Weeeee-ooooooo, weeeee-oooooo, weeeeee-ooooooo! It’s the news alarm! Prison Architect’s latest update has escaped the seemingly impenetrable holding cell of Introversion HQ and come running to us for somewhere to stash the goods. Ha! Little bastard’s going straight back to the hole once he’s told us everything he knows. Like about the new tunneling system that’s forcing prison redesigns the world over or customisable punishment regimes that finally let you create the fascist nightmare of your dreams. You can take a glance at everything we got out of that scum bucket before we sent him off here or video evidence once you’ve been searched.
Oh and would you look at that, it’s only on the weekend Steam deal for a measley £11.99/$17.99/€15.59. I must say as someone who hadn’t yet gone in for it, it’s mighty tempting. Quite departed from the rather awesome premise, I love the art of the character sprites. Particularly the fat ones. Look at their chubby lil’ hands. D’aw. Murderers.
30/08/2013 at 20:15 J. Cosmo Cohen says:
Someone cell me on this game.
30/08/2013 at 20:19 Sparkasaurusmex says:
It’s a riot, you should definitely buy in, mate.
30/08/2013 at 20:32 trout says:
No escaping the fact that you’ll want to play this in your solitary hours
30/08/2013 at 20:38 Sparkasaurusmex says:
There is no end to your sentence.
31/08/2013 at 14:15 stahlwerk says:
Your pun sets of all meta detectors, bar none!
30/08/2013 at 20:37 killias2 says:
Maybe the pun thread above was also serious, but.. should I get this?
30/08/2013 at 20:39 Sparkasaurusmex says:
It’s okay if you don’t get it. Puns are like that.
30/08/2013 at 20:41 Sparkasaurusmex says:
Okay, seriously.
It’s really good but not finished yet. Many will probably disagree with me, but this game comes closer to recreating that Bullfrog feel than any of the blatant Dungeon Keeper try-to-bes that have recently come out.
30/08/2013 at 21:31 Ben Barrett says:
I like “try-to-bes” that’s a very nice way of putting it.
31/08/2013 at 14:22 stahlwerk says:
To me it feels a lot more like the dwarf fortress for graphics than a spiritual dungeon keep-a-like-like.
31/08/2013 at 16:20 Grey Poupon says:
It’s kind of ironic, the first game that came to mind when I played Prison Architect was Theme Park. The premise of those two games couldn’t be more apart, yet they feel a bit the same to me. Guess they just scratch the same itch.
04/09/2013 at 21:24 saluk says:
It’s not that ironic. Bullfrog’s next game after theme park, theme hospital, is one of Prison Architects primary game influences, and the two games are quite similar. Making a profit from incoming patients’ health recovery isn’t really that different from making a profit from incoming prisoners’ social recovery.
30/08/2013 at 20:43 Rich says:
Call me a wishy-washy bleeding heart lefty, but how about some rehabilitation? It would be nice to see folks leaving the prison both legally and breathing.
30/08/2013 at 20:46 LionsPhil says:
You’re a wishy-washy bleeding heart lefty.
And you’re using Richard Nixon’s head to do it.
30/08/2013 at 21:13 C0llic says:
All that will be in the game eventually. The eventual aim is for you to be able to run a lefty, liberal holiday camp with the usual rehabilitation stuff, or a right wing hell hole with 23 hour lockdown and deathrow.
Currently prisoners do leave legally when they serve their sentences. No parole system yet though.
30/08/2013 at 21:31 LionsPhil says:
But will it model the horrific rotary-door reoffense rate or the horrific hardening of white-collar criminals into violent thugs?
And can we use them as sweatshop labourers for our own personal profit?
30/08/2013 at 22:21 rhubarb says:
Maybe in the future, with a similar system to Tropico’s Swiss Bank? That seems a little bit outside the remit of simulating a prison though.
30/08/2013 at 22:50 Belsameth says:
You can have them print license plates for insane money, at least \o/
30/08/2013 at 21:26 Rich says:
“I’m meeting you half way, you stupid hippies!”
30/08/2013 at 20:59 Nenjin says:
Prison Architect is a full-fledged simulation. That’s perhaps my biggest selling point. Introversion isn’t just interested in creating a passable prison simulation. They’re interested in modeling damn near everything you think about when you think of prisons.
Secondly, is their consistency. Updates regularly, regularly expanding gameplay with new features and mechanics, fleshing out old mechanics…..
For me the game basically became “finished” a couple updates ago, and yet to them, it’s still an alpha. It a wonderfully detailed simulation that isn’t showing any signs of slowing down yet.
Perhaps the only short coming is that, as a sandbox, the game is more about building and less about maintaining. It’s hard to cause chaos to happen when you’ve got unlimited funds and the ability to turn prisoner intake on and off.
But if you play it straight (no money cheating), it can be fairly challenging as you have to make decisions about what you can afford to live without.
Compared to most of the other sim games I’ve seen in the last couple years, Prison Architect is one that truly seems to believe in simulating systems and simulating interactions as a fundamental part of gameplay. They’re not shying away from the hard work of simulation.
31/08/2013 at 00:43 Syphus says:
It is definitely pretty finished. But there are still things I want to see in the game. For example, the Electric chair you’ve been able to build since day 1, still has no real functionality. You can’t punish someone with it and you don’t get death row inmates.
But, this is of course a minor issue and I do so love this game.
30/08/2013 at 22:11 skutbag says:
40% off – sold!
30/08/2013 at 22:19 Ernesto25 says:
Think i’ll wait on this one, loved the honesty of the trailer though just not sure if its my kind of game.
30/08/2013 at 23:13 Davie says:
I love that screenshot. My last name is Underwood, so now I’m imagining myself making a daring spoon-assisted breakout.
I should play this game; looks pretty awesome. Still too pricey at the moment though.
31/08/2013 at 08:35 Gap Gen says:
Honestly the first time I saw it I thought it was a laser toilet, shooting at anything that moved outside the grounds.
31/08/2013 at 01:43 The Random One says:
Is it just be or has there been a lot of Ben articles this week? Did he ask for, and get, a Ben week, just like Cara got a Cara week?
31/08/2013 at 08:40 Gap Gen says:
Next week is shark week. Expect lots of articles about chasing down blood in the ocean, tearing swimmers apart and tips on how to post by throwing your body out of the water onto a laptop on the beach, then dragging yourself back in for another keystroke.
31/08/2013 at 14:24 stahlwerk says:
Yay, I love Shark Week!
31/08/2013 at 10:33 Voronwer says:
Yeah, I couldn’t resist and got this yesterday and it’s mighty fun despite the bugs I’ve been running in to. Though, really, should they try to escape with their little spoons every night? You’d think it’d get tiring.
31/08/2013 at 10:54 fauxC says:
I’m really looking forward to playing this, when it’s finished.
31/08/2013 at 14:19 stahlwerk says:
easy solution: crackdown on spoons, only sporks allowed.