About Empire Veil

A Digital Humanities Project

Empire Veil is a digital humanities project that makes extensive use of generative AI technology for learning and educational purposes. Our mission is to make Victorian-era history accessible, engaging, and interactive through the medium of a cooperative narrative game.

By combining rigorous historical research with modern AI capabilities, we create immersive educational experiences that bring the complexities of the British Empire to life. The project explores themes of gender, colonialism, and social networks through historically-grounded storytelling.

This project is developed by Srushta Media Private Limited and is hosted at empireveil.srushta.com.

The Game

Empire Veil is a cooperative board game set in an alternate Victorian era where players take on the roles of undercover investigators working to dismantle a shadowy conspiracy known as "The Veil."

The game combines narrative-driven investigation with strategic resource management, offering a unique blend of cooperative gameplay and hidden information mechanics. What sets Empire Veil apart is its focus on women as protagonists, using historically inspired networks of sisterhood to solve mysteries invisible to male authority.

Our Team

Dipankar Sarkar

Project Lead

Engineering leader with 15+ years of experience building systems at scale. Dipankar holds a B.Tech from IIT Delhi and an M.S. from Arizona State University. His work spans systems architecture, AI/agent engineering, and team building, with experience at companies like Nykaa, Hike, and SlideShare (LinkedIn). He brings expertise in production AI systems and agent safety patterns to guide the technical direction of Empire Veil.

dipankar.name

Amrita Sarkar

Product

Product manager and growth strategist with 13+ years of experience across marketplaces, SaaS, and consumer brands. Amrita holds an MBA from the University of Glasgow (with distinction) and is a two-time startup founder, with her ventures recognized among India's top 200 women-driven businesses. Her expertise in AI-driven product management shapes the user experience and educational approach of Empire Veil.

amritasarkar.com

Maitrayee Roychoudhury

Advisor - Victorian Era Expert

PhD researcher at the University of St Andrews (AHRC-funded) and Assistant Professor at ARSD College, University of Delhi. Maitrayee specializes in Victorian literature, gender, and women's mobility across the nineteenth-century world. Her doctoral research, "From Brighton to Bombay," examines female detective fiction in relation to travel technologies (1863-1910). She ensures historical authenticity and scholarly rigour in Empire Veil's representation of the Victorian era.

maitrayee.me

Features

Cooperative Gameplay

Work together with 1-4 players to solve the mystery. No single investigator can succeed alone.

Modular Map System

Explore different colonial regions with unique challenges, NPCs, and women's networks.

Card-Driven Narrative

Scene, intrigue, hazard, and lead cards create a dynamic story every session.

Trust & Hidden Information

A unique Trust system governs how freely intelligence can be shared between investigators.

Three Campaigns

Standard, hard, and expert difficulty campaigns that grow with your experience.

Solo Support

Play solo with intelligent bot investigators in The Whitechapel Horror campaign.

Game Inspirations

Empire Veil draws inspiration from some of the finest games in the detective and cooperative genres:

Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective -- narrative-driven investigation and deduction
Arkham Horror -- cooperative play against escalating threats
Pandemic Legacy -- evolving narratives and consequential decisions
Victorian-era detective novels -- atmospheric storytelling and period authenticity

Game Components

Game Board

Modular colonial map with travel routes and encounter locations across 10 regions

Investigator Cards

Six unique lady investigators with distinct abilities and liabilities

Campaign Dossiers

Three campaigns with unique objectives, narratives, and difficulty levels

Resource Tokens

Morale, insight, trust, and travel tickets to manage throughout the game

Empire Veil is a project of Srushta Media Private Limited.