Prison Architect Crowdfunding Breaches $8 Million

[Karloff]

Prison Architect Crowdfunding Breaches $8 Million


Still in Alpha build, Introversion? Don't you think it's about time you hired some more people?

Prison Architect [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/125300-Prison-Architect-Dev-Early-Access-Trumps-Retail], UK indie developer Introversion Software's prison management sim that has yet to break out of its Alpha cocoon, has managed to raise over $8 million in crowdfunding cash. $8 million. I'm just going to let that sit there for a while. $8 million. At about £3.50 a pint, assuming London prices, that's 1.4 million pints of beer, more or less. That's settled, then; Introversion, you're getting the next round in.

Introversion's astonished at how well its crowdfunding has progressed. The game went into Alpha in September 2012 and, since then, over 250,000 people have played its game so far. Their contributions have poured in, and since Introversion is using its own crowdfunder rather than go Kickstarter, it keeps control of the process and its contributions. "We never would have believed that one of our games would be so popular," says Mark Morris, "and we want to thank everyone that is supporting Prison Architect and helping us turn it into a concrete reality."

All this from a development team that basically consists of three Directors and four Friends, including one Friend - Will Morris - who may, or may not, be related to one of the Directors. Or maybe he just looks as if he might be Mark's dad [http://www.introversion.co.uk/aboutus.html]; but at any rate, given the amount of cash Introversion seems to have on hand, now might be the time to hire a few people. Just one or two. After all, Prison Architect shouldn't stay in Alpha forever, no matter how profitable that Alpha has become.


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[Psychobabble]

Well good for them, though I find it a bit scary that they could probably build an entire real prison with that kind of money.

 

[Me55enger]

£3.50 a pint? I had to pay £4.50 in Birmingham for a pint of Guiness once. Worth it 'cos we got into a conversation 'round a pool table with an owner of a successful PC website and a rep from Antec.

Introversion and Prison Architect were at Rezzed this year. Whilst thier booth wasn't the most crowded, there was rarely a PC available. When I did get on I was disappointed at how little they were offering. A good friend of mine backed this in Kickstarter and whilst he claims it's fantastic (which it is) he also admits that the pace of development was astoundingly slow.

And now with £8 million? Get moving guys.

 

[Lono Shrugged]

I am convinced it has a lot to do with their charming update videos. The feeling that this is some model railway being built in a guys room and he is showing it off every once in a while is the best way to describe it. I have been in since it launched on Steam after watching a few vids and liking the 2 guys and I look forward to the updates as much for the videos as the game. There is a refreshing amount of transparency in how they work that is great to watch. I am happy they are enjoying success.

 

[Schadrach]

I am convinced it has a lot to do with their charming update videos. The feeling that this is some model railway being built in a guys room and he is showing it off every once in a while is the best way to describe it. I have been in since it launched on Steam after watching a few vids and liking the 2 guys and I look forward to the updates as much for the videos as the game. There is a refreshing amount of transparency in how they work that is great to watch. I am happy they are enjoying success.

That's a pretty good way to describe the way Introversion operates, honestly. Even when they decided to shut down the project they'd been working on for quite a long time (Subversion) and scrap it because they decided that the underlying gameplay wasn't interesting and they couldn't make it interesting without scrapping large parts of it anyways. They were refreshingly specific and honest about why they stopped working on Subversion and moved over to Prison Architect, but I migth be biased, I've been an Introversion fan since Uplink.

 

[Call Me Jose]

Prisoners take their lunch to the shower, get undressed and eat. Naked. This isn't a feature?

 

[mirage202]

While I can see the sense in using the money to hire more people to get things done quicker I'd actually rather they didn't.

Another alpha game that has done fairly well is Kenshi which imo is pretty damned good. However once he could afford to hire team members, he did. Each update since has had some game breaking and/or incredibly stupid bugs where as beforehand a new release was usually pretty reliable.

I'd hate to think that Introversion hiring more staff would result in the same issues turning PA from a fun and playable alpha into a buggy mess.

 

[Simalacrum]

As an avid player of Prison Architect, I don't really care how long the game stays in Alpha; just keep improving it!

Only problem I have with the game is that it does get rather dull after a while, and I only play it a week or so after each update. It needs more randomised elements to keep the gameplay from going stale after a while. I can literally just sit there and watch the game fold out with no input after a while, and while its really cool that I can just sit and watch my creation manage itself, its also boring when I've completed everything and have to force-start a riot just to make things interesting.

 

[putowtin]

At about £3.50 a pint, assuming London prices

Where are you drinking? standard price of Fosters is £4.50 in London, and if you want a nice drop (say a San Miguel or a Peroni) your looking at a fiver!