At PDXCON 2019 in Berlin, I had the chance to sit down with John Romero (of DOOM/id Software fame) to talk about his and his wife Brenda Romero?s new game. Developed by Romero Games, Empire of Sin is a criminal empire management RPG strategy game set in Chicago during the 1920s prohibition era. Players choose from more than 10 crime bosses to rule the streets of Chicago, taking down other empires and building their own. It melds management-style simulation games with turn-based strategy to bring out a character-focused experience that?s bound to be different every time you play through.
Empire of Sin is a game that Brenda Romero has been wanting to make for more than 20 years. While obviously a work of fiction, it pulls from real people, places, and events in history. John was sure to reiterate that game is Brenda?s design, and anything that he does with it is in the confines of her vision. An immense amount of historical research has gone into making sure that the game retains an accuracy to the period. Over the course of the Empire of Sin?s timeline, players will even find themselves faced with specific events that happened at specific times in history, ?if they can survive that long.?
?There?s a lot of things that happened every single day that aren?t written in the history books, right"? Romero told me as we talked about their research. Those moment to moment things are going into the missions and events that they are creating in this game. It?s aiming to give a ...