"Peaky Blinders" is the BBC's hugely popular period drama about men with Patrick Stewart's inverted hair. These anti-Stewarts, as one might expect from men in three-piece suits pointing at a map, are 20th century gangsters, and soon they will have their own game and we will be able to join them in their criminal operations. Peaky Blinders Mastermind is scheduled for release this summer.

According to the publisher, "Mastermind is Tommy's ability to plan complex scenarios in his mind. However, it is not just about manipulating Tommy. It's about planning the actions of multiple peppy characters and having them distract guards, pickpocket, brawl, and sneak around. By rewinding time and changing the characters' actions, you can fine-tune the plan until everyone is in perfect sync. [While it's hard to get excited about two characters turning a door crank so a third can get through, as shown in the GIF scenario on the Steam page, "Mastermind" reaches a certain level of complexity, and you'll find yourself assembling a major clockwork crime and watching it work to perfection. It's going to be a cool game, like putting together a big clockwork crime and watching it work to perfection.

Here's a trailer from IGN:

We don't know much about the developer FuturLab, but the company has produced several PC and PlayStation games ("Powerwash Simulator," "Velocity," "Velocity Ultra," "Tiny Trax"). The company recently published another licensed game, Narcos: Rise of the Cartels (which unfortunately is a bad game), and has worked on various well-known indie games, including Human: Fall Flat and For the King.

Oddly enough, this is not the only Peaky Blinders game in development. Almost exactly one year ago, Peaky Blinders' "virtual reality drama game" was announced. It was supposed to be released about now, but nothing has been heard from them since. It still has a website, so perhaps it is still in development?

Peaky Blinders Mastermind also has no release date, but is due out this summer on Steam, so it should appear soon.

Despite Mastermind's performance, I like that it is a tactical puzzler and not a janky actioner as one might expect from a gangster drama license. I recall Mike Bithell's clever tactics game in the "John Wick" movies, but I didn't expect a major entertainment company like Lionsgate to do it. Perhaps the entertainment industry, which is adjacent to gaming, is becoming more knowledgeable about gaming.