Team17's Hell management sim Sintopia just got its first major update

Team17 and developer Piraknights Games have released the "Imployee Retention" update for Sintopia, bringing new soul-processing tools to the underworld management simulator. The patch is live today on PC for both Steam and the Epic Games Store.

Sintopia originally launched on April 16, 2026. The game operates as a satirical take on corporate middle management, set entirely within the confines of Hell Incorporated. It plays like a mix of classic 1990s god games. The underground base-building and minion management pull heavily from Dungeon Keeper, while the asymmetrical overworld influence system shares DNA with Black & White. You are tasked with building punishment facilities, managing a workforce of demonic staff, and scrubbing human souls of their sins. Once a soul is clean, you send it back to the surface world to be reincarnated.

According to Team17's announcement, this first major post-launch patch focuses on giving players more control over their bustling "Sin-dustry" logistics.

A new Souls Gate and Ground Flattener

The update adds three primary tools to fix traffic flow issues in your infernal factory. The Souls Gate lets you direct spirits exactly where they need to go for processing, reducing the chaos of wandering souls clogging up your hallways.

If the terrain is getting in the way of your conveyor belts of the damned, the new Ground Flattener permanently removes map obstacles. Finally, the Souls Relocator instantly teleports lost or stuck souls back to the central Hell Plaza. Watching digital workers get permanently stuck behind a single rogue rock is a rite of passage in base-building games, but it never gets less annoying.

Piraknights teased this update last month before locking in today's release date on July 14. Along with the major tools, the patch includes a list of balance tweaks and quality-of-life additions designed to smooth out the daily operations of your facility.

20 percent off until August 10

To coincide with the patch, the base game is discounted by 20 percent until August 10.

This is the debut title for Piraknights Games, a small independent studio based in Savoie, France. They partnered with Team17 to get the game out the door. Team17 is a long-running British publisher that originally made its name on the Amiga in the early 1990s with games like Alien Breed and Superfrog, before achieving massive global success with the Worms franchise.

In recent years, Team17 has built a massive catalog of quirky management and strategy games. Sintopia fits neatly into a publishing portfolio that already includes similar logistical simulation titles like Honey, I Joined a Cult and Settlement Survival.

The Imployee Retention update is a free download for all current owners on PC.

Pick up Sintopia on Humble Bundle.

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