Today marks 20 years of the Mafia franchise. To celebrate, 2k has an interview with some of the developers that have worked on the series since the original. The interview also revealed that a new Mafia project is in development. In addition, in honor of the 20 years celebration, 2K has announced that the original game will be available for free on Steam for a limited time.

Work has started on an all-new Mafia project

Before we dive into the future, please join us with a trip down memory lane in Mafia’s 20-year history 🚕 #Mafia20

➡️ https://t.co/VxW48hExpV pic.twitter.com/dcgF2igEAb

— 2K (@2K) August 29, 2022

The interview was with three developers that have been with the franchise since the beginning. Roman Hladik, General Manager and Head of Production, Tomaš Hrebicek, Media Director worked on every game in the series. Alex Cox, Game Director, has been with the franchise since Mafia II. The interview covered how their roles changed throughout the years, the fanbase throughout the years, which game holds a special place in their hearts, what updates added in Mafia: Definitive Edition were impactful to them, their favorite characters, and the biggest lessons learned about game development over the past 20 years.

Speaking on what they’ve learned throughout the years, Hladik said “I would say we are learning all the time. With every project we do, we learn new stuff, because things keep developing, right? In the early days of Mafia, making games was… I wouldn’t say easier, but it was a small team with simpler technology and so on. Games and technology keep developing, so it’s all about constant learning. The biggest lesson came after we managed to release the original Mafia, and we thought we fully knew how to make games. We started to work on Mafia II and it was a huge challenge—the development was slow and we were constantly hitting new issues. It was a lesson for all of us who thought we had learned enough just by doing the first game. That was the biggest realization: this is never, ever going to be easy.”

“Another important lesson for me has been: get your assets running in the game as soon as possible and try to keep them there. A lot of the time, something seems like it’s almost done, but it really isn’t—the last 10% is so difficult because that’s when we’re checking it in the game along with everything else,” Hrebicek said. “Early on, I had been so focused on the cinematic feel and animations in the story cutscenes—but I learned over the years that the game itself is more important. We need to think about the game first, then support it with a great story. To the new artists in the industry out there: you are not just a graphic artist, you are a game developer. Every discipline and department should constantly take stock of what the game is actually about.”

Cox said “Any seasoned developer will, at some point, come to the conclusion that the one mantra to project success is: keep it simple, stupid. Don’t overcomplicate things; really understand what you’re good at and just do that. That’s something we learned with Mafia: Definitive Edition—rather than reinventing the game, rather than changing it substantially into something different, we identified what people liked about the game originally: the distinctive, cinematic crime fantasy. And we just really, really drilled down on that and focused on the execution. How do we modernize it without changing it? How do we make it more beautiful without altering the general atmosphere of Lost Heaven? I think that was a really good emphasis for us, and as a team we’re carrying that into our future titles, understanding what our core competencies are and building on them to create even better games going forward.”

In honor of #Mafia20 let’s go back to where it all started 🏙

Get the original Mafia (digital) for FREE on @Steam from Sept. 1 – 5 pic.twitter.com/ZdxSFZrLwh

— 2K (@2K) August 29, 2022

2K said that the original Mafia game will be available for free on Steam. This is not Mafia: Definitive Edition, which is a remake of the first game. It includes an expanded story, gameplay, and original score. The original game will be free on Steam from September 1 through September 5.

Talking about updating the original game and which updates were impactful to the devs, Cox talked about the character of Sarah and elevating her for Definitive Edition. “Overall, I think we did a good job elevating the character of Sarah, who was the only female character in the original game. She got short shrift in the original plot—she felt like a very throwaway character,” Cox said. “We worked quite hard to reintegrate her into the story for Definitive Edition, and there are some really touching scenes between her and Tommy, which come through not just from the revised design and the writing, but also from the execution on stage and the high-fidelity performances.” He also talked about integrating it more with the other two games tieing it into the same universe.  And this is a more dorky thing, but because Mafia: Definitive Edition was part of the Mafia: Trilogy package, it allowed us to do a little bit of a retconning, bringing the original Mafia game a bit more into the same universe as the other two titles. With the collectible cigarette cards, we presented gangsters from all three games as they would’ve looked in the 1930s. Being able to flesh out the backstory, unite the lore, and bring the three titles closer together was cool.”

For Hladik, the technical side of things made an impact. “On the original Mafia, there were a lot of technical limitations; for example, the draw distance was only a couple hundred meters, so you never got to see grandiose views of the city. With Mafia: Definitive Edition, we had this amazing opportunity to enhance the vision of the first game—suddenly we could create scenic vistas and better express the atmosphere of 1930s cities.”

Hrebicek was impacted by how they could bring the actors’ performances to life with more detail then in the original game. “It was amazing going from only being able to capture one actor 20 years ago to now being able to capture the full stage performance, including all the details of the actors’ faces, which really helped the story shine,” Hrebicek said. “For Definitive Edition, we could play with all the details, capture every bit of the performances. There’s that iconic scene when Tommy comes back to Sarah after a bloody shootout, and there’s very little dialogue—but we understand so much about the connection Tommy and Sarah have through the detailed expressions on their faces.”

Discussing the future of the series, Hladik said that a new Mafia title is in development. “I’m happy to confirm we’ve started work on an all-new Mafia project!” he said. “While it’s a few years away and we can’t share anything more right now, we’re really excited to keep working on this beloved franchise and to entertain our players with new stories.”