Schedule I vs Dirty Business

• Co-op Teammates: Up to three friends who join your session. They can act as dedicated drivers, enforcers, or lab managers, vastly increasing the speed at which your empire expands.
  Other Players
• Automated Dealers: Employees you place on specific street corners. They passively generate income by selling your product to locals, freeing you up to focus on macro-management.
  Hired AI

• Head of Security Guard: Patrols the underground bunker with a shotgun, automatically intercepting intruders and escorting delivery drivers.
  Human Henchman
• Chief Logistics Dispatcher: Automates customer order routing and assigns street dealers to optimal city corners to maximize daily profit.
  Human Employee

• Dirty Cash Stashes: Piles of physical, unlaundered money that must be hidden in safes across your various properties to prevent it from being seized during police raids.
• Advanced Grow Lights: High-tier equipment parts obtained by spending massive amounts of capital. When installed, they permanently boost the yield of your indoor botanical operations.
• Property Deeds: Purchased from the city's real estate market. Owning these deeds allows you to convert abandoned warehouses into massive, fully automated drug laboratories.

• Exotic Botanical Seed Strains: Found inside locked dead-drop containers across the city; unlocks high-THC cannabis strains commanding top market prices.
• Smuggled Gold Bullion Bars: Discovered in hidden floorboard safes inside rival gang hideouts; provides immediate high-value capital injections.
• Corrupt Police Evidence Files: Intercepted from vice squad vehicles; can be burned to instantly eliminate district police heat or used to blackmail officials.

• Underworld Crime Simulator
• Drug Cartel Management
• Rags-to-Riches
• Gang Warfare
• Urban Sandbox
• Business Automation

• Criminal Empire
• Underworld Management
• Illicit Production
• Black Market Logistics
• Underground Bunker
• Cartel Smuggling
• 4-Player Co-op

• Bare Fists: Melee
  The default, desperate method of self-defense. Used in the early game to mug rival dealers or defend your meager stash before you can afford a real weapon.
• 9mm Handgun: Firearm
  A cheap, easily concealable pistol. Essential for surviving sudden police encounters or executing low-level cartel thugs attempting to encroach on your turf.
• Assault Rifle: Heavy Firearm
  An expensive, highly illegal, military-grade weapon. Strictly required for the late-game when launching full-scale violent takeovers of heavily guarded cartel compounds.

• Fabricated 9mm Semi-Automatic Pistol: Manufactured Handgun
  An unregistered, serialized firearm crafted in the underground workbench, used for personal defense or sold in bulk to street dealers.
• Black Market 12-Gauge Tactical Shotgun: Close-Quarters Defensive Firearm
  A heavy-duty pump shotgun assembled from stamped steel parts, delivering devastating stopping power against rival gang raiders.
• Compact Polymer Submachine Gun (SMG): Automatic Weaponry Contraband
  A high-capacity rapid-fire SMG manufactured in the gunsmith room to fulfill high-paying international cartel weapons contracts.
• Heavy Steel Crowbar: Melee Enforcer Tool
  A versatile manual tool used to pry open crates, dismantle old bunker infrastructure, and defend against close-range attackers.
• Industrial Currency Printing Press: Financial Contraband Machinery
  A high-precision mechanical press that stamps out stacks of realistic counterfeit banknotes to generate untraceable cash reserves.

• Street Clothes: Offers absolutely zero ballistic or melee protection. These are purely cosmetic garments worn in the early game to blend in with the local civilian population.
• Concealed Kevlar Vest: A mid-game purchase that drastically increases survivability against small-arms fire, allowing the player to survive sudden drive-by shootings from rival gangs.
• Heavy Tactical Armor: Bulky, highly visible armor worn exclusively during planned, all-out assaults on cartel strongholds, providing maximum protection at the cost of movement speed.

• Concealable Kevlar Body Vest: Ballistic Protection +40%, Concealment Rating 95%; lightweight tactical vest worn beneath casual clothes during surface deliveries.
• Hazmat Chemical Respirator & Suit: Toxic Fume Immunity 100%, Acid Burn Resistance +80%; protective gear required when cooking chemical narcotics and synthetic opioids.
• Reinforced Tactical Raid Vest: Bullet Resistance +70%, Extra Ammo Slots +4; heavy plate armor donned when repelling hostile cartel invasions.

