"Bootlegger: Moonshine Empire"—Quench the thirst of Prohibition New York!

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Originally published at: “Bootlegger: Moonshine Empire”—Quench the thirst of Prohibition New York! - Choice of Games LLC

Bootlegger: Moonshine Empire
We’re proud to announce that Bootlegger: Moonshine Empire, the latest in our popular “Choice of Games” line of multiple-choice interactive-fiction games, is now available for Steam, Android, and on iOS in the “Choice of Games” app.

It’s 33% off until October 3rd!

Quench the thirst of 1920s Prohibition New York! Build a criminal organization to distill and peddle whiskey, and you could end up rich, famous, or dead.

Bootlegger: Moonshine Empire is an interactive historical novel by Drew Morrison. It’s entirely text-based, 210,000 words and hundreds of choices, without graphics or sound effects, and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

The year is 1920. Prohibition has begun, and alcohol has become illegal overnight. As public bars, distilleries, and distributors have shut down, thirsty patrons now turn to the black market, as organized crime rises to meet insatiable demand.

You started running whiskey in rural Pennsylvania with a few friends in a barn, trying to make a better life for you and your sister, brewing bathtub gin and white lightning. Now, you’re building an illegal operation to distill and distribute liquor.

Your target: New York City. The teetotalers call it “Satan’s Seat.” The city is full of rich folks who want to drink booze while they dance the Charleston till dawn—and you’re going to sell it to them.

Use your business acumen and instincts to outwit your rivals; or ally with them to build your own empire even higher! Bargain with union leaders and mob bosses to get your booze to Manhattan’s ever-growing network of speakeasies—or ruthlessly eliminate every one of your rivals in bloodthirsty shootouts. Life back home in Pennsylvania is almost as dangerous, with the preacher who wants to keep your hometown dry, and the Feds moving in closer every day.

As you gather your power, there’s no telling how high you could climb. Will you become the mayor of your hometown? You won’t have to worry about the cops if they’re on your payroll. Will you just get rich, living in your palatial Manhattan penthouse? Or will you become a Broadway star with your name in lights?

But you know what they say: the higher they rise, the harder they fall. If you get on the wrong side of the wrong people, you could end up in prison, or worse.

• Play as male, female, or nonbinary; gay, straight, or bi.
• Manage the workers in your operation; will you be a generous leader, or a merciless profiteer?
• Drive on wild car chases to get your moonshine to the big city before your rivals can catch you!
• Launder your illegal earnings through a Broadway play—and maybe even become the star!
• Navigate the politics in your hometown: Communists, union organizers, temperance preachers, and more—or become the mayor and put them all at your command.
• Climb the ranks of New York City’s mob to inherit an empire—or get caught by the Feds, and see it all come crashing down.

Why be a cog in someone else’s machine, when you can have your own moonshine empire?

We hope you enjoy playing Bootlegger: Moonshine Empire. We encourage you to tell your friends about it, and recommend the game on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and other sites. Don’t forget: our initial download rate determines our ranking on the App Store. The more times you download in the first week, the better our games will rank.

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Congrats @Drewber on the release! I’ve been interested in this since it was first announced.

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Happy launch day, @Drewber! Congratulations on the release!

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After first playing it as a WIP over two years ago, I’m so happy to see Bootlegger join the ranks of published games.

I’ve been a history buff most of my life, and I did a high school project once on the temperance movement and the Prohibition era, so it was a lot of fun for me to step into the shoes of a character living a century ago, watching America’s grand failed experiment play out and seizing it as an opportunity. There’s a lot you can do in this game, from rising through the ranks of organized crime to finding legitimate success on Broadway, and it’s a tense, challenging journey. In my first set of notes to the author, I described it as stressful, but in a good way - and it’s even more so now than it was then.

Bootlegger is a fast-paced historical adventure with management elements, but it’s also a dark study in morals and motivations. For a game in which crime quite literally does pay - quite lucratively, too, if you do it right - it never actually glorifies life on the wrong side of the law (even if the law itself is on the wrong side of history). There are consequences - the formal kind, yes, but also the cost to the mind and spirit of a life steeped in violence, deception, and betrayal. (None of this is to say I didn’t enjoy every minute of my character’s vicious rise to the top, but I could feel the stubborn stain of blood on my hands. It’s no coincidence that one of the plays you can produce in this game is Shakespeare’s Macbeth.)

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention how much I love the dialogue in this game. I shouldn’t have been surprised to learn @Drewber is from a theater background himself - he has a gift for bringing characters to life through their words and mannerisms. This game has grown so much since I first played it, become a much deeper and richer experience, but it was the dialogue that got me invested in the story early on. I’m so glad to see these characters finally getting the chance to speak to a wider audience.

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This is what struck me too while playing the demo the other day. I’m eager to get back into this cast of characters!

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I’m really enjoying this one so far! I’m a sucker for Prohibition-era stuff!

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Super excited to play this game! Ever since I watched the Godfather I’ve loved the dual nature of mafia/crime fiction and the struggle between right and wrong. Glad to see another story taking a shot at it.

I haven’t made it far (just played the demo once) but I’m wondering if we can choose our character’s clothing style nad not just our gender and presentability. Because I’d LOVE to be able to play as a butch woman like irl.

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Found a bug, I think. Chapter 7 opens up with this line: “Sam says she’ll meet you at a speak. As a mayoral candidate, she’s made the local speakeasy a sort of official meeting place.” However, I had agreed to drop the campaign bid way earlier in the story.

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If you find bugs, the best thing to do is report them to support@choiceofgames.com to be sure it will be seen and passed along to the author.

@GreedyDragon - You don’t actually get to choose your character’s clothing style, but there are very few differences in the text based on gender, and multiple references to the PC wearing pants. So if you picture your PC as a butch woman, there will be nothing to contradict you.

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Alrighty! Thanks for the info

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Thank you @Eiwynn and @HarrisPS!!! And thank you for the kind words @AletheiaKnights, and for making this game so much stronger with your feedback!

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You’re very welcome! I’m so honored to have been a part of your journey. :slight_smile:

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Can someone tell me who the ROs are?

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Romance isn’t a huge focus in this game, but it’s possible to have a relationship with Lance or Sam.

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Cool thanks
There were a few names in the stats so wasn’t sure who was romanceable

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I really enjoy this game. I was initially worried when the game was described as tense, because I’m bad at management games. I’m glad the stat check is very managable, but it’s emotionally tense.

Never have I played a game feeling so angry and frustated about NPCs (in a good way) and let my very nice and friendly character finish them.

One minor gripe

Summary

Sam agrees that we have to deal with the NY reporter. Why is she frustrated when I do what she wants - talk with the reporter to remove the article?

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Yo this game was fire I didn’t expect much but I was pleasantly surprised by the quality.

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I liked the story, but the management system seems a bit too tough. I’ve got 46% speech and 60% diplomacy and I’ve been failing all the gentle negotiation checks in the later chapters, so now my highest skill is useless. Also, when killing Capaldi all on my own, I didn’t notice the increase in viciousness, which I believe is due. And, when I backed up Rory, story told me that MC is getting rich and the profit flows,while the profit stat was below 60. But in the play through where I backed up Sam, my profit stat is 62 and the story says that I’m barely breaking even, so I don’t get the meaning of this stat.

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Patch One

  • tunes down Sam tests in the finale
  • correctly assigns “none” when no mayoral candidate
  • several other continuity bugs
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Yeah, the revenue stat needs some rebalancing. I noticed some late game requirements are astronomically high in the code that would require some someone who’s playing to be incredibly lucky on their try or plan their moves ahead of time.

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