Prison Architect Will Leave Early Access On October 6
Released. From Early Access jail
Prison Architect [official site] is being released. Get it? Released. That's a thing that also happens to prisoners. Prisoners like the sort the game is about managing. Get it? Yeah. Prison Architect will join society on October 6th.
If it has post-release bugs, does that count as recidivism?
Prison Architect was released into early access on September 26th 2012 and was one of the first wave of games added to Steam's Early Access when that launched the following year. That's three years of development, during which we've written about the game multiple times, including diaries of failure jails and lists of the best user-built jail successes.
Introversion Software have already said that they will continue to update the game post-release, though the only future project announced thus far is mobile support.
Not that I'm complaining. Where many early access games stumble or go long periods without updates, Prison Architect has had monthly updates for the entire duration of its development. What began as a fairly simple Theme Prison game now has complicated systems for logic circuits, drugs, and a situation by which your own avatar can be sent to your prison for criminal negligence. It sits somewhere between Bullfrog's famed management fair and the more advanced simulation of Dwarf Fortress.
The October part of the release date was originally announced via the alpha 35 update video, which you can watch below. I am curious though: have you been waiting till this final release before playing or returning to the game?