• Grungy Hoodies and Beanies: The starting attire for the player. It is dirty, cheap, and perfect for remaining anonymous while loitering on street corners waiting for customers.
• Gold Chains and Streetwear: Mid-game flexing apparel purchased from boutique stores, allowing the player to visually display their growing wealth and status on the streets.
• Tailored Kingpin Suits: End-game, highly expensive luxury suits. Worn when the player has transitioned from a street thug into a legitimate, untouchable corporate CEO laundering millions.

• Underworld Kingpin Trench Coat: Stylish dark tailored coat bound with concealed interior pockets for stashing cash rolls and unregistered handguns.
• Industrial Mechanic Overalls: Durable grease-stained denim workwear worn when repairing delivery vans and tuning factory machinery.
• Street Hustler Hoodie & Mask: Inconspicuous dark hooded sweatshirt paired with a neoprene face mask to obscure identity on surface security cameras.

Progression in Schedule I revolves around an experience system tied directly to manual drug sales. Players level up by personally fulfilling customer orders via their in-game smartphone. Hitting level milestones unlocks access to higher-tier equipment, new drug recipes, advanced production methods, and new city districts. As you earn capital, you transition from manual labor to purchasing automated equipment (like advanced hydroponic grow lights that increase plant yields by 50%) and hiring a network of workers. Players also physically upgrade their operational capacity by purchasing larger real estate, luxury vehicles for faster transport, and heavier weaponry for turf wars.

Progression combines facility expansion, automation technology, and personal crime syndicate perks. As players earn revenue from completed orders, money is reinvested to purchase new bunker wings, industrial ventilation systems, and specialized equipment: commercial hydro-grow pots with automated irrigation, advanced chemical centrifuges and pill presses, industrial laser engravers for weapon serial scrubbing, and multi-plate currency printing presses. Kingpins also unlock syndicate perks that decrease police heat buildup, increase dealer sale margins, reduce raw material costs, and boost worker production efficiency.

Hyland Point is an open-world urban sandbox featuring diverse districts that reflect the socio-economic divide of the city. Players start in the dilapidated, graffiti-covered slums and industrial zones where police presence is low but street crime is high. As your character earns experience and unlocks new areas, you gain access to commercial districts, affluent suburban neighborhoods, and high-end downtown high-rises. Each district contains purchasable properties ranging from tiny, rotting apartments to massive, multi-story warehouses and legitimate front businesses used to launder your illicit funds.

The game's environment is split between an expansive underground facility and the surface urban open world. Key areas include: The Subterranean Hangar (your customizable headquarters, featuring expandable grow rooms, chemistry labs, printing workshops, weapon foundries, employee break areas, and a massive vehicle garage), The Industrial District (a gritty manufacturing borough filled with abandoned warehouses and scrap yards), The Downtown Core (a bustling commercial district ideal for discreet street dealers and high-end buyers), The Docks & Canal Basin (maritime shipping yards used for waterborne smuggling), and The Secret Cartel Airstrip (a remote desert dirt runway used to land twin-engine cargo planes for bulk international shipments).

• The Skateboard: Personal Transport
  The player's first mode of transportation. It is incredibly nimble, allowing you to quickly skate through narrow alleyways to escape pursuing police officers.
• Unmarked Delivery Van: Logistics Vehicle
  A slow but highly durable vehicle with massive trunk space. Absolutely essential for transporting huge quantities of packaged drugs from your labs to your street dealers.

• Disguised Plumbing Delivery Van: Front-Company Cargo Van
  An inconspicuous commercial van with plumbing logos used to transport large shipments of drugs and weapons past surface police patrols.
• Twin-Engine Cartel Cargo Plane: Smuggling Transport Aircraft
  A rugged propeller airplane stationed at the secret desert airstrip used to deliver massive international contraband orders for millions in profit.

