''Prison Architect'' is a

private prison A private prison, or for-profit prison, is a place where people are imprisoned by a third party that is contracted by a government agency. Private prison companies typically enter into contractual agreements with governments that commit ...

construction and management simulation Construction and management simulation (CMS), sometimes also called management sim or building sim, is a subgenre of simulation game in which players build, expand or manage fictional communities or projects with limited resources. Strategy vid ...

video game developed by

Introversion Software Introversion Software Limited is a British video game developer based in Walton-on-Thames, England. History The company was founded in 2001 by three friends, Chris Delay, Mark Morris, and Thomas Arundel, who met as undergraduates at Imperial ...

. It was made available as a

crowdfunded Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

paid alpha pre-order on September 25, 2012 with updates scheduled every three to four weeks. With over 2,000,000 copies sold, ''Prison Architect'' made over in pre-order sales for the alpha version. ''Prison Architect'' was an entrant in the 2012

Independent Games Festival The Independent Games Festival (IGF) is an annual festival at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), the largest annual gathering of the independent video game industry. Originally founded in 1998 to promote independent video game developers, ...

. The game was available on Steam's

Early Access Early access, also known as alpha access, alpha founding, paid alpha, or game preview, is a funding model in the video game industry by which consumers can purchase and play a game in the various pre-release development cycles, such as pre-alph ...

program, and was officially released on October 6, 2015. In 2019,

Paradox Interactive Paradox Interactive AB is a video game publisher based in Stockholm, Sweden. The company started out as the video game division of Target Games and then Paradox Entertainment (now Cabinet Entertainment) before being spun out into an independen ...

acquired the rights to ''Prison Architect'' for an undisclosed sum.

Gameplay

The game is a

top-down Top-down may refer to: Arts and entertainment * " Top Down", a 2007 song by Swizz Beatz * "Top Down", a song by Lil Yachty from ''Lil Boat 3'' * "Top Down", a song by Fifth Harmony from ''Reflection'' Science * Top-down reading, is a part of ...

2D (with a partially 3D mode) 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 A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, corre ...

. The player's role is of both

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

and

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

with sandbox

micromanagement In business management, micromanagement is a management style whereby a manager closely observes, controls, and/or reminds the work of their subordinates or employees. Micromanagement is generally considered to have a negative connotation, main ...

themes, responsible for managing various aspects of the prison, including building facilities, connecting

utilities A public utility company (usually just utility) is an organization that maintains the infrastructure for a public service (often also providing a service using that infrastructure). Public utilities are subject to forms of public control and ...

, 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). The player is also responsible for the finances of their prison, and for meeting the needs of their prisoners (e.g.,

sanitation Sanitation refers to public health conditions related to clean drinking water and treatment and disposal of human excreta and sewage. Preventing human contact with feces is part of sanitation, as is hand washing with soap. Sanitation syste ...

). The player is also able to implement various

reform Reform ( lat, reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement ...

and

labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

programmes that reduce the specific prisoner's recidivism rate. The player tells the prisoners what to do indirectly by setting their schedule. The game takes inspiration from ''

Theme Hospital ''Theme Hospital'' is a business simulation game developed by Bullfrog Productions and published by Electronic Arts in 1997 for MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows compatible PCs in which players design and operate a privately owned hospital with the ...

'', ''

Dungeon Keeper ''Dungeon Keeper'' is a strategy video game developed by Bullfrog Productions and released by Electronic Arts in June 1997 for MS-DOS and Windows 95. In ''Dungeon Keeper'', the player builds and manages a dungeon, protecting it from invading ' ...

'', and ''

Dwarf Fortress ''Dwarf Fortress'' (officially called ''Slaves to Armok: God of Blood Chapter II: Dwarf Fortress'') is a construction and management simulation and roguelike indie video game created by Bay 12 Games. Available as freeware and in development sin ...

''. The player can also 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 also opt to build a female prison, which necessitates the construction of

nursing Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health ...

and

childcare Child care, otherwise known as day care, is the care and supervision of a child or multiple children at a time, whose ages range from two weeks of age to 18 years. Although most parents spend a significant amount of time caring for their child(r ...

