Prison Architect

Prison Architect
Developer(s)	Introversion Software Double Eleven (2019−present)
Publisher(s)	Introversion Software[a] Paradox Interactive (2019−present)
Producer(s)	Mark Morris
Designer(s)	Chris Delay
Platform(s)	Linux OS X Windows PlayStation 4 Xbox 360 Xbox One iOS Android Nintendo Switch
Release	October 6, 2015 Linux, OS X, Windows October 6, 2015 PlayStation 4, Xbox One NA: June 28, 2016 EU: July 1, 2016 AU: July 5, 2016 Xbox 360 August 2, 2016 iOS, Android May 25, 2017 Nintendo Switch August 20, 2018
Genre(s)	Construction and management simulation
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Prison Architect is a private prison construction and management simulation video game developed and published by Introversion Software.^[1] It was made available as a crowdfunded paid alpha pre-order on September 25, 2012 with updates that were scheduled every three to four weeks until 2023.^[2] With over 2,000,000 copies sold, Prison Architect made over US$10.7 million in pre-order sales for the alpha version.^[3] Prison Architect was an entrant in the 2012 Independent Games Festival.^[4] The game was available on Steam's Early Access program, and was officially released on October 6, 2015.

In 2019, Paradox Interactive acquired the rights to Prison Architect for an undisclosed sum.^[5] A sequel, Prison Architect 2 is currently under development.

Gameplay

The game is a top-down 2D, with a partially 3D mode,^[6] highly modifiable construction and management simulation, where the player has been hired by the CEO of a for-profit prison company to take control of building and running a prison. The player's role is of both architect and governor with sandbox micromanagement themes, responsible for managing various aspects of the prison, including building facilities, connecting utilities, and managing staff. The player needs to recruit specific staff to unlock some aspects of the game, e.g., information about the prison's finances is unavailable without an accountant.^[7]

The player is responsible for the finances of their prison, and for meeting the needs of their prisoners, e.g., sanitation. The player is able to implement various reform and labour programmes that reduce the specific prisoner's recidivism rate. The player tells the prisoners what to do indirectly by setting their schedule.^[8] The game takes inspiration from Theme Hospital, Dungeon Keeper, and Dwarf Fortress.^[9]

The player can allow additional conditions to be applied to their game, such as simulated temperature, gang activities and more extreme weather conditions, to increase the difficulty of the game and to simulate a prison in conditions nearer to reality. Players may opt to build a female prison, which necessitates the construction of nursing and childcare facilities for female inmates that are accompanying an infant. A player's prison is graded by an in-game report according to various factors including recidivism rate of prisoners that have left the prison, overall happiness and violence levels within the prison.

Prisoners are classed according to five different security levels. Each corresponds to a different temperament and length of sentence, with, on intake, the higher security levels with more difficult reputations and more severe crimes but also awarding extra cashflow. Death Row prisoners arrive with a 'clemency' gauge, expressed as a percentage. This percentage can be lowered with successive failed Death Row Appeal sessions. Below a certain percentage, the prisoner can be executed without legal backlash to the facility regardless of the innocence of the prisoner. Should the Death Row prisoner pass an appeal, he may be released from the prison or transferred into the general prison population. There is also a Protective Custody class that players can assign prisoners as.

Players can be 'fired' by the CEO by reaching a failure conditions, and the player is then prevented from further managing that prison. There are also options for 'creative mode' available on prison creation where, finance can be ignored, research is fully unlocked, and building is instant, among other changes.

The first "official" non-beta release introduced an expanded story mode as a tutorial as well as an escape mode which casts the player as a prisoner with the goal of escaping, while causing as much trouble as possible.^[10]

With the addition of the Psych Ward DLC, players are given the option to house criminally insane prisoners, and build relevant facilities to meet their needs, such as padded cells, and hire additional personnel needed to keep them in check, such as orderlies and psychiatrists. Regular prisoners may become criminally insane when they experience excessive punishment or when their needs are not regularly met, such as lack of access to food or sanitation. Since Psych Ward, there have been 10 other DLCs released: Going Green, Perfect Storm, Island Bound, Gangs, Second Chances, Future Tech Pack, Jungle Pack, Free for Life, and Cleared for Transfer. Unfortunately, active development was ended with the Sunset update on May 16, 2023 due to the announcement of the sequel, Prison Architect 2.

