Why Early Access?

“The vision for the final game is for a complex and a highly interactive and open world, and in order to build it properly, it must be built in stages, each of which build on the last. I think it's necessary to release the game in stages so that as the game is built up to its full potential, it is adequately built and working at the previous stage before any further complexity is added on to it.
Releasing early access will allow for players to provide feedback about balance, bugs, optimization, GUI, and so on for each stage and finally for the full product.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“I anticipate the game will stay in early access for approximately 12 months.”

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

“To improve the game from its current state I plan to release steady and regular updates that gradually add in the following features:

-Rival NPC AI gangs to challenge the player's gang
-Recruit shady AI characters to join your gang
-Assign complex tasks to subordinates to handle tasks for you
-Improved NPC reaction to criminal activity
-Smarter NPC interaction with criminal enterprises (brothels, speakeasies, etc)
-Better vehicular traffic
-Additional criminal activities (car chop shops, auto theft, union bribery, etc)
-Interaction with local police force (will be able to bribe police or even have police start working FOR you)
-Municipal government (politicians that will seek to pass laws affecting your criminal activities. For example, if a politician wants to end prohibition, it would mean the end of your profitable speakeasy and bootlegging business, so you will probably want to exert "pressure" on the politicians to keep prohibition in place)
-Bribery of government officials
-Federal investigators to actively build criminal cases against criminals
-Ability for arrested subordinates to turn witness against you
-Wiretaps and bugs
-Increased language support
-Steam Achievements

Every patch and update will also likely contain optimizations and fixes from previous versions, as well.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“The player will released into a wide and expansive city with a large population ripe for targeting.

The map is semi-randomly spawned for increased replayability, and the world is populated by thousands of unique NPC characters who each have their own personality traits, likes, needs, wants, and vices.

A wide range of criminal activity can be performed by the player such as numbers, pickpocketing, theft, burglary, lockpicking, safecracking, alarm bypass, bootlegging, rumrunning, speakeasy operation, home-beer-brewing, moonshine-making, drug distribution, drug-cutting, drug cooking, brothel management, protection extortion, etc.

The player can become a principal criminal figure in the city.”

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?

“Upon final release I expect the price of the game to increase.”

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?

“User feedback is important and necessary. I view the production of this game as being semi-collaborative. While I certainly have a vision for what the final version of the game will look like, I am eager to get feedback from players with ideas that could improve my vision and for mechanics that I may not have thought of.

Feedback on requested features, GUI, accessible information, and bugs can reported the discussion board on the store page.”