgins’ Religious Journal[/h2]

Tuesday, February 10th 1920

Dear Lord our Father,

This morning’s confessions have left me troubled, young Dean O’ Banion came to me. His confessions grow darker by the week, I would swear it. I believe he thinks I do not know it is him, and thus lays all bare, but I’ve known that voice for so many years now, it is hard to misplace. Besides, he always catches himself about to curse and sure that’s a dead give away. I’ve never known a mouth as filthy as his. 

He is in peril of finding grave danger for himself. He is carrying around a loaded shotgun with him everywhere. It seems he is getting more bold with each new sting he pulls off. ‘Business ventures’ he calls them. The latest ‘venture’ was holding a driver at gunpoint and stealing a truck filled with alcohol. I fear this is how he sources our wine for mass, but I dare not ask. Sometimes we’re better off not knowing these things. ‘Ask no questions tell no lies’, as Dean himself is fond of saying. Just last week he confessed to beating someone senseless in the back of his shop. Worse still, he showed no remorse. In fact, he chastised the man for bleeding on a rhododendron display he was working on. 

There have been inklings to this carry on for as long as I have known him. Running with the “Little Hell gang”, shoplifting, mugging the people he’d spiked with a Mickey Finn. What hope had he really? Losing his mother at such a young age, and growing up in that hell Kilgubbin with his father and brother, surely had an effect on the boys' upbringing. He had no maternal influence to deter him from delinquency. 

I did my best Lord, I hope you know. I still do. I groomed him, showed him your love and he was accepting of it. He sang your praises with that beautiful tenor voice in the church choir. Then I learned he used that voice to distract patrons in restaurants whilst his friends robbed the coatroom. Should it really be held against him if he used the gifts you bestowed unto him to further his way in the world? He was a poor boy Lord, it drove him into business, something he has a natural flair for. He and his friend Bugs Moran. They are a bad influence on each other, but they are as thick as thieves. Inseparable since their days of slugging for the city's newspapers. 

In truth it is not his soul I worry for, more his safety. He is a sensitive boy underneath it all. His love of singing, his passion for flowers and he still repents, aware of his own misgivings. He’s in mass almost every Sunday, confessions a few times a week, and takes his penance seriously. I can’t help but wonder what kind of man he would be, were his mother still alive...

Ah! But I see Lord, taking her was your will, of course, and your will has made him the man he is today. He is the result of the hard city that shaped him, such an outcome has branded him a success in the world he dabbles in. Even the strongest of your flock, Lord, can be tempted by the devil’s vices. I should know, and for that I beg forgiveness. The point is that we are trying, daily, to be worthy of your love, Dean O’ Banion more than anyone. He is a good Catholic who I have well versed in your word. That is more than I could have hoped for I suppose. 



Watch the Boss Spotlight on Dean O'Banion here:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Good business is about making your own opportunity, and Dean O'Banion sure knows good business. He's got the perfect front; who would suspect the friendly man in the florists would have a backroom set aside for shadier dealings?

Join Brenda Romero, Chris King and Katie Gardner on the streets of West Loop for a sit-down with Dean O'Banion and take a closer look at diplomacy! Stream starts on Thursday, 5 PM CEST / 8 AM PDT on twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive!

On July 23rd we packed into our towncar and took a trip down to reddit for a grand old Ask Me Anything! We were absolutely flabbergasted by the attention, and we had a real swell time answering questions that night!  While the full AMA thread is still there on Reddit for you to take a gander at, we have gathered here a fine selection of questions and answers for you to enjoy. 

[h2]On the setting[/h2]

BlueLantern84: What made you lean toward this particular setting?

Brenda Romero: I have been fascinated with the Prohibition-era since I was a kid. There is a bar in my hometown called The Place. Rumor has it that it is the oldest continuously running bar in the US, and never shut during Prohibition. The bar itself is a short walk to the St. Lawrence River and across that is Canada. So, it served a lot of Canadian booze during that time. I knew I wanted to make a game in this setting at some point, and I started toying with the idea in 2000. The challenge with making a game, though, is that it has to have a hook -- the unique thing that separates it from all other games. That's the game you see here. Chicago was key to it. It's geographic location, the people who were there during the time... it was just an incredibly rich space to develop in.



kirsebaer-_-: When you make a game such as this, do you talk with old mobsters and get their input?

