State of play is a semi-regular series where we take a look at games in active development. These could be MMOs, Early Access games, or other games that receive significant feature and content updates over time. It’s our way of keeping you up to date on what’s going on with some of the most interesting titles on the market and letting you know what to expect.
Introversion has released the 23rd Alpha build of their simulation game, Prison Architect, and for the first time in a few months it comes with a load of new features. The big two are new methods of receiving contraband, and a new feature in bureaucracy - Remote Access, though there are a few smaller updates which are thrown in for little more than sheer amusement.
While crushing the bugs has been a very big part of the game design process over the last few months, producer Mark Morris admits that it’s the new features that the people want; designer Chris Delay starts off the video explantion of Alpha 23 with a small change - the game now tells you how many hours you have sunk into it. It’s a small change, but one which gamers as a whole tend to appreciate. Also, anything you upload to the Steam Workshop will also show the number of hours you put into making your prison too, allowing other gamers to revel in your dedication.
In one of the previous Alpha builds, Introversion added a contraband system to the prison: screwdrivers could be stolen from the workshop, and visitors could smuggle in cigarettes, for example. Everything came from within the prison, one way or the other; this is no longer the case. Contraband - drugs, booze, even drills - can now be stuffed into footballs and tennis balls and thrown over your outer wall, just as in real life. And just as in real life, your “friendly neighbourhood drug dealer” isn’t simply going to just drop drugs out of the goodness of their heart - prisoners will now be trying to organise these drops through phone calls, and when meeting during visitation hours.
These contraband items can be thrown over the wall a distance of 10 squares. You will not see when the prisoners collect these items - and they will make sure collect them within 24 hours of making arrangements. The only way to stop this without building more walls is to deter outsiders from making the drop by posting guards at the high risk areas where the contraband would come in.
The second new way to bring contraband into the prison will not come as a surprise to anyone who has seen the show, Orange Is The New Black. Any materials coming into your prison are a potential source of contraband - groceries, workshop supplies, and so on. While your staff will be totally oblivious to the contraband as it comes in, any guard dogs posted in the area will pick up on any narcotics or poisons which they would realistically be able to smell - the dog will obviously not be able to sniff out a screw driver. Savvy players will be looking to increase the number of guard dogs metal detectors in the delivery section in the near future.
These contraband items will pass through the work areas: groceries go straight to the kitchen, metal sheets go straight to the workshop, and any of these delivery bundles could potentially hold contraband. Any inmates working in the areas with contraband coming in will have full access and will be able to smuggle what they like, as they like.
The second big new feature is Remote Access on your prison bureaucracy screen. This unlocks “high-tech equipment for remote control and automation of doors.” No longer will you have to send a guard to open that one door which that irritating inmate keeps going through, blocking up your whole damn prison. By building the object Door Control System (ideally in your security room), and placing Door Servos on your doors which you want to remotely control, you are almost ready to use your new gadgets.
On your utility screen there is a new option called connect; your Door Control System and Door Servos all need to need connecting, just as in real life. Place a guard at the Door Control System and now when your inmates want to go through one of those doors, they will open automatically. These can either be triggered individually by connecting each Servo to your Door control system, or by linking the Servos together to make them all open in unison; these links are unidirectional, so you don’t need to worry about it leading to an escape attempt unless your prisoners are in Riot Mode.
The reason for this new Connect feature is to increase the security of your prison. For example, if you have a bunch of particularly nasty prisoners, you can lock them off in one area controlled purely by remote-doors, which only guards with keys can open. Try to escape now, suckers…
Finally with the doors, the heavily requested feature of doors automatically opening at certain times of day is now a possibility; the Door Timer object will connect with the Servos to automatically open and close at your set times.
And finally with the connect system, your CCTV Monitors now need to be connected to your cameras. You can connect as many as you like to one Monitor, however, you can only view 8 camera feeds at once, and 1 guard can only control 1 Monitor. No longer can one guard control up to 15 Monitors by standing in a vague yellow bubble where they can see them all.
Oh yeah, and as a final cherry on the cake that is this massive update, you can now minimize your to-do list. It’s a tiny change, but one which players will love. Previously it was annoying having it always hanging there, taking up valuable screen real-estate.
As always, the full changelog can be found here. If you want to see the updates which don’t count as “sensible”, skip the video to here to see a fun mini lecture on logic gates, memory bits and bytes. Entirely pointless, but kinda cool.
Nic Bunce
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