Become a mob boss in a living 1920s Chicago.
ChicagoShadows is an online strategy game about running the rackets. Build your family, put crews on the street, and take the city over block by block — against every other boss on the map. Everything below is the real game, not concept art.
A Chicago worth fighting over
A hand-drawn strategic map, block by block. Scout any building, read its heat, and mark your next takeover.
Crews with names and faces
Recruit gangsters, promote Capos, kit them out from the locker — then send them out to earn, extort and fight.
Every fight makes the paper
When crews clash, the city desk writes it up — headline, blow-by-blow, and who walked away on top.
One city, one shared story
The Chicago Herald is the city's memory — wars, power shifts, and the Most Wanted list nobody wants to top.
What's changed? Almost everything.
If you've crossed paths with ChicagoShadows before, you saw a turn-based game. That game is gone. The city has been rebuilt as a continuous, shared world — and this play-test is its first public outing.
The city runs around the clock
No more turns. Rackets pay out, crews travel, and wars unfold in real time — the city keeps living even while you sleep.
A shared city full of bosses
Every world is one persistent Chicago, shared with other players and living AI families — each with its own turf, grudges and plans.
Seasons with a real winner
Take control of the city and you win. The world crowns its boss, the story ends, and a fresh Chicago begins — a race, not a grind.
The city tells the story
Your wars hit the Herald's front page, milestones make headlines, and the Most Wanted list hangs over everyone's head.
What is the play-test?
It's an early, hands-on look at the continuous city — before the full launch — while we tune the economy, the wars, and the feel of running a crew. You'll be playing the real game, not a demo. Things will be rough in places, and that's the point: you're here to help us find what breaks.
Play the real game, early
This isn't a demo. You're in the live city before anyone else, with new systems landing under your feet.
Your feedback shapes it
Testers get a direct line to the developer on Discord. What breaks in your wave is what gets fixed next.
Every wave is a fresh start
Each wave opens a brand-new Chicago with every boss on even footing from block one. The perfect time to make a name.
How access works
Access during testing is deliberately limited. We invite a small batch of testers at a time from the waiting list — here's how you get in.
Get on the list
Drop your email below. That's your place in the queue — the waiting list is how we hand out spots.
We call a wave
As the next city opens, we invite a batch from the list by email. Your invite is a personal link that lets you straight in.
Take over the city
Build your crew, run your rackets, and fight for the map alongside the other testers in your wave.
Heads up: play-test worlds reset between waves. You're here to help us tune the city, not to keep a permanent empire — that comes at launch. Nothing you build during testing carries over.
Two ways to take part
The waiting list gets you a spot. Discord is where the testers hang out while the city warms up.
The waiting list
This is the real queue. Add your email and we'll invite you by mail as waves open. It's the only way in.
The Discord
Hang out with other bosses, follow the build, and hear it first when a wave goes out. Great while you wait — but grab your list spot too.
Join the Discord