Brenda Romero: I've had 20 years to research the game, so I've taken in a lot. I've read every book I could get my hands on, watched a ton of documentaries and read police files and testimony from the time. I also have watched every film and TV show that's even remotely related (and the whole Sopranos series six times). I didn't talk to any actual gangsters of modern era for this game, however. Just the stuff on Capone could keep me going for years. We also had a guy on the design team, Darius Monks, whose job it was to dig all kinds of stuff up. Some of the bosses in the game are a credit to his sleuthing work.

[h2]What makes the game stand out?[/h2]

Hieremias: I am super on board for an "XCOM-with-gangsters" game, but because there are so many games in that genre can you give some details on how yours is different?

Ian O’Neill: Great question! The setting is a huge part of what sets Empire of Sin's combat apart from similar games in the genre. The weapons and equipment, the Gangster professions and abilities, and the environments all combine to really make our combat systems their own. Combat will feel familiar and comfortable to fans of the genre, so they'll be able to jump right in and get started, but there's also some new tricks and tactics that you're going to have to become familiar with to come out on top. I'll give one example. Combat can happen anywhere, and I mean anywhere. Hit that ambush button and traffic around you will stop as the game switches over to turn-based mode. You've now got a whole bunch of cars that will provide you with cover or block line of sight. Use it wisely.

Brenda Romero: Great question! Most importantly, we have no aliens (or they are just disguised as humans. The truth is out there on the internet. It is the only way to get this message out. Help us.)

Empire of Sin has a lot of different stuff going on in it. You're building an entire empire in a variety of different ways. That means that you have to gain strategic control of neighbourhoods, maximise their earnings, and learn all the little things you can do to increase prosperity (or trash it in your enemy's neighborhood). To do that, you need to get and manage a crew who often have minds of their own and might make friends, enemies or lovers of one another. Bosses have their own unique stories as do some of the gangsters, and those stories come into play as missions in unique ways. While you're trying to be Boss of Chicago, someone is also trying to kill you. Many someones. So, you have to manage your diplomacy and know your enemy like you know yourself. Make alliances, Form trade agreements. Accept and offer protection treaties. There's just so, so much going on in the game.



[h2]On what inspired the team[/h2]

Scythius1: Which 3 games would you say Empire of Sin is mechanically most influenced by?

Brenda Romero: From a design perspective, it is heavily influenced by the games in the Civilization series, Jagged Alliance and XCom.

Katie Garner: I can answer to the narrative design, which is inspired by branching path style dialogue found in games such as Fallout 3 & New Vegas, mixed with some Divinity: Original Sin 2. Skill checks and traits play a part in missions, so they're certainly something to bear in mind when making dialogue choices!

---

MachoToast1122: Are there any films or television shows that inspired the game and it’s mechanics? 

Brenda Romero: Without a doubt, The Untouchables and The Sopranos. The interplay between the various bosses in The Sopranos and the humour/depth in their own stories is something that I definitely wanted in the game. I can't claim credit for its delivery, however. That is all down to our writing team: Katie, Mike, Luke and Jack.

---

titus_1_15: As a kid Gangsters: Organised Crime was one of my favourite games, and for years I'd been hoping someone would have a modern take on something in the same vein. I particularly enjoyed the legal fronts/illegal business and money laundering mechanics, which few other games have explored, and the general tycoon aspects, as much as the combat.

Was this game one of the influences you looked at when designing Empire of Sin?

Brenda Romero: Surprisingly, it wasn't, though it certainly comes up a lot. The main influences from a gameplay perspective were games in the Civilization series and XCom (for the combat). My favorite game of all time is Civilization Revolution. I also love the time period of 1920s prohibition-era Chicago. At some point, this happened in my head: What if instead of picking Napoleon or Gandhi, I was picking Al Capone and Dean O'Banion? What if instead of trying to build an empire to last the test of time, I was trying to build an empire to take everyone else out?

I also drew heavy inspiration from my favourite TV series, The Sopranos.