• Street Rats: Rodent
  Ambient creatures scurrying through the trash-filled alleyways of Hyland Point, heavily emphasizing the disgusting, squalid nature of your starting environments.
• Stray Dogs: Canine
  Prowling the industrial zones at night, they add life to the open world and serve as minor hazards while making drug runs on foot.
• Police K-9 Units: Trained Canine
  Highly aggressive dogs utilized by law enforcement during high-level raids on your properties, capable of tracking players who attempt to flee on foot.

• Hangar Guard Dog: Canine (Canis lupus familiaris)
  Trained security dog stationed at the bunker entrance to detect undercover informants and alert to approaching police cruisers.
• Subterranean Tunnel Rat: Urban Rodent
  Scuttling pests inhabiting unrenovated bunker corridors that must be cleared out before installing sterile chemical labs.
• Desert Buzzard / Vulture: Scavenger Bird
  Circling wildlife soaring over the remote desert cartel airstrip, signaling hot weather and isolated terrain.
• Alleyway Feral Cat: Urban Feline
  Ambient wildlife roaming outside back-alley delivery doors in the downtown core.

• The Kingpin (Player): Protagonist / Boss
  Starting as a broke, desperate dealer, the player must use cunning, business acumen, and extreme violence to become the undisputed ruler of the city's underworld.
• The Hired Workers: Empire Backbone
  The chemists, botanists, and street dealers hired via your smartphone. They automate the production and distribution lines but require constant daily salaries to remain loyal.
• Rival Cartel Leaders: Primary Antagonists
  Heavily armed, deeply entrenched bosses of competing drug rings. They will actively send thugs to sabotage your businesses as your market share begins to eclipse theirs.

• The Boss (Protagonist): Criminal Mastermind / Player Character
  A resourceful and ruthless entrepreneur who designs, automates, and expands a massive underground syndicate beneath the city.
• Marco (The Broker): Black Market Supplier & Client
  An elusive underworld coordinator who provides encrypted supply orders, advanced machinery blueprints, and wholesale cartel buyers.
• Detective Vance: Corrupt Police Investigator
  A compromised vice detective who offers advance warnings regarding police raids in exchange for steady weekly bribe payouts.
• Hired Bunker Chemist: Automated Laboratory Worker
  Skilled personnel hired on payroll to oversee mixing vats, pill presses, and distillation tubes in the underground lab.

• From the Bottom: Early Game Hustle
  Scavenge enough pocket change to buy raw product, navigate the slums to meet your first clients via text message, and avoid getting mugged.
• Scaling Operations: Mid-Game Management
  Purchase your first abandoned warehouse, install hydroponic tables and ventilation systems, and hire your first botanist to automate production.
• Cartel War: Late Game Combat
  Equip yourself with military-grade firearms and body armor to violently dismantle a rival gang's operation and seize absolute control of their city district.

• Breaking Ground in the Bunker: Prologue & Base Foundation
  Clear industrial debris from the abandoned hangar, hook up electrical generators, and harvest your first batch of hydroponic weed.
• The Counterfeit Currency Ring: Financial Expansion Heist
  Purchase and install an offset printing press, secure chemical ink, and print $100,000 in fake bills without raising municipal bank alerts.
• Operation Desert Runway: High-Stakes Cartel Export
  Load a fleet of disguised delivery vans, transport bulk contraband to the secret desert airstrip, and fuel the cargo plane before federal agents intercept.

A major selling point of Schedule I is its 4-player online co-op multiplayer. Players can invite up to three friends into their hosted version of Hyland Point to act as lieutenants in their empire. Co-op completely changes the dynamic of the game, allowing one player to stay in the warehouse managing the complex chemical production lines while the others drive across the city, defend turf from rival cartels, and execute large-scale distribution runs simultaneously.

Dirty Business features seamless 4-player online cooperative multiplayer. Up to four friends can collaborate in a single shared criminal empire, dividing responsibilities in real time: one player can oversee botany and harvest in the grow rooms, another can manage chemical synthesis and pill pressing, a third can run counterfeit printing presses, while the fourth loads delivery vans to handle surface drop-offs and evade police patrols.

