Prison Architect is a 2015 private prison construction and management simulation video game developed and published by Introversion Software.
Prison Architect might on the surface look like a simple title especially when the inmates and staff look like cutouts floating through the prison but underneath the hood is a surprisingly in-depth management simulation.
Tasked with the titular role of being a prison architect, it’s down to you as the player to not only build a place to house your inmates but also one which is able to fulfill their basic needs. Of course where you go from here is completely up to you as you have to decide what kind of prison you would like to run. Will you maintain order through brutality or do you attempt to reform your inmates ready for their release back into society.
Starting with an empty sandbox you’ll start by constructing a few basic buildings but from here it’s really down to you how you construct your prison with the game giving a lot of freedom with the architect mode allowing you to draw out your blueprint before you pass it over to the engineers to build.
As with other management games you’re required to keep your prisoners happy by for filling their needs, however unlike other management games the prisoners will leave you more than a scathing review as unhappiness usually leads to them trashing their cells or starting riots. Some prisoners will even attempt to tunnel out of prison all which add to the challenge of finding ways to design your prison to counter these issues.
Money is one of the driving forces of the game and here there are numerous ways to gain it by completing grants which require you to hit specific criteria, you can even put your prisoners to work in the workshop, laundry room or just cleaning the prison. You main income however will come from the prisoners for whom the higher their security rating the more income they generate but with a higher security rating comes a larger risk to your prisoners and staff they have the potential to generate.
While the prisoners, as mentioned, might look like little cardboard cutouts floating through your prison, they do actually have a surprisingly large amount of personality and by clicking on any prisoner you’re able to find a full bio detailing their crimes, family and general personality. This is a nice touch that strangely brings a lot of life to proceeding making them seem like real characters than nameless sprites. This aspect especially comes into play when it comes to opening a Death Row wing were your forced to pull the switch on your prisoners you send to the chair, an action which surprisingly feels like it has some weight to it.
Of course if you get bored with building the perfect prison there is also the escape and prison warden mode which allow you to play inside a prison setup as prisoner or warden which is fun getting to play both sides and it certainly mixes up the gameplay from being another management sim.
The main downside of the game however comes with its building mechanics which at first can be a little tricky as structures have to have foundations laid and then marked as the room they are going to be. Thankfully a lot of the hassle is taken out with the quick build section which covers most of the main builds you will need.
A surprising title worth discovering even if the graphics might seem a little basic, this is a title which goes a lot deeper and certainly makes up for in gameplay what players might feel it lacks in its art style.