[h2]On Game Development[/h2]

tmjhurts: What are a few things about developing a game, even just minutiae, that a lay person doesn’t know about but you find interesting?

Conor Jordan: The most interesting thing I find about developing a game is you've got a group of experts in art, programming, design, narrative etc. all coming together and just making this one awesome thing for others to enjoy. It's the fuckin' coolest thing.

John Romero: The process of developing a game is one of constant problem solving. The first big problem is that you have a game idea you want to make - to solve that problem you have to break it up into hundreds of smaller pieces. Those pieces tend to break into dozens of smaller pieces as well.

This is why it takes years to make a game.

Brenda Romero: Wow. Interesting question. I have never done anything else, so I find it a challenge to have perspective on what other professions might feel like. I do know that game development feels more like a family to me than any other "team" I've been on, and I mean "family" in the near-literal way. It's pretty demanding, and the game is in your head even when you are not working. I wake up at 3, 4, 5am thinking about stuff. It means that our partners, families, kids also live this thing. When we launch the game, we ALL launch it. There is a tremendous closeness bound by that purpose. I can't imagine it's like that at an insurance company.

---

Bazztoner: How challenging has been for you to conceptualize this type of gameplay coming from so many different backgrounds?

Brenda Romero: If you're referring to the gameplay style, it was 20 years worth of challenging. I've wanted to make a game based on Prohibition-era Chicago for a very long time. It took that length of time for that unique mix to come together.

---

RSAnderson: Hey guys, love your work! How do you go about casting voice over for your projects?

Katie Garner: Good question! Casting for VO is a lot of work, but also really fun. For our part, we listen through tons and tons of auditions and match up voices with characters. Every so often, a voice will just click. You're listening to an audition, and you'll immediately go, "Wow, that's exactly what this person sounded like in my head." It's a really cool moment.

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guyewhite: What is a programming skill that you learned early on that has been useful over and over again in game development? (Could even be a “beginner” move!)

Ian Dunbar: I distinctly remember when I realized that you can safely remove elements from a list while looping over it if you loop over the list in reverse. That blew my mind at the time.

John Romero: The most important skill in programming for me has been writing only small bits of code before running and testing it. The bugs you have are typically very small and easy to understand and fix.

The longer you code before testing, the harder it is to debug.



[h2]On Gameplay[/h2]

grumpyfrench: Multiplayer?

Brenda Romero: Empire of Sin is a single-player game.

---

JoshRTR14: Will the Nintendo Switch version be watered down or the same as the PC release?

Brenda Romero: Same game, no water added.

---

AllntheReflexes: You guys are great!

In Empire of Sin, will there be other ways to defeat the bosses in the city other than killing them? How will police/FBI interact with the player and the AI? Will there be any form of a court system/arrests/judges?

Thanks! Looking forward to the game!

Brenda Romero: Chicago in the 1920s was a tough place. The police will arrest people and send them to jail, but everything has its price. So for enough cash, you can get them sprung from jail. One way to avoid that is to get the police to like you enough, then you pay them and the will turn a blind eye to your activities. Ultimately, Empire of Sin is a game about making allies... and then making enemies.

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MachoToast1122: What rackets will we see in Empire of Sin? I’ve read on the steam page about protection rackets and union skimming but haven’t heard anything about those in a while. Was wondering if they’re still a part of this game.

Brenda Romero: There are currently 4 base rackets in Empire of Sin, Breweries, Brothels, Speakeasies and Casinos. Protection was modified as a racket and moved into diplomacy which gave it way more strategic depth. Weaker gangs can pay protection to stronger ones so paying protection is still a thing in Empire of Sin. Union Skimming ended up on the bad end of a gun and did not make it to the end of development.

---

RomanMad: Will the maps in Empire of Sin be randomly generated each time you play?

John Romero: When you start a new game you can choose how many Bosses and how many Neighborhoods you want to play against and in. Then, the placement of the Bosses is randomized and the Neighborhoods themselves have random placement of rackets. The Neighborhoods themselves are designed, but not the function of the buildings. One game could have a building be a derelict place filled with Thugs, another time it could be another Boss' Brewery.