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 also ranked according to five different classes, which correspond to a different temperament and length of sentence. Prisoners may be motivated to behave well to be given a lower security rating; and prisoners with poor behaviour may be given a higher security rating as punishment. Death Row prisoners arrive with a '

clemency A pardon is a government decision to allow a person to be relieved of some or all of the legal consequences resulting from a criminal conviction. A pardon may be granted before or after conviction for the crime, depending on the laws of the j ...

' 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 Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

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. 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 Escape or Escaping may refer to: Computing * Escape character, in computing and telecommunication, a character which signifies that what follows takes an alternative interpretation ** Escape sequence, a series of characters used to trigger some so ...

, while causing as much trouble as possible. With the addition of the ''Psych Ward'' DLC, players are given the option to house

criminally insane The insanity defense, also known as the mental disorder defense, is an affirmative defense by excuse in a criminal case, arguing that the defendant is not responsible for their actions due to an episodic psychiatric disease at the time of the cr ...

prisoners, and build relevant facilities to meet their needs (such as

padded cell A padded cell is a cell in a psychiatric hospital with cushions lining the walls. The padding is an attempt to prevent patients from hurting themselves by hitting their head (or other bodily parts) on the hard surface of the walls. In most case ...

s), and hire additional personnel needed to keep them in check, such as

orderlies In healthcare, an orderly (also known as a ward assistant, nurse assistant or healthcare assistant) is a hospital attendant whose job consists of assisting medical and nursing staff with various nursing and medical interventions. The highest ...

and

psychiatrists A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...

. Additionally, 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).

Development

''Prison Architect'' was developed by British video game studio

. The game was announced in October 2011, shortly after Introversion postponed the development of their bank heist simulator game '' Subversion''. The game was first made available on September 25, 2012 as an Alpha version. The game was then

with pre-orders, making over in two weeks with close to 8,000 sales. 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. As of December 2013, the developers have raised over . Introversion Software announced that a mobile version of the game was in development and the PC version of the game officially launched on October 6, 2015. In Introversion's alpha 30 video, they confirmed ''Prison Architect'' was coming to

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...

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 The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, operating ...

then! Your loss

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...

", with a link to a Pocket Gamer article. 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. The effort to bring ''Prison Architect'' to mobile devices was resumed by

as the publisher and co-developed with

Tag Games Tag Games is a video game developer and publisher based in Dundee, Scotland. Established in 2006, it is focused on creating games for mobile, tablet and wearable platforms and was one of the first European studios to develop titles for both th ...

. The tablet version for

and Android tablets was launched on May 25, 2017. Introversion announced on January 20, 2016 that Double Eleven would be bringing the game to

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generati ...

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

and PlayStation 4 platforms. The console versions were released on June 28, 2016. The Xbox edition of the game was released to subscribers to Xbox Live under the

Games With Gold The Xbox network, formerly and still sometimes branded as Xbox Live, is an Internet, online multiplayer video game, multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft. It was first made available to the Xbox ...

program in September 2018. On June 6, 2017, Double Eleven released a trailer for an

expansion pack An expansion pack, expansion set, supplement, or simply expansion is an addition to an existing role-playing game, tabletop game, video game or collectible card game. These add-ons usually add new game areas, weapons, objects, characters, or ...

to Prison Architect, named ''Psych Ward'', on their YouTube channel. ''Psych Ward'' was later released on Steam on November 21, 2019. Update 16, which officially introduced multiplayer mode to the game, was released on September 4, 2018. 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.

Expansion Packs

Reception

Upon its full release, the game received positive reviews, scoring 83 out of 100 on review aggregator site

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

. ''

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

'' 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." On April 7, 2016, Prison Architect won the 2016 BAFTA award in the ''Persistent Game'' category.BAFTA - Games in 2016
/ref> Prison Architect was also nominated for the 2016

BAFTA award The British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTA Film Awards is an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to honour the best British and international contributions to film. The cer ...

in the ''British Game'' category, which was won by '' Batman: Arkham Knight''. 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. 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. In June 2019, it was announced that the game had been downloaded over 4 million times across PC, console, and mobile.

References

External links