I first picked up a copy of Gangsters: Organized Crime in 1999, and it instantly clicked with me. Something about the mix of strategy, management, and that gritty 1920s underworld aesthetic kept me coming back to it every few years. Then, in 2016, I had a thought—what if I made my own version? Something that captured the feel of that classic while keeping the core gameplay intact. Fast forward nearly a decade, and im ready to experiment and see what would be the right tools to make it happen
Like a lot of indie devs, I started with C# and Unity. It was fine for getting things up and running, but something about it never quite clicked for me when it came to a deep, systems-heavy sim with decent enough graphics while maintaining performance. So I moved on to C++ and Unreal Engine, thinking the raw power and flexibility would be the answer. It was powerful, but the overhead and complexity just slowed me down more than I liked. Blueprints are not very scalable with deep sim games. Could have done C++, but you can’t prototype quick enough and it can get quite verbose.
Then, I made a weird decision: Python with SDL or OpenGL. Not exactly the go-to combo for game development, but hear me out. Python gave me the coding speed I needed for prototyping—no endless compile times, no wrestling with bloated engines. OpenGL, on the other hand, has ultimate control over rendering, so I wouldn’t be tied to whatever a big engine decided was best. For performance-critical stuff, I would need to optimize the heavy lifting with Cython and compiled into C. Best of both worlds.
For the visuals, I’d lean into Blender, rendering everything in an isometric format. This would give me that classic strategy game look while keeping things flexible on the asset creation side. No need for a full 3D engine bogging things down when pre-rendered art does the job beautifully. Aesthetically, I’m aiming for that early 2000s isometric nostalgia—detailed yet slightly chunky sprites, a warm color palette, and a UI that feels like it belongs in that era.
Gameplay-wise, I’m staying as close as possible to the original Gangsters: Organized Crime experience. You’ll be managing a criminal empire, giving orders to your crew, expanding territory, and dealing with rivals through an intricate order system. It’s a true gangster management sim at heart, keeping the essence of what made the original game special while refining it with modern tools and techniques.
So here I am, finally building the game I set out to nearly a decade ago, but with a stack I never would’ve predicted back then. I guess, If there’s a lesson in all this, it’s that the “best” tools are the ones that work for you, not just the ones everyone else is using. Will share more soon.