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Brenda Romero talks Empire of Sin development, DLC & history

We caught up to Brenda Romero of Romero Games to talk about their recent release, Empire of Sin. Check out the deeper details of history and development of this 1920s crime strategy.

TJ Denzer

January 12, 2021 3:00 PM

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Empire of Sin wasn’t quite the best game we played in 2020, but it was definitely one of the most interesting. An absolutely massive mish-mash of 1920’s Prohibition-Era gang history, strategy, and business simulation, we couldn’t deny that Empire of Sin had a hold on us that kept us wanting to play for hours on end. Recently, we caught up to Brenda Romero of Romero Games, the minds behind Empire of Sin, to talk about the efforts that went into mixing genres, exploring history, including it in the game’s world, and much more.

Brenda shared a wealth of interesting information with us about the behind-the-scenes of Empire of Sin. Whether it was getting the most prolific gangsters of 1920s Chicago right, exploring deeply to create the attributes of lesser known gang leaders, or even the characters they came up with on their own, Brenda speaks to a tapestry of the history that inspired decisions inside the game. There’s even interesting takes on what the future of the game could hold as far as new content.

Brenda Romero’s stories about how the characters were designed are interesting to say the least. It’s not just mechanical or narrative. Empire of Sin spans business tycoon and strategy combat genres as well, and the characters’ business and combat abilities are also well thought out and inspired by their real-life counterparts where applicable. Then there’s the web of lackeys, thugs, henchmen, and hitmen that you can recruit and their connections to one another. All of it came together to make for an enthusiastic review when we played the game last year.

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TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.