Hello Narcos,
With our team deep in the dev work, we wanted to bring you a peek into the process of building Becoming Pablo and introduce you to more of our team. Here’s a Q&A with our Game Director, Priyank Singh.
Q: Tell us more about your role and how you got started with Becoming Pablo?
A: As the Game Director at Tentworks, my role is to maintain the creative vision and overall direction for Becoming Pablo. When Jay, the founder of Tentworks, approached me with the concept, I was intrigued by the idea of exploring a cartel-themed base-building and grand strategy game set in the 1970s. We started with the core idea that player choices should be impactful and lead to emergent gameplay.
Q: What made the team pursue a strategy and city builder game? What similar games have provided inspiration?
A: We found that the grand-strategy and city-building genres were the perfect fit to represent the multi-layered operations of a drug cartel. You need to manage the day-to-day logistics while also dealing with loyalty amongst your own people and rivalries with other cartels. While we are focusing on systemic gameplay akin to classic empire-building games, we’re also injecting a high-stakes, narrative-driven campaign featuring popular characters from the 70s and 80s underworld.
Q: The drug trade is…complex. What systems are built in the game that give players a sense of all that you have to oversee and balance?
A: The complexity is exactly what makes the game challenging and engaging. Players must constantly balance high-stakes decisions and control. Key systems include:
Operations Management: Overseeing farming, production, transport, alongside managing heat from law enforcement and maintaining loyalty within their camp
Battles: Building a fleet of narcos to defend their turf from rival cartels while capturing additional market territories on the World Map.
Cartel Politics: Where you manage your relationships with other factions and make or break deals based on your reputation.
Redesigned Battle System: A redesigned system for combat, which we feel is more in line with the turn-based gameplay in grand-strategy games.
Q: You’ve established a base in Colombia around Pablo himself. What are the other locales your team is developing, and how far along are those in terms of progress?
A: Our initial setting is indeed Colombia, but we’re excited to confirm that players can currently choose their base from three distinct maps: Colombia, Korea, or Nigeria. There is an exciting world ahead as we expand beyond Colombia, and we have more to come.
Q: What parts of Becoming Pablo are you most excited for people to experience?
A: I’m personally most excited for players to experience that this isn't just about building a drug empire, it's about surviving it. From a development standpoint, I’m thrilled about the redesigned battle system and new commander abilities that players will have at their disposal. An invigorated diplomacy & espionage system that makes managing factions and loyalty more meaningful, and themed events that introduce scenario-specific decisions, faction reactions, and branching narrative moments.
Q: Do you think you’d make a good drug lord? Why or why not?
A: While I understand the mechanics of power and control, the constant vigil, violence and high-stakes decision-making required to navigate cartel politics would be a terrifying reality for me to be in. I would prefer to manage the virtual underworld!
Q: Any final thoughts you’d like to share?
A: We can’t thank our community enough for the support and excitement for Becoming Pablo. We are working hard toward our launch this year and truly value your feedback. We encourage everyone to join our Discord and participate in our playtests. Our team is always there, and we would love to hear from you about what else you would like to see in the game.
That's all for now, everyone. Thanks for hanging out with us today, Priyank! It was awesome hearing about Becoming Pablo from you. And listen up, folks, if you're into it, throw us a wishlist on Steam, and feel free to hit up the Tentworks crew on our Discord with any questions or if you want to jump in on future updates.
Like we always say, stay safe out there and always watch your cartel.
- The Becoming Pablo Team