---

bozz14: Hi team, thanks for taking the time and cannot wait for the release! If it's not too revealing of an answer, do you have a ballpark estimate yet of long the game is hours-wise?

Brenda Romero: It's not a revealing answer at all... just a tricky one. Empire of Sin has such wide-ranging gameplay. There are 14 bosses for starters, 10 different neighborhoods and then a bunch of minor factions. So, you can play a smaller game with a few neighborhoods and bosses or a much longer, larger game.

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Collected1: Do you have any plans for a future livestream to showcase the game and perhaps some development insights? 

Conor Jordan: We've actually been streaming the game on https://www.twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive. The next live stream is August 13th :)



[h2]Modding[/h2]

KakisalmenKuningas: Do you have plans to include modding tools that would allow for user made content along the lines of the Long War mod for Xcom? Tools powerful enough to potentially change even the strategy layer of the game, and not just the tactics layer.

Brenda Romero: Yes, we designed the game to support mods right from the beginning of development. We’re planning to provide almost all the tools we used to develop the game to modders and can’t wait to see what the community do with them!

[h2]Release date[/h2]

Joeonandoff: I was looking forward to the game since last year? Any reason for the delays ?

Brenda Romero: I have two answers: because that's how it goes sometimes, and because we have a great publisher.

I'll explain.

"Sometimes, that's how it goes." At the beginning of game, you make estimates based on what you think the game will be and what you think it will need. As these things come to pass, you realise that you need more of this and less of that. Games are a highly iterative process, particularly when you're trying to make something no one else has made before. So, you do your best, and we as a team have (I'm so lucky to work with so many amazing people, genuinely).

"We have a great publisher." Throughout the development, Paradox has been very involved. I have said publicly a number of times that they *feel* like a development studio that's masquerading as a publisher. I don't think anyone knows their fans or their genre as well as Paradox does. They saw the potential of the game and gave us the time that we needed. Every member of the team is grateful for it.

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Blaeys: Because you have to know the question is coming: 

Do you have a release date - or more refined release date window - you can share?

Really looking forward to this game.

Brenda Romero: Fall 2020. Glad you're looking forward to it. We can't wait to have it in your hands.

[h2]Preorder[/h2]

i_am_fear_itself: Brenda, when can I pre-order? I'm terrified life is gonna get busy and I'm going to completely forget EoS is coming out until it's a year old?

Can you fix this?

Brenda Romero: Yes, I can. Sign up for the newsletter, and you will definitely not miss it. https://www.empireofsingame.com

---

Read the full AMA on reddit here: https://pdxint.at/EoSAMA

 

Empire of Sin casts you in the role of a gangster in Chicago during the era of prohibition. It may not come as a surprise to you to discover that the basis of the economic system is about the illegal production and sale of alcohol. This is done via rackets.


There are four basic types of rackets in the game. Each Racket fills its own niche inside the economic system, and you can go for a balanced approach or focus on a single racket type.



[h3]Breweries[/h3]
As the name implies, Breweries are the source of your illicit alcohol. Although styled as a Brewery, the building also covers the production of spirits through illicit stills and wine by ignoring the clear warnings displayed on grape juice concentrate by the socially responsible grape producers of America. These buildings produce alcohol every week and cost money. Essentially, breweries are dead weight and lose you money unless you can find an outlet for all this alcohol you are producing.

[h3]Brothels[/h3]
The name implies that this racket is not in the primary business of selling alcohol. However, as part of the overall customer experience, alcohol will be served if you have any available. The supply of alcohol will simply allow the Brothel to make more money from its alcohol sales. These buildings provide a nice solid foundation to any criminal empire. If the so-called law enforcement starts targeting your Breweries, your Brothels will continue to supply that cash flow that will keep your empire going.

[h3]Speakeasies[/h3]
Speakeasies are the classic prohibition racket that serve alcohol and make a healthy profit doing so. Unlike the brothel, it will not make any money unless it is supplied with alcohol, thus this racket is vulnerable to disruptions in alcohol supply.

