I’ve got the next chapter of Bootlegger ready for review. The demo now includes the first 8 chapters.
You play as a Prohibition era whiskey runner, making a name for yourself as you alternate between New York City and Heathsaw, PA. Players will have the opportunity to build a criminal empire, get into politics, find a producing career on Broadway, get in with the mob, find romance, snitch for the Treasury Department, and more!
The demo contains the first 8 chapters. This is my first game, and I’m about 130,000 words in. Any and all feedback is welcome and greatly appreciated!
Warning: There are scenes of violence and bloodshed.
I’m really interested in this concept! I’m partway through my first round of playing, and I’ve hit something that’s either unclear or is in error. I wanted to go ahead and report it, because I don’t think I’ll have time to give complete feedback before sleeping tonight.
Details
So I’m sitting down to birthday dinner with Sam and her husband, who I think is named Derek. And I get: “The appeal of the farm was its isolation, a full hour walk into town, and Jason had no doubt looked forward to the peace and quiet with his wife. However, Derek also wasn’t fond of or skilled at picking tobacco, so your residency with them had offered benefits he failed to acknowledge.”
Are Jason and Derek the same person? It reads like maybe the name was changed at some point. Or it’s a first name/last name thing and I’m just not awake enough to catch on right now.
I really enjoyed it. The one thing I would have liked is more acknowledgement of your career before tobacco picking. For example, no matter what prior occupation you pick for your birthday you are always a factory worker
“you doubted the foreman would have stopped production so that your coworkers could sing to you as you blew out candles.”
Also, for the vaudeville performer past, it would be nice if that could be acknowledged someway by the broadway crowd. Empathizing with Lance about not liking singing, ect.
Yo, I hope this project doesn’t get abandoned like Vendetta. Ever since I read that WIP it left a hole at my heart and I hope that this project of yours is enough to fill it. I was looking for the La Cosa Nostra but then I remembered that at that time they weren’t formed yet.
Best of luck to your WIP man! I’m a big fan of crime genres and I’m looking forward to this project of yours.
I really like this game overall, and I really think it could be something. With that being said, there are a few kinks.
The consequences of going to prison don’t reverberate much beyond “it was bad.”
The storylines really felt quite discordant at some points, especially as they jockeyed for coverage. Depending on what magnitude the game might become, it might be better to have the story arcs segmented along one overall storyline.
Some characters get seem to get fleshed out, others don’t.
In a community that heavily values its ROs, making them a little more clear would be a boon for you.
Please do continue with this, though! To often, games with a real-world setting seem to get a bond ones more frequently than fantasy/sci-fo ones do!
High Lands, Deep Waters was a great game and it didn’t have any ROs. With Bootlegger’s setting I don’t think ROs are necessary? Idk, the game is set during the Roaring 20s maybe it makes sense to have different types of ROs.
Fair, but High Lands, Deep Waters was something else entirely. As far as ROs go for me personally, while I like them, they’re not a make-or-break. However, there’s a reason authors tend to create a catalogue of ROs in the description: the people love them.
Spanish Flu actually being the Kansas flu!