Bootlegger: Moonshine Empire

About

Bootlegger: Moonshine Empire is a text-driven RPG where you navigate Prohibition-era America as a bootlegger, politician, or criminal kingpin. Your choices shape a story spanning rural Pennsylvania and New York City, balancing family loyalty with ruthless ambition. Build a whiskey empire from a makeshift still in a barn to a large distribution network, all while managing relationships, rivalries, and the looming end of Prohibition. The game relies entirely on branching dialogue and decision trees, letting your path define whether you end up behind a podium, a gun, or a theater stage. What sets it apart is its dense, consequence-driven writing. With 150,000 words, each decision ripples into new opportunities or downfalls, reflecting the chaos of the 1920s. Choice of Games’ signature style shines here, blending historical grit with personal drama. Released September 2024, it leans into the developer’s strengths in character-focused narratives. Players who enjoy moral ambiguity and branching stories will find plenty to chew on, though the lack of visuals means the game’s appeal hinges entirely on its reactive storytelling.

Storyline

As a new whiskey-runner in Satan’s Seat, how will you cement your reputation? Run for office, join the mob, or produce a play while alternating between Prohibition-era New York City, and rural Pennsylvania! Bootlegger: Moonshine Empire is a 150,000-word interactive novel by Drew Morrison. It’s entirely text-based, without graphics or sound effects, and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination. Use your business acumen, political smarts, or vicious instincts to forge the path to glory. After landing in rural Pennsylvania, the onset of Prohibition means there’s a massive market for white lightning, rotgut whiskey, and bathtub gin. As you try to forge a life for you and your sister, you’ll build your bootlegging operation from a few friends in a barn to a massive distribution network, selling whiskey near and far in the hopes of securing either personal security, or national notoriety. Prohibition won’t last, and the bootlegging market will dry up when the 18th Amendment is repealed. Where will you stand, when liquor again flows freely? Will you be a celebrity of New York nightlife, a notorious politician, or a legendary gangster?