The game was developed by Australian indie team TVGS (Tyler's Video Game Studio) and launched its full version on March 24, 2025, for $19.99 USD. Prior to launch, the developers released 'Schedule I: Free Sample', a highly popular demo that allowed players to experience the early-game hustle. The game has achieved massive success, pulling in 'Overwhelmingly Positive' reviews on Steam. The developers maintain a tight feedback loop with the community, consistently pushing major updates that add new mechanics, properties, and map expansions.

Dirty Business launched into Steam Early Access on July 22, 2026, for PC via Steam at an accessible entry price of $14.99 USD. A free standalone prologue demo titled 'Dirty Business: Free of Charge' was released prior to launch, allowing players to sample the opening bunker setup and initial cannabis cultivation mechanics. Players can also purchase the game in bundled collections with other simulation titles such as the 'Low-Budget Repairs and Dirty Business Bundle'.

The developers at TVGS promised approximately two years of substantial, continuous updates during the game's lifecycle. Post-launch content has dramatically expanded the game, introducing completely new drug variants, advanced automation machinery, complex laundering front businesses, and cosmetic expansions including new clothing, tattoos, and high-end luxury vehicles. The community heavily drives the roadmap via Discord polls, leading to highly requested features like the ability to pickpocket knocked-out civilians and dynamic weather systems.

Plan Dirty Games has established an active Early Access development roadmap driven by community feedback. Recent updates introduced the 'Elevator Order Delivery System' (Update 0.2.0) and 'Repeating Worker Tasks' for streamlined automation. Planned upcoming milestones include expanded chemical drug synthesis chains (such as heroin and synthetic opioids), new craftable military assault rifles, evidence-disposal and body-incineration contracts, rival cartel territory wars, and an interactive streamer integration mode allowing Twitch/YouTube viewers to join games as hired laborers.

• Q: Is Schedule I a multiplayer game?
  A: Yes, while it can be played entirely solo, it features seamless 4-player online co-op, allowing you and your friends to build and manage a drug empire together.
• Q: How do I make money at the very beginning?
  A: When you start with nothing, the safest way to earn your first few dollars is to literally pick up trash off the streets of Hyland Point until you can afford a tiny batch of product.
• Q: Can I get arrested?
  A: Yes, law enforcement is a constant threat. If you deal drugs in plain sight, drive recklessly, or engage in violent shootouts, the police will hunt you down and can raid your properties, seizing your cash and product.
• Q: How do I automate my businesses?
  A: Once you purchase a property, you can use your smartphone to contact 'Fixers'. Paying them a signing fee allows you to hire workers who will automatically grow, package, and sell drugs as long as you pay their daily wage.

• Q: What is Dirty Business?
  A: Dirty Business is a first-person criminal empire management simulator developed by Plan Dirty Games, where players build, automate, and expand an illegal underground production and distribution network.
• Q: What can you produce in Dirty Business?
  A: Players can cultivate multiple cannabis strains, synthesize chemical drugs like LSD and meth, print counterfeit currency, and manufacture unregistered firearms.
• Q: Does Dirty Business support multiplayer?
  A: Yes, Dirty Business features full 4-player online cooperative multiplayer, allowing friends to manage different production departments and coordinate deliveries together.
• Q: What is the cartel airstrip?
  A: The cartel airstrip is an unlocked remote desert runway where players can load cargo planes with massive bulk orders to fulfill lucrative international smuggling contracts.
• Q: Is there a free demo available?
  A: Yes, 'Dirty Business: Free of Charge' is available as a free standalone demo on Steam, allowing players to experience the early game mechanics.

Built in Unity, the game adopts a realistic, slightly stylized gritty aesthetic. The streets of Hyland Point are littered with trash, flickering neon signs, and detailed street art (designed by graffiti artist Cody To). As players progress, the visual contrast becomes stark; you move from disgusting, roach-infested motel rooms with dirty mattresses to pristine, high-tech underground laboratories filled with gleaming stainless-steel extractors, UV lights, and automated conveyor belts.