[h3]Casinos[/h3]
Make their money from gambling. Unlike the other racket types, their revenue is not stable and will fluctuate according to just how much lady luck smiles on people. A casino can also lose money if the house has a bad night. Supplying alcohol increases the sizes of the bets, meaning the Casino will earn more or lose more depending on the roll of the dice. In the long run, Casinos will make money and be nice earners for your criminal empire. On a week-to-week basis, they are unreliable, so you will want some buffer in your finances if you are going to rely on casinos for your revenue.


There are three ways to set up a racket.

• Purchase it: You can buy an available building and turn it into a racket at a cost.
  
• Take it over from thugs: You can also take over a derelict racket from local thugs and convert it into a racket. This is cheaper than buying one as the previous owner left it derelict, and all you need to do is make it yours and pay a cost to de-thug the interior.
  
• Take it over from another faction: You can take over a racket from another faction. If you keep it as the same racket, this is free (and by far the cheapest way to expand your empire!), but if you wish to change the racket type, then the takeover costs are identical to when you took it over from thugs.

There are other options to damage, loot and shutdown rackets. I will leave someone else to describe these fun little extras for you. However, I just want to let you know they are there to answer the question, “But what happens if I beat up some thugs and don’t have enough money to convert it into a racket?”


To make money, rackets need paying customers. Each neighbourhood in Chicago has a customer pool, and if there are more spaces in rackets than there are paying customers available, then rackets will start competing for customers based on a value called Draw. Draw is simply an expression of how much people are willing to go to a place. It is a number, and when it comes to using it, we compare the draw of the racket to the average draw in the neighbourhood. Essentially, your speakeasy can be a rundown dive, but that is fine as long as everyone else’s rackets are even more rundown than yours.

Chicago is a small place (in the grand scheme of things), so customers will move from neighbourhood to neighbourhood in search of entertainment. Once they find a neighbourhood that will supply them, they will stay there until events transpire that will cause people to move on. As a player, you have a couple of tools at your disposal to help persuade people to go to your rackets in your neighbourhoods rather than other gangs. One option is when you win the battle, you can simply shut down the enemy racket. This will force the customers to look elsewhere for some entertainment. This also leads onto another value that is important, neighbourhood prosperity.

Prosperity in game terms is people’s willingness to go out and spend money in a neighbourhood. As this is the roaring twenties, Prosperity intrinsicity rises every month. Spending money on improving rackets increases Prosperity. On the other hand, the body count, the amount of people getting killed in a neighbourhood (and especially police), pushes it down. Prosperity modifies the maximum number of customers for each racket in the neighbourhood which effectively influences how much money the rackets make. There are other routes to influence how much money rackets make, for example we could have simply altered how much money people were willing to spend in rackets. However, the way we chose has a neat additional effect, customers will naturally move from low prosperity to high prosperity neighbourhoods and stay there. This has two additional consequences: long wars will inflict long-term harm on businesses in the neighbourhoods where the war is being fought. It gives you an incentive to exit a war if it is being fought in territory which you want to keep and also gives an additional way to attack the enemy. You do not need to take the racket. Just drive the customers away and inflict long term damage to the opponents.




Rackets have a value called average spend, which is effectively how much money each customer is spending in the racket. The revenue per racket is the number of customers multiplied by the average spend. To facilitate the “build tall” strategy we give you the player a number of tools with which to improve this average spend value.

The first to upgrade the ambience of your rackets. Fix up the joint and people will open up their wallets. There is also a side benefit that if your racket is near one of the same type your ambience will also influence the draw of the racket. Again this is a relative thing, as long as your ambience is better than the nearby rackets you will get a draw bonus and vice versa.



Then there is the straight forward supply of alcohol, your customers consume alcohol and supplying them with alcohol will ensure they keep spending. We touched on this in racket descriptions. What I will add here, however, is there is a maximum amount the customers will consume. Also, customers will stay in rackets even if there is no alcohol supplied. You can have speakeasies full of people desperate to spend money on alcohol who will wait months for the chance to do so. While this is unrealistic in the real world (unless the doors are locked from the outside), it’s not in Empire of Sin! More importantly, it does make it much easier to tell you things like how much alcohol you need on a weekly basis to run your empire. This in turn makes it easier for you, and the AI, to make strategic decisions on things like alcohol supply.

