Has anyone else bought into the Alpha version of Prison Architect?
It's a game by Introversion, the people behind Uplink, Darwinia and Defcon.
I was curious about it for a while, as I quite like those Theme Hospital style game, and thought I'd take a chance with getting the Alpha. And I'm loving it.
It plays like most of these sim games, you start with a blank area, put in buildings for the various facilities needed and try and keep your prisoners happy while balancing the budget. As it's the alpha, there's still plenty of work to do. But what they have so far works really well.
Sadly, there's no real tutorial (there's a basic one that gives you an idea of what to do, but it leaves out a lot of stuff) and you have to trawl through the developer forum to find info on some aspects of it (for example, it took me about half an hour to figure out to use a drain in the shower room), but again, it's the alpha so this is all to be worked on.
The mechanics of it are pretty cool. Other than a few basic shape and content requirements, the design of the prison is up to you. But it's the behavior of the prisoners that makes it fun. Keep the cooped up or not give them access to basic needs and they'll riot. Every now and again one will steal a knife from the prison kitchen and stab a fellow inmate. I even had a couple jump off the prison transport and run away, which I think was a bit unfair as I'd no chance to catch them, but it was still cool to watch.
At heart it's a fairly simple concept that has loads of room for the developers to expand on. If you've got the money to spare, I'd recommend supporting them. If not, I'd still recommend you keep an eye on it.
Their webpage has a kind of kickstarter payment option list and the obligatory "funny" developer video showing the game in action. There's also loads of Youtube videos that'll show you the game in action.