Development

Prison Architect was developed by British video game studio Introversion Software. The game was announced in October 2011, shortly after Introversion postponed the development of their bank heist simulator game Subversion.^[11] The game was first made available on September 25, 2012 as an Alpha version.^[2] The game was then crowdfunded with pre-orders, making over US$270,000 in two weeks with close to 8,000 sales.^[12] Developer's co-founder Mark Morris explains that independent crowd-funding has allowed them to have no time limit on the Alpha version, as well as no fees associated with crowd-funding platforms.^[12] As of December 2013, the developers have raised over US$9 million.^[13]

Introversion Software announced that a mobile version of the game was in development^[14] and the PC version of the game officially launched on October 6, 2015.^[15][16] In Introversion's alpha 30 video,^[17] they confirmed Prison Architect was coming to iOS and Android in October 2015 with the game's official release. The developers posted a tweet on March 21, 2013, that "I guess Prison Architect won't be coming to iPad then! Your loss Apple", with a link to a Pocket Gamer article.^[18][19] It was later revealed by the developer that the original direct port did not impress Apple. Due to the concern of it might not be featured on App Store's front page the project was set aside for a while.^[20]

The effort to bring Prison Architect to mobile devices was resumed by Paradox Interactive as the publisher and co-developed with Tag Games. The tablet version for iPad and Android tablets was launched on May 25, 2017.^[21] Introversion announced on January 20, 2016 that Double Eleven would be bringing the game to Xbox 360, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 platforms. The console versions were released on June 28, 2016.^[22] The Xbox edition of the game was released to subscribers to Xbox Live under the Games With Gold program in September 2018.^[23]

On June 6, 2017, Double Eleven released a trailer for an expansion pack to the game, named Psych Ward, on their YouTube channel.^[24] Psych Ward was later released on Steam on November 21, 2019.^[25]

Update 16, which officially introduced multiplayer mode to the game, was released on September 4, 2018.^[26] The new mode allows up to 8 players to cooperatively build and manage a prison. This was later reduced to 4 players in a December 2018 update.

On May 16, 2023, Paradox Interactive released The Sunset Update, the final update for the game.^[27]

Expansion Packs

Name	Release Date
Psych Ward	21 November 2019[25]
Cleared for Transfer	14 May 2020[28]
Island Bound	11 June 2020[29]
Going Green	28 January 2021[30]
Second Chances	16 June 2021[31]
Perfect Storm	27 January 2022[32]
Gangs	14 June 2022[33]
Undead	11 October 2022[34]
Future Tech Pack	22 November 2022[35]
Jungle Pack	7 February 2023[36]

Reception

Reception

Aggregate score

Aggregator	Score
Metacritic	PC: 83/100[37] PS4: 80/100[38] XONE: 75/100[39] NS: 83/100[40]

Review scores

Publication	Score
GameSpot	7/10[41]
IGN	8.3/10[42]
TouchArcade	[43]

Upon its full release, the game received positive reviews, scoring 83 out of 100 on review aggregator site Metacritic.^[37] IGN awarded it a score of 8.3 out of 10, saying "Prison Architect is one of the most in-depth, satisfying builder games in ages, if you can get past the initiation."^[42] On April 7, 2016, Prison Architect won the 2016 BAFTA award in the Persistent Game category.^[44] Prison Architect was also nominated for the 2016 BAFTA award in the British Game category, which was won by Batman: Arkham Knight.^[44]

As of September 26, 2015, Prison Architect had grossed over $19 million in sales, and over 1.25 million units of the game had been sold.^[45] By the end of August 2016 when the final version '2.0' of Prison Architect was released, the number of individual players was given as two million.^[46] In June 2019, it was announced that the game had been downloaded over 4 million times across PC, console and mobile.^[47]

Sequel

Main article: Prison Architect 2

A sequel, Prison Architect 2, was set to be released on September 3, 2024 but has now been delayed indefinitely.^[48] Unlike the first game, Prison Architect 2 is fully 3D and allows players to construct prisons over multiple floors.^[49] The game will be available on Windows PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and Series S and is developed by Kokku and Double Eleven, and published by Paradox Interactive.^[50]