Developed in Unity, Dirty Business features a gritty, realistic 3D aesthetic characterized by atmospheric subterranean lighting. Neon grow lights bathe hydroponic rooms in deep magenta and violet glows, while sparks fly from welding torches in the weapon fabrication shop. Real-time shadow casting, volumetric dust motes in abandoned warehouse basements, and detailed physical product models (such as vacuum-sealed cannabis bags and stacked money bricks) enhance immersion.

The auditory experience heavily immerses the player in the gritty urban atmosphere of Hyland Point. The original soundtrack, composed by Joel Ibbott (KAESUL), features heavy, thumping hip-hop and tense electronic beats that escalate during police pursuits or cartel shootouts. The ambient sound design is meticulous, featuring distant police sirens, the hum of high-wattage indoor grow lights, bubbling chemical lab equipment, and the constant, stressful buzzing of your burner phone receiving new orders.

The sound design emphasizes tactile industrial immersion: the steady hum of high-powered hydroponic fan systems, the rhythmic clatter of currency printing presses stamping bills, bubbling beakers on chemical burners, and the mechanical rumble of surface elevator lifts. The background soundtrack features low-key urban hip-hop beats, gritty dark synthwave, and tension-building percussive rhythms that ramp up when police sirens echo outside.

The game utilizes a highly diegetic, modern interface heavily centered around the player's in-game smartphone. This device acts as the central hub for the entire empire: you receive text messages from desperate customers, use map apps to schedule delivery time windows, and browse the dark web to hire 'fixers', dealers, and automated workers. When out in the world, the HUD is clean, showing a simple stamina bar, active weapon ammunition, and a dynamic wanted level indicator when law enforcement gets suspicious.

The interface combines a diegetic first-person management approach with crisp digital overlays. Players manage business operations through an in-game desktop PC and portable smartphone terminal, checking market commodity prices, ordering seeds and chemicals, assigning worker shifts, and monitoring police heat meters across individual city districts. Interactive production machines feature clear visual gauges displaying temperature, ingredient ratios, and batch progress.

Schedule I features standard PC accessibility options, including fully remappable keyboard and mouse bindings, adjustable field of view (FOV), and scalable UI elements for the in-game smartphone. Players can also adjust audio mixing independently, allowing them to lower the intense soundtrack to focus on the auditory cues of approaching police sirens or rival gang footsteps.

Plan Dirty Games implemented thoughtful accessibility settings: customizable difficulty sliders (adjusting police aggression, delivery timers, and raw material costs), camera comfort controls to mitigate motion sickness, adjustable field-of-view (FOV), full controller remapping, dedicated volume sliders for individual machine sound effects, and save-anytime functionality.

• Schedule I utilizes the Unity engine to simulate a persistent, dense urban environment. The game heavily relies on CPU overhead for managing the background logistics of your automated drug empire, AI police pathfinding, and civilian traffic simulation.
• Laptop Performance Note: Because of the game's open-world nature and continuous background economy calculations, mobile CPUs will experience high sustained usage. Adequate ventilation is required to prevent thermal throttling during high-speed police chases or large-scale gang shootouts.
• Laptop Consideration: G P U T G P: A minimum 60W TGP is sufficient for 1080p medium settings. To maintain 60 FPS in dense city areas with maximum traffic and lighting on high settings, a TGP of 85W+ (RTX 3060 Mobile or higher) is recommended.
• Laptop Consideration: Cooling Thermals: The continuous tracking of hired dealers and supply chain logistics across the city puts a constant load on the CPU. A laptop cooling pad is advised for extended co-op sessions.
• Laptop Consideration: C P U Power Limits: Set Windows power profiles to 'Performance' to prevent the CPU from clocking down when loading new city districts while driving.
• Laptop Consideration: M U X Switch Optimus: Helpful to reduce render latency during fast-paced firearm combat against rival cartels, though not strictly mandatory for the management simulation aspects.
• Optimization Detail: Upscaling Tech: Standard resolution scaling is supported, which can significantly help maintain smooth frame rates on entry-level hardware during chaotic police raids.
• Optimization Detail: Key Settings Impact: Traffic Density, NPC Count, and Shadow Quality have the largest impact on overall performance. Lowering NPC count drastically reduces CPU load.
• Game Name: Schedule I

