مدیر فروشگاهIt just so happens that the release of many modern indie games that started with Early Access often goes completely unnoticed, especially compared to the release of the very first alpha or beta version. The initial excitement has already passed, everyone who wanted to have already played enough and understood whether it is worth waiting for the release of a full-fledged product, and, as a rule, you should not expect any global changes in the release. Prison Architect, economic simulator of a prison warden, also did not surprise anyone with its version 1.0, which has finally appeared on Steam – everyone is so accustomed to a promising, but somewhat delayed product.
There is also a campaign, which is a training mode. Very short, but with such dramatic drawings.
We built and built..
In general, roleplaying as a prison warden is not a new setting for such economic simulators. Take at least the series Prison Tycoon, which was developed over the course of five years (from 2005 to 2010) Virtual Playground under the auspices ValuSoft. Quantity, however, stubbornly refused to turn into quality – all these strategies turned out to be, to put it mildly, unsuccessful. But Introversion Software, on the contrary, it rarely but accurately produced a very original and high-quality product. Their past games are far from being global hits, but, as they say, “with soul”. Prison Architect has more classic gameplay, but the hand of the authors DEFCON, Uplink And Darwinia, definitely felt.
This is not a pure “manager”, and a fair share of gameplay time is occupied by the design and construction of the prison with all its premises – from the main entrance and the chief’s office to the punishment cell and the room with the electric chair. You literally have to start from scratch – apart from a few workers with tools, the prison director at the very beginning has nothing else. You have to pick up a drawing tool and mark out the layout of the future correctional facility yourself. The most important thing here is not to rush, since the game allows you to pause and first create a diagram of all the buildings, and only then proceed directly to their construction. And one more thing – turn off the arrival of prisoners, otherwise the new arrival of prisoners will be very happy when they are dropped off in an open field in the middle of construction work.
Creation of any objects in Prison Architect, be it the wall of a building or a section of a water pipe, it is impossible without labor and materials. Here everything is more or less close to reality – construction takes a certain time, and if you don’t have available builders, you’ll have to wait until those already occupied become available, or hire new ones. Items such as tables, cabinets, beds also do not appear instantly, but must be carried by workers from the warehouse and installed in the right place. All this must be taken into account when planning premises – otherwise there will certainly be congestion at locked doors or workers risk being among the prisoners who start a riot.
Each prisoner has a detailed dossier indicating his biography, family ties, character and even a “photograph”. “Piracy” of indie games, by the way, is a very common crime in the world of Prison Architect.
However, this is still a long way off – initial planning and construction take quite a lot of time and, if your prison is developing, it does not stop for almost a minute. In addition to walls and perimeter fences, it is necessary to erect buildings, do interior decoration, lay plumbing and electrical cables. In addition to workers, there are also plenty of other service personnel – from banal cooks and cleaners to such exotic positions as gardener or accountant. All of them are necessary for the successful functioning of a correctional institution and require attention – for example, the authorities will not work without a convenient office.
Oddly enough, in Prison Architect there https://high-flyer-casino.co.uk/withdrawal/ is something to do at the beginning of the game even with zero prisoners, but sooner or later the moment will come when the first batch of convicts is unloaded from a paddy wagon on the threshold of your prison.
Divide and conquer
By this time, a smart boss should already have equipped the minimum necessary infrastructure – cells, shower room, kitchen and dining room. Sleep and satisfying hunger are the very first, but far from the only needs of prisoners. To satisfy them, you have to expand your possessions: you cannot do without an infirmary, a room for visitors, a walking yard, classrooms for training and a whole list of various buildings and objects. All this requires more labor and higher costs.
Where to get money? A small but stable income for each prisoner is provided by the state. If you need a larger amount right away, then it is better to try to get a grant (I started a training program for convicts – receive part of the money immediately, and part after fulfilling all the conditions), you can also put savings at interest and sell products produced in prison. It is even possible to issue shares of the prison for sale to investors, or you can sell the entire prison – the proceeds will go to a bank account, and no one bothers you to use it when starting the next game.
Very soon the prison grows to a very decent size, and, at first glance, it is impossible to manage it effectively without plunging into the abyss of micromanagement. But no – thanks to a very convenient macro-management system, you can feel quite comfortable in the role of the head of a correctional institution with an impressive contingent.
For example, using a couple of buttons you can set the necessary daily routine for different modes of confinement. The logistics panel allows you to precisely assign personnel to places, and the already mentioned planning method helps expand the prison with minimal errors during the immediate construction of new buildings. Rules of conduct automate the actions of guards in case of violation of the regime, but such trivialities as financial reports and detailed information about each convicted person are, of course, also available. Moreover, all these moments, loosely related to the gameplay in such games, in Prison Architect, on the contrary, they are an integral part of it – the same information about income and expenses cannot be seen without an accountant, and all this is formatted in the form of paper folders and printouts, which, of course, contributes to immersion in the game.
Prison never sleeps
It’s no secret that a significant part of the pleasure from games of this genre is simply contemplating the work of your hands. It’s nice to take a short break from the pressing problems of your city, colony, fortress or, as in this case, prison and just watch the life of your charges as they rush about their business. Everything is fine here, even more than.
A separate game mode “Prison Escape” allows you to experience the shoes of a prisoner in one of the thousands of prisons created by players.
For example, at night there is silence in the cells, the lights are off, only guards constantly patrol the indicated routes and workers, who are busy not only during the day, rush about their business. In the morning, when the wake-up signal sounds, the prison comes to life: prisoners wander to the shower and dining room, and then someone works or studies, or manages their time independently – at the discretion of the authorities.
Here the guards are breaking up fighting prisoners from rival gangs, and somewhere a lonely prisoner is digging a tunnel to escape. In the visiting room, as always, there is a large queue of visitors. Nearby, workers installing a sewer system again crowded at the doors of the new prison block, because the chief forgot to assign a separate guard with the keys to the entrance, and there were no free patrolmen nearby.
However, everything is not always calm: if you forget yourself, let things take their course and, for example, leave prisoners without food, they will start a riot. Beatings of employees and security, fires, destruction, murders, in the end… You can call a special forces team and use lethal weapons, but sometimes excessively brutal suppression of a riot brings much more problems. It is better to stop such sentiments immediately. It makes sense to transfer those who are particularly violent to a punishment cell, where, by the way, you can recruit “informers”, and by regular searches of cells and the prisoners themselves you can protect yourself from future unrest. However, remembering the “stick”, we should not forget about the “carrots” – even the strictest and harshest regime will not save if the prisoners have nowhere to sleep and nothing to eat.
Finally, for individual hobbyists there is every opportunity to create particularly complex projects. Something like Challenge Builds from Dwarf Fortress, Fortunately, the game has enough opportunities for this – there are also special circuits for performing simple logical operations.
The dining room, as one of the places where prisoners gather, constantly becomes a place for showdowns between bandits. More security is needed, otherwise riots cannot be avoided.
Despite the significant period of time in Early Access (two and a half years), the creators Prison Architect still managed to keep their promises and released a really good game in their own style – original and very exciting. There are somewhat simplified, but nice graphics, and fairly convenient controls and interface (which is generally a rarity for such games), but the most important thing is the diverse and deep gameplay. Planning and building here is no less interesting than following the daily life of the wards, and the abundance of all kinds of situations does not let you get bored for a minute. Neither more nor less – one of the best games in the genre in recent times and a great example of how to do indie in Early Access.
Pros: convenient controls and interface; a sea of opportunities for roleplaying; detailed gameplay.
Cons: sometimes the pathfinding algorithm doesn’t do its job; Prison Escape mode could have been more interesting.