See also

• Prison Tycoon
• The Escapists

Notes

1. The console versions were published by Double Eleven, while Paradox Interactive published the mobile versions.

References

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2. Rossignol, Jim (September 26, 2012). "Introversion Unveil Prison Architect's Alpha Launch". Rock Paper Shotgun. Archived from the original on May 15, 2013. Retrieved July 31, 2013.
3. Steinbach, Jonas (January 9, 2014). "Prison Architect rakes in nearly $11 million". Archived from the original on January 8, 2014. Retrieved January 9, 2014.
4. "IGF 2012 Main Competition Entrant: Prison Architect". The 14th Annual Independent Games Festival. Archived from the original on December 3, 2013. Retrieved November 22, 2013.
5. Wilson, Jason (January 8, 2019). "Paradox Interactive acquires Prison Architect from Introversion Games". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on February 3, 2021. Retrieved January 8, 2019.
6. Smith, Graham (March 8, 2016). "How to activate Prison Architect 3D". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Archived from the original on January 15, 2021. Retrieved April 1, 2016.
7. Francis, Tom (July 31, 2012). "Prison Architect preview". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on August 4, 2012. Retrieved August 4, 2012.
8. Francis, Tom (July 31, 2012). "Prison Architect preview". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on August 4, 2012. Retrieved August 4, 2012.
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13. Cook, Dave (December 5, 2013). "$9 million and counting: why Prison Architect underlines a changing tide". VG24/7. Archived from the original on March 6, 2021. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
14. Wesley Yin-Poole (January 30, 2015). "Prison Architect will launch in 2015". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on October 25, 2021. Retrieved January 30, 2015.
15. Yin-Poole, Wesley (July 30, 2015). "Prison Architect set free October 2015". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on August 1, 2015. Retrieved July 30, 2015.
16. "Version 1 will launch on 06 October 2015". us5 Campaign Archive. 2015. Retrieved September 21, 2015.
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18. "I guess Prison Architect won't be coming to iPad then!". Introversion Software. March 22, 2013. Archived from the original on September 26, 2023. Retrieved October 6, 2015 – via Twitter.^{[non-primary source needed]}
19. "Sweatshop HD is the latest victim in Apple's war on serious games". Pocket Gamer. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved April 27, 2017.
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30. "Prison Architect: Going Green is the next expansion for the prison simulator". TheSixthAxis. January 16, 2021. Archived from the original on October 31, 2022. Retrieved March 11, 2022.
31. "Prison Architect: Second Chances will let you rehabilitate your prisoners in June". TheSixthAxis. May 21, 2021. Archived from the original on October 31, 2022. Retrieved March 11, 2022.
32. "Prison Architect: Perfect Storm DLC and The Tower update get a surprise release". GamingOnLinux. January 27, 2022. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
33. "Gang Warfare and Expanded Rehabilitation Programs Are Now Available in Prison Architect: Gangs". www.gamespress.com. June 14, 2022. Archived from the original on October 31, 2022. Retrieved June 16, 2022.
34. Zaidi, Salman Haider (October 6, 2022). "Halloween-Themed Prison Architect: "Undead" Expansion Launches October 11". MP1st. Archived from the original on February 23, 2023. Retrieved December 20, 2022.
35. "Future Tech Pack to bring more gadgets to Prison Architect". GamingOnLinux. November 16, 2022. Retrieved December 20, 2022.
36. "Prison Architect Releasing Jungle Pack DLC and Free Jailhouse Update". MSN. Archived from the original on April 11, 2023. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
37. "Prison Architect for PC Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved October 29, 2015.
38. "Prison Architect for PlayStation 4 Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved April 23, 2020.
39. "Prison Architect for Xbox One Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved April 23, 2020.
40. "Prison Architect: Nintendo Switch Edition for Switch Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved April 23, 2020.
41. Clark, Justin (October 13, 2015). "Prison Architect Review". GameSpot. Archived from the original on November 18, 2016. Retrieved December 8, 2016.
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43. Lazarides, Tasos (June 20, 2017). "'Prison Architect' Review – Running a Prison Shouldn't be This Fun". TouchArcade. Archived from the original on July 28, 2019. Retrieved April 23, 2020.
44. "BAFTA - Games in 2016". Archived from the original on April 11, 2016. Retrieved April 29, 2016.
45. Purchese, Robert (September 30, 2015). "Prison Architect earns $19m from 1.25m sales - but what's next?". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on February 6, 2019. Retrieved September 30, 2015.
46. "Version 2.0 released". August 26, 2016. Archived from the original on July 25, 2019. Retrieved September 7, 2018.
47. Grubb, Jeff (June 27, 2019). "Prison Architect surpasses 4 million players". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on July 7, 2022. Retrieved June 24, 2020.
48. "Prison Architect 2 | Delayed release - Paradox Interactive". paradoxinteractive.com. Retrieved August 2, 2024.
49. Castle, Katherine (January 16, 2024). "Prison Architect 2 is official, bringing Paradox's jail management sim to 3D". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Archived from the original on January 16, 2024. Retrieved January 17, 2023.
50. Lane, Rick (April 19, 2024). "Prison Architect 2's release delayed due to 'new technical challenges', has its sentence extended until September". PC Gamer. Retrieved April 20, 2024.

External links

• Official website
• Official wiki