• Built in the Unity engine utilizing multi-threaded worker pathfinding, dynamic lighting, real-time chemical fluid shaders, and networked cooperative physics. While optimized for modern quad-core configurations, an SSD is recommended to accelerate asset loading when transitioning between the subterranean hangar, surface delivery elevators, and the remote cartel airstrip.
• Laptop Performance Note: Managing multi-room underground production facilities with dozens of automated workers, conveyor belts, printing presses, and street traffic places steady multi-core load on mobile CPUs and discrete GPUs. Gaming laptops should sustain at least 60W to 85W GPU TGP and operate on a flat, well-ventilated surface to prevent thermal throttling during high-density co-op sessions.
• Laptop Consideration: G P U T G P: Ensure dedicated mobile GeForce GTX/RTX or Radeon RX GPUs sustain at least 60W-75W+ TGP to maintain a fluid 60+ FPS when rendering complex indoor hangar machinery and dynamic warehouse lighting.
• Laptop Consideration: Cooling Thermals: Continuous simulation of automated worker schedules and chemical processing cycles maintains steady CPU thermals; keeping laptop intake vents unobstructed is recommended.
• Laptop Consideration: C P U Power Limits: Set Windows power settings to High Performance to ensure consistent clock speeds during rapid logistics delivery cycles and 4-player multiplayer synchronizations.
• Laptop Consideration: M U X Switch Optimus: Engage discrete GPU mode via internal MUX switch or NVIDIA Advanced Optimus to bypass integrated graphics bottlenecks and ensure responsive first-person controls.
• Optimization Detail: Upscaling Tech: Native resolution scaling and temporal anti-aliasing.
• Optimization Detail: Key Settings Impact: Shadow Quality, Texture Resolution, Ambient Occlusion, and Worker AI Simulation Tick Rate have the largest impact on frame rates.
• Game Name: Dirty Business

• Upscaling Tech: Standard resolution scaling is supported, which can significantly help maintain smooth frame rates on entry-level hardware during chaotic police raids.
• Key Settings Impact: Traffic Density, NPC Count, and Shadow Quality have the largest impact on overall performance. Lowering NPC count drastically reduces CPU load.

• Upscaling Tech: Native resolution scaling and temporal anti-aliasing.
• Key Settings Impact: Shadow Quality, Texture Resolution, Ambient Occlusion, and Worker AI Simulation Tick Rate have the largest impact on frame rates.

• G P U T G P: A minimum 60W TGP is sufficient for 1080p medium settings. To maintain 60 FPS in dense city areas with maximum traffic and lighting on high settings, a TGP of 85W+ (RTX 3060 Mobile or higher) is recommended.
• Cooling Thermals: The continuous tracking of hired dealers and supply chain logistics across the city puts a constant load on the CPU. A laptop cooling pad is advised for extended co-op sessions.
• C P U Power Limits: Set Windows power profiles to 'Performance' to prevent the CPU from clocking down when loading new city districts while driving.
• M U X Switch Optimus: Helpful to reduce render latency during fast-paced firearm combat against rival cartels, though not strictly mandatory for the management simulation aspects.

• G P U T G P: Ensure dedicated mobile GeForce GTX/RTX or Radeon RX GPUs sustain at least 60W-75W+ TGP to maintain a fluid 60+ FPS when rendering complex indoor hangar machinery and dynamic warehouse lighting.
• Cooling Thermals: Continuous simulation of automated worker schedules and chemical processing cycles maintains steady CPU thermals; keeping laptop intake vents unobstructed is recommended.
• C P U Power Limits: Set Windows power settings to High Performance to ensure consistent clock speeds during rapid logistics delivery cycles and 4-player multiplayer synchronizations.
• M U X Switch Optimus: Engage discrete GPU mode via internal MUX switch or NVIDIA Advanced Optimus to bypass integrated graphics bottlenecks and ensure responsive first-person controls.