Prison Architect Alpha 20 is live, and it allows you to both “f**K up [and] game over”.
As always, the guys over at Introversion have put a lot of work into Prison Architect with this latest Alpha Build, though this time it is all about the end-game.
As with a real prison, how well you are doing is diplayed through a grading system; each prisoner’s time in your walls is graded in 4 areas: Punishment, Reform, Security and Health, and are all viewable from the in-game rap sheet. The first two, Punishment and Reform are the primary metrics which you really need to keep an eye on if you want to win (or more specifically at this point, not lose), though all 4 categories are used to calculate an “estimated re-offending chance” of your prisoners once they get out into the big, bad world; the idea of the game is now to keep this percentage probability as low as possible.
The Punishment scale is determined by how well the prisoner has been punished for their crimes in the eyes of the public, and is graded on a scale of 1-10 - letting a murderer sit and watch TV will actively count against you, whereas sticking the monster in solitary and making him miserable for his 15 years will make the public happy.
Reform is the other thing which your prisoners are in prison to achieve besides being punished, and is also scored from 1-10. Reform is calculated based on which reform programs they have been in and whether or not they passed them - a pass will obviously count for a lot more than just sitting at the back of the class and failing, though that still counts for something. Reform programs like Kitchen safety, however don’t amount to much in the grand scheme of things because they are so basic, but the vocational programs such as carpentry are there to keep your prisoners on the straight and narrow once they get out so those are the ones you really want to push for.
Your two secondary metrics, Security and Health, are rated from -5 to 5 and are pretty self explanatory - keep your prisoners safe and healthy; don’t kill or starve them.
These metrics are presented as an average for all of your released prisoners to give you an overall prison grading. This shows you how well your prison is doing with regards to your 4 metrics, the chances of your ex-cons re-offending and the value of your prison; considering your prison is a business, you want to do well, so keep your deaths down and your profits up - especially if you are looking to sell your prison and start again.
The second new thing in Alpha 20 is the ability to Game Over. For those of you who are truly terrible at the game, you can be fired and have your prison taken from you. As Prison Warden you now have Prison Advisors who do the little things like counting the number of deaths you rack up in a day inside your walls - right up until The CEO gives you a call. You know you’re in the shit when the boss calls about a riot that has got out of hand and tells you to get things under control or “the government will step in and retake the prison by force.” At this point you are given a task and a countdown timer warning you of how long you have until The CEO calls back and sends in the national guard.
In Alpha 20 your ex-prisoners cannot surrender should the worst happen, and the national guard will use your prisoners simply to paint the walls red. You are locked out of the UI and are forced for your sins to watch those you once looked over get shot to bits as the displayed number of prisoners rioting slowly dwindles back down to 0.
Other failure states do exist, such as banrupcy and people constantly escaping, but you are always given a warning before you are sacked, so don’t worry too much about suddenly having your prison wrested from your grasp for one tiny mistake.
The final fail-state in Alpha 20 is a stroke of pure genius from the nice people at Introversion, and we sincerely hope that more comes of it. It is so good, in fact, that we refuse to spoil it here, so if you want to see what happens when you are prosecuted for criminal negligence ,watch the video (or skip to 22 minutes). We were bouncing in our seats, ladies and gentelmen, because if this pans out like we think it might, that would be epic.
Nic Bunce
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