Then comes the quality of alcohol you supply. The basic rule of thumb is that the better grade of alcohol you supply, the more money you will make. There is one exception to this, and this is neighbourhood preferred alcohol. This is determined by the overall prosperity of the neighbourhood. The higher the prosperity level, the higher the grade of alcohol the neighbourhood prefers. So, all your garbage swill will find a home in the poorer neighbourhoods and be the drink of choice of the locals.

There are two alcohol supply strategies available to the player. The simple one is to aim to get the highest grade of alcohol possible, this will increase the income from your rackets and boost the profitability of your empire. The true min-max player, though, will seek to get just the right alcohol to each neighbourhood. It is more work, but I know some of you will have hours of fun perfecting the strategies to do it.


So your primary source of alcohol in the game are your breweries. Each brewery will produce a certain amount of alcohol. The alcohol is then available to the rackets for sale. (The moving of alcohol between a brewery and a racket is one of those things that looks so simple at first glance but as you dig into it gets more and more complicated. It is also something that is fairly simple at the start of the game where you may only have one or two breweries and most, if not all, of your rackets are in the same neighbourhood. Once your empire starts to expand and alcohol needs to be shuffled between multiple breweries across several neighbourhoods or from storage, it becomes a really quite complex problem. As a development team we chose to leave this problem alone and focus our time on things we felt would give more to the game.)

Each Brewery can only produce one grade of alcohol at a time. We wanted to make the alcohol optimization game challenging -- you don’t just need enough production; you also need different sites to produce all the grades you want.



Breweries cannot just produce any type of alcohol they want, they start being only able to produce the lowest grade of alcohol. You need to upgrade the breweries to unlock the higher grades of alcohol.

When it comes to deciding what sort of alcohol you want to supply you choose a preferred grade for that neighbourhood it will then seek to supply that grade. The rules for what happens when you don’t have the required stuff are complex and evolving so I will leave out for the moment, just take my word that they exist.


In order to make the choice of racket you set up a little more interesting, we added the idea of a synergy. Essentially, rackets in the same neighbourhood act in combination to boost the average spend in these rackets. At time of typing, these synergies were built around poker hands. For example 2 pairs or a full house. The more complex the synergy, the more the average spend gets increased.

To further boost your synergies, you can open a hotel in the neighbourhood. This is an entirely legitimate business and won’t make you any money but the friendly staff are always there to help guests who are seeking some entertainment. So, if some lonely businessperson was in town for a few nights and wanted to go some place for some... well, you get the idea. The hotel staff will be able to direct them to the right place, i.e. one owned by you. What hotels do is magnify the bonuses of your current synergies, and are limited to one per neighbourhood per faction. Hotels cannot be upgraded or attacked in the way your less-than-legitimate businesses can be, but should you no longer have a synergy in the neighbourhood, it will simply close.




Each boss has two bonuses that pertain to rackets. I am going to level with you here: we aimed to make them fun and interesting rather than punch them into a spreadsheet and try to balance them to the third decimal place. The other thing is that bonuses are designed to be very different to each other. So, you may find that some bosses are simply overpowered when combined with your play style. If so, we hope you enjoy it (as these may be nerfed later). These bonuses have a bearing on the economics of each gang, so are worth looking at when considering your economic decisions.

Each neighbourhood also has a number of effects that will impact on rackets. Some of these are fixed and are innate to the neighbourhood, but others can be earned during the game. For example, once you get enough Brothels in a neighbourhood, you can earn the title “Red Light District” and then all Brothels earn extra money. If some brothels in that neighbourhood were to suffer some unfortunate accidents that caused them to close, then the neighborhood would lose the title and another neighbourhood could pick it up.

Well, that’s it for the economy round up. I hope this gives you some insight into some of the fun choices you will have!

- Chris King, Senior Designer on Empire of Sin

Psst, hey, you! Lookin' for some... information? Brenda Romero, John Romero and the splendid crew at Romero Games will be answering YOUR questions about Empire of Sin in a grand AMA on Reddit, TODAY!

So don your fedora, bust out the giggle juice and join us for a real swell AMA on Reddit at 19:00 CEST at ♠️ https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/hwi95t/we_are_brenda_and_john_romero_video_game/ ♠️