Prison Architect

[Thrik]

I've been properly gagging for some classic sim action, something brought on by that Tiny Tower fiasco — just seeing the classics like Sim City, Sim Tower, Theme Park, etc got me drooling about the idea of a new one.

I was randomly seeing what Introversion are up to these days and saw they put this trailer out a few months ago:

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Now prison simulation isn't exactly what I was thinking, but I have to say I'm pretty excited about this!

Apart from The Sims the people in these types of games have generally been quite thick in my experience, so it'd be awesome if they put some really fantastic AI into this. A prison has all sorts of things going on and they are basically entire communities so there's a lot for Introversion to work with — just depends how in-depth they go.

It's not due out for like a year so it's far from complete, but it's already looking hot to me. I really like the graphical style, very reminiscent of the classics but it's clearly running with some kind of 3D engine due to the advanced lighting going on. It all looks very smooth to play, too. A classic look without the classic clunkiness, then.

More reading here:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/11/30/hands-on-with-prison-architect/

http://www.pcgamer.com/previews/prison-architect-preview/

[Gwardinen]

Yeah I heard about this a while back and was interested, but it is a ways off as you say. From what I heard, this project has actually replaced the bank heist one they were working on, as for one reason or another it just wasn't coming together.

[Lechimp]

You mean Subversion. It looked really cool but apparently it just wasn't fun to play at all and that's why it was canceled. I guess Prison Architect was inspired by one of the missions in that game though.

Really excited about Prison Manager though. I've liked everything else that Introversion has put out.

[Jon_Danger]

I installed yoot tower a while back. So much fun.

[Donk]

You mean Subversion. It looked really cool but apparently it just wasn't fun to play at all and that's why it was canceled.

Disappointing they couldn't make Subversion fun, looked so good. Not too excited about Prison Architect but will check it out. Very interesting developer.

[Nachimir]

Yeah, that was a real shame. It looked amazing, but despite the live demo they did at World of Love being funny, it was a technical project struggling to become a game. It seemed to me like the kind of thing that would be excellent to lay games like Colony Wars 2 or G-Police on top of, but several other companies beat them to procedural city middleware while they were developing it. Middleware also doesn't seem like the kind of thing Introversion would want to do.

Fun fact: They have a very capable sound designer working on Prison Architect. He has all kinds of ideas on the psychology of audio and tricks it could play on gamers. I'm not sure if any of that will make it in, but he's itching to explore it.

[Thrik]

Heavy, guttural breathing in your ear while you're working in the showers, for example.

[Orv]

Heavy, guttural breathing in your ear while you're working in the showers, for example.

This could be great! I've been wanting a management sim for a long while, and playing through RCT 1 & 2 again is starting to get old.

[Nappi]

Can't wait to utterly crush the prisoners' spirits with some perverse Panopticon design.

[Henroid]

I really want to know the details of the mechanics behind Prison Architect. I love the idea of the setting and the all, but it's not as though the goal of the game is going to be trying to get more people into your prison. Like I want to know what the positive trade-offs are for designing this, that, or the other within the prison you run. And what challenges you have to face.

[Thrik]

One of them better be riots.

[ThunderPeel2001]

I had to post this (sorry, it just made me think of it immediately).

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[Xeneth]

I'm generally pretty rubbish at games like this, but looks very intriguing...

I have to imagine that your goal IS to get more prisoners in your prison, because as state funded "businesses" they receive funding based on their reputation as a safe place to store people until they can hopefully be reformed.

I'd be very surprised if escape attempts, riots, and corruption weren't used the way 'disasters' are in many sims to shake up the patterns and provide counter-incentives for imbalanced strategies.

The aesthetic on display doesn't make it look like there's going to be any real tackling of the difficult issues prisons face, (like the fact that concentrating our societal outcasts in the same place tends to cause many to withdraw further as opposed to reforming them) but perhaps it will please with a depth that surprises.

[Thrik]

While my anticipation of this has been dampened by the looming SimCity, I found this tweet pretty hilarious.

Today's bug: now prisoners are actually forming queues outside the kitchen in order to steal knifes

[Erkki]

While my anticipation of this has been dampened by the looming SimCity, I found this tweet pretty hilarious.

My frothing demand for this game increases.

[owenjones]

I'm disappointed that they couldn't figure out how to make Subversion.

[Thrik]

I never really 'got' Subversion even though it looked pretty, and it doesn't sound a great deal like Introversion did either.

[Henroid]

Digging this up because there's some news on this game. You can pay (minimum) $30 to get in on the alpha build of the game now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KDDzSOS0vzc

[toblix]

Backed! Or, you know ...

[Orv]

So I went in on this, because frankly as much as I love other kinds of games, management sims are what got me into gaming and I will never get tired of them.

Watching the story play out as you see an inmate grab a knife from the cantina, wondering whether to have him searched or not and then letting it reach its conclusion is pretty great.

[Murdoc]

I can get this now? sweet. I love this studio, so they can take my money.\

edit: done, will play tonight.

[Security_Tubbs]

Never before has so little information about a game gotten me as excited as Prison Architect did. Literally after seeing only the announcement trailer I knew this would be a game I'll be extremely interested in. $30 is a bit much for me for an alpha, but I'll surely buy the game when it's done or closer to finished. Until then I trust you'll bring back stories and tell me exactly how amazing the game is.

[Thrik]

Haha, that's a novel way of getting around the 'Kickstarter is not a shop' thing — just don't use it!

Surprised this is out and playable so fast, caught me at a bad time so I'll let you guys get the bugs sorted out for me first.

[Roswell47]

I'm always interested in what Introversion is doing but does the subject matter of this game make anyone else feel uncomfortable? This is coming from someone who's been totally desensitized by the internet.

[toblix]

Yeah, I definitely see how it could be uncomfortable if you don't approach it in the g5mer mode. I even think I remember reading an interview where they discussed that, and how they had started to realise how more "serious" situations would arise in this seemingly humorous game. I guess how it turns out in the final game will depend on whether they'll be going the all-out hilarious Theme Park route, or something more serious altogether, or maybe do a complex work of interactive art in which they explicitly use the contrasting elements to comment on prisons, law, justice, free will, etc.