And that’s the same in any of those games. And then those things can sit on their own, and then you sort of see how the system is running. Those games, I would say, really sharpened my ability or my passion for looking at something that’s historical, finding the systems that are in it, the core systems, the necessary systems. So, thanks, it’s an honor that you know about the board game work, I appreciate that. You’re actually the only reporter who’s asked that. I was wondering how your work in "The Mechanic is the Message" may have influenced Empire of Sin.īrenda Romero: It’s the same set of tools. Some you’re fully aware of, some you’re only aware of when they interfere with an action, and some you’re not aware of at all. I mean, maybe specifically about how there are secret things going on when you’re playing Empire of Sin. I can’t help but look at this game with thoughts directed at those projects. And then the other projects that you’ve done under that banner. I knew it - though not by the moniker of “The Mechanic is the Message” - but I remember first reading about Train, and it blew my mind. I was turned onto your work many years ago. Ian O’Neill: The HR slogan: “Our games are built by the team.” I know that sounds like a game developer greeting card or motivational poster, but it really, seriously is. That’s where the verbs of the game come from. “You’re a boss, you’re in Chicago, what do you wanna do?” And that’s it. But the cool thing is having all the team there and a whiteboard leaning against the desk, and saying, “Okay, you’re in Chicago.” many of us, 8 or 10. Because if that company doesn’t take it, what are you gonna do?” But I didn’t follow that advice. If anybody said, “What shouldn’t you do?” I would say, “Well, don’t pitch an idea that is specifically for that company. I’m really comfortable speaking, but I knew, desperately, because it was a strategy game, I knew desperately that I wanted Paradox to have this game. I pitched the game to Paradox, which was probably the most nervous 20 minutes of my life. I got the roots of it five years ago, and it was not something that existed, and not something that I had ever played before. If you’re really interested in something, you just do that, and if you’re a game designer, if you’re interested in something and you love games, you wanna play in that space. My grandfather walked alcohol across the border, because the Saint Lawrence river used to be rapids at the time, so you could just walk alcohol across from Canada. I remember going to the library and looking stuff up, and I’ve just always been fascinated with that whole thing, and it just never went away, ever. So, it inadvertently spawned this love of criminal empires. I asked my mother, “How could this have never shut? The cops can see it, why wouldn’t they just go, excuse me, you need to close down?” And my mother, not wanting to say, not wanting to like, let me know that cops turn a blind eye and could be bribed, not wanting to let me know about this grey area at ten, just kept not-answering the question.
![empire of sin find the mole empire of sin find the mole](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/uG8r2gsbAwg/maxresdefault.jpg)
So, there’s zero chance that people didn’t know about this. And I asked her because, there’s two key things about The Place: it’s on the main street in town and it has giant picture windows.
![empire of sin find the mole empire of sin find the mole](https://img.youtube.com/vi/ZiMzKzGjUtk/0.jpg)
And my mother’s a lot like Dean O’Banion, right? She’s pretty devout. So, like a curious ten-year-old, I asked my mother. Now, I’m sure some other bar didn’t close, but that’s what I knew about The Place. So, when I was young, it was the oldest continuously operating bar in the US. And that bar - it’s still open in fact - that bar apparently never closed during Prohibition. There’s a bar in my hometown called The Place. I grew up in Northern New York on the Canadian border. It actually goes back to when I was ten years old.
![empire of sin find the mole empire of sin find the mole](https://pa1.narvii.com/6351/902dfe6acf2d168f4b08c11d6002688077c73b0f_hq.gif)
Nothing ever really gelled to the point that, like, I couldn’t wait to play it…until Empire of Sin. And if you could just imagine throwing everything you know about it, and sticking different magnets in there to see what is sticking to those ideas. Brenda Romero: So, I have been trying to make a game set in this time period for probably 20 years.