Calling Variables from Other Files in Different Folders

[snippsat]

As an aside, do you still need the empty __init__.py for Python 3? I thought it was only needed for 2.

Yes from Python 3.3 Implicit Namespace Packages are allowed without an __init__.py file.
A little more about in this post.
Doing it the way in this Thread with PYTHONPATH,i have had some trouble not using __init__.py in folders.
I usually don't do it this way,have usually one __init__.py in top level folder folder lifting sub-modules.
This to avoid long import statement(that i do not like) for users of package.