Schedule 1 is the Early Access drug empire simulation game developed by solo creator TVGS, released on Steam on March 25, 2025. It immediately became one of the most discussed indie games of 2025, turning a criminally themed management simulation into a genre standout through its combination of open-world exploration, NPC relationship building, business strategy, and multiplayer co-op.
Schedule 1 is a simulation game where you build a drug empire in the fictional city of Hyland Point. The game combines elements of strategy, resource management, and action as you progress from a small-time dealer to a powerful kingpin.
What Schedule 1 Is
You start as a homeless newcomer in Hyland Point with nothing. From that starting point, you build a criminal empire through manufacturing, distribution, NPC relationship management, and territory expansion. Every decision has consequences: which dealers you recruit, where you set up operations, how you respond to police attention, and how you price your product all shape the path of your run.
Schedule 1 is a strategic action game that blends puzzle-solving, resource management, and real-time battles. Players must navigate multiple stages, each presenting unique missions as they build their empire across the criminal underworld of Hyland Point.
Core Gameplay Mechanics
Manufacturing: Produce your product using equipment set up in your properties. Quality, quantity, and efficiency all affect your income and your heat level with law enforcement.
Distribution Network: Recruit dealers like Benji to handle street-level sales. Each dealer has their own territory, customer list, and performance metrics. Managing your dealer network is the primary scaling mechanism in the mid-game.
NPC Relationships: Customers are not generic buyers. They have preferences, budget limits, and loyalty thresholds. Building relationships with high-value customers unlocks better orders and repeat business. Relationship customers bypass the standard 5 orders per week limit that regular customers have.
Property Management: Expand your base of operations across Hyland Point. Different properties serve different functions: manufacturing, storage, dealer housing, and distribution logistics.
Police System: Your heat level with law enforcement rises as your operation grows. Managing this through careful territory selection, clean-up operations, and bribery options (on the roadmap) is the primary risk management challenge.
How Multiplayer Works
Schedule 1 supports online multiplayer co-op where players can invite friends to join their criminal empire. One player hosts the session and others join as partners in the operation.
The co-op structure lets each player take on different roles within the same empire: one player runs manufacturing while another handles street distribution, creating a division-of-labor dynamic that the solo experience cannot replicate.
Rank Progression
Schedule 1 uses a rank system that gates content:
| Rank Milestone | What Unlocks |
|---|---|
| Prologue complete | Full open world access |
| First dealer recruited | Distribution network mechanics |
| Net worth $100,000 | Businessman achievement, expanded operations |
| Net worth $1,000,000 | Bigwig achievement |
| Net worth $10,000,000 | Magnate achievement |
Each rank also unlocks new items, regions, and opportunities that expand what your empire can do.
Gameplay Systems on the Roadmap
The developer plans to keep the game in Early Access for approximately two years with monthly updates. Planned additions include a weather system, custom packaging and labels, a fishing minigame, police interactions including bribery options, property customization, a logistics system with drivers, raid defense mechanics, and sewer network transport.
Pro Tips: Schedule 1 Gameplay
- Manage your heat actively, not reactively: Letting your heat level rise without countermeasures triggers police attention at the worst moments. Dispose of evidence at Cash for Trash machines regularly.
- Prioritize relationship customers over volume: Relationship customers order more frequently and bypass the 5-order cap. Building loyalty with a few high-value customers is more profitable than maximizing low-value casual sales.
- Use the Veeper vehicle for large loads at night: The Veeper is ideal for moving huge loads, and the alternative vehicle works well for driving pedestrian paths at night to avoid police sight lines near the taco shop.
Play Schedule 1 Multiplayer with ExitLag
Schedule 1's co-op performance depends on the host's connection to Steam's servers and each client's connection stability. Latency in co-op sessions causes NPC behavior desync, inventory transaction delays, and the rubber-banding that disrupts stealth delivery runs.
ExitLag is a connection optimizer used by over 30 million players across 4,000+ game titles. It routes your connection through the lowest-latency path to Steam's servers, keeping co-op sessions smooth for every player in the session.
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Schedule 1 and related marks are trademarks of TVGS. Used for informational and educational purposes only.
