Prison Architect Gets Final Update

[Steven Bogos]

Prison Architect Gets Final Update

The v2.0 patch for Prison Architect will be the final update for the game.

Fans of indie prison-construction-sim Prison Architect [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/prison%20architect?os=%20prison%20architect], I've got some good news and bad news. The good news is that the game has just received a rather substantial "v2.0" patch, adding dozens of new features and fixes. The bad news is that this will be the final update for the game, as the developers are moving on to a new project.

"After six years of development including over 40 monthly updates, this is the final content update for Prison Architect and the final video. We will of course continue fixing bugs and providing support. We are going to take a break for a little while, but we will be back soon with our next game," wrote the here [http://www.introversion.co.uk/introversion/].

Prison Architect started life as one of the first major "Early Access" titles, giving fans a taste of the in-development game, if they were willing to put down an advance payment. Introversion certainly believes Early Access works [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/125300-Prison-Architect-Dev-Early-Access-Trumps-Retail], and in its final post claimed that over 2 million people have bought the game.

The game was originally a PC exclusive but was brought to consoles [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/165984-Prison-Architect-Simulator-Xbox-One-PS4-Xbox-360-Spring-Release#&gid=gallery_5466&pid=1] this spring.

What do you guys think? Is Prison Architect really "finished" or are Introversion "abandoning" it for greener pastures?

Source: Introversion [http://www.introversion.co.uk/introversion/]

Permalink

 

[weirdee]

the game's great and feature complete, it's by all means fine as it is, and it delivered on everything that was promised, so if you're digging for any crowdfunding controversy clicks, maybe you could be putting that effort towards more healthy and productive writing practices

but by all means keep pushing that clever bait tho, maybe it'll buy you a little more time to use those quotation marks

besides, the private prison complex took a major hit a couple weeks back:

http://grassrootsleadership.org/releases/2016/08/breaking-federal-bureau-prisons-end-private-prison-contracts-historic-move

 

[American Fox]

I love this game, lucky enough to buy it a long time ago while it was eight dollhairs. Way better than Rimworld.

 

[Bobular]

I considered Prison Architect finished ages ago and everything else has been bonuses. There is a load of stuff in there that they didn't have to put in but make the game even more awesome

 

[Frankster]

The hilarious thing is I actually haven't played prison architect since it's "official" release, I played it tons in EA and always felt it was feature complete, guess this would be the right time to see what's changed in the 2 years or so since my last playthrough xD

 

[twcblaze]

the game's great and feature complete, it's by all means fine as it is, and it delivered on everything that was promised, so if you're digging for any crowdfunding controversy clicks, maybe you could be putting that effort towards more healthy and productive writing practices

but by all means keep pushing that clever bait tho, maybe it'll buy you a little more time to use those quotation marks

besides, the private prison complex took a major hit a couple weeks back:

http://grassrootsleadership.org/releases/2016/08/breaking-federal-bureau-prisons-end-private-prison-contracts-historic-move

That seems a bit harsh, don't you think? The title isn't something like "developers abandon popular indie game" or really anything else clickbait worthy. The final tidbit at the end is something I've noticed Bogos likes to do, which is invite a topic for debate among the comments and is well after any point in the article that would come up on a preview, preventing anyone who didn't already read it from being "baited"

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Been thinking about trying this lately. Didn't know there supposed to be a controversy around it. I haven't heard anything about the game at all.

 

[Laughing Man]

Didn't know there supposed to be a controversy around it.

Their isn't but when people write articles that contain statements such as

What do you guys think? Is Prison Architect really "finished" or are Introversion "abandoning" it for greener pastures?

it certainly makes it seem like their was or is some sort of controversy

PA is a great example of EA done right, I joined the EA program around a year and a bit ago. The developers have always been straight forward with where the game was going, each update arrived each and every month, they listened to bug feedback and gameplay feedback have provided fixes for the games on a regular updates that actually do make things better and as far as the game been feature complete it was exactly that when it released in to V1.0.

Introversion have done this right and they deserve every sale they get for the game, also helps that the game is very good as well.

 

[Sight Unseen]

I love this game, lucky enough to buy it a long time ago while it was eight dollhairs. Way better than Rimworld.

Why even compare it to Rimworld? Aside from aesthetics, the games are almost completely different. And besides, Prison Architect is much further ahead in development than Rimworld is, so of course it should be "better" and more polished.

 

[weirdee]

the game's great and feature complete, it's by all means fine as it is, and it delivered on everything that was promised, so if you're digging for any crowdfunding controversy clicks, maybe you could be putting that effort towards more healthy and productive writing practices

but by all means keep pushing that clever bait tho, maybe it'll buy you a little more time to use those quotation marks

besides, the private prison complex took a major hit a couple weeks back:

http://grassrootsleadership.org/releases/2016/08/breaking-federal-bureau-prisons-end-private-prison-contracts-historic-move

That seems a bit harsh, don't you think? The title isn't something like "developers abandon popular indie game" or really anything else clickbait worthy. The final tidbit at the end is something I've noticed Bogos likes to do, which is invite a topic for debate among the comments and is well after any point in the article that would come up on a preview, preventing anyone who didn't already read it from being "baited"

As I've seen in previous articles, the final line asking the question is very hit or miss on whether or not it needed to be included, which seems to me more like it's thrown in as an afterthought every now and then instead of actually being something that was included as thought provoking. Here, it's almost as if they just have a bunch of prepared statements for contemporary general subjects like early access games and never even bothered to look at the game's context before submitting this because they typecast early access as controversial. I know that video games are a broad area of study, but even I knew about Prison Architect's success, and I haven't owned or played the game. I'm all for asking the important questions, but when you've set the discourse to autopilot, I find it concerning.

 

[mad825]

I've enjoyed PA however since they introduced the gameplay mechanic hot water I've been hating it ever since. Seeing as they ending all update support and that they'll not tweaking as to what as I see as a stringent element in the game then I guess It's gonna get shelved in my Steam library. I do kinda wish I never brought now.

 

[Laughing Man]

I've enjoyed PA however since they introduced the gameplay mechanic hot water I've been hating it ever since. Seeing as they ending all update support and that they'll not tweaking as to what as I see as a stringent element in the game then I guess It's gonna get shelved in my Steam library. I do kinda wish I never brought now.

May I ask exactly what part of the hot water game mechanic is giving you such a big issue? I started building a new prison with the V2.0 beta and the hot water integration is a piece of cake certainly can't see how it would turn someone who was enjoying the game in to someone who suddenly wishes they had never bought the game??

 

[praetor_alpha]

Prison Architect is Introversion's most successful game ever. They've had far too many 'that saved the company' moments, and with this, I don't think they will have any more of those. I'm looking forward to whatever they do next. Somehow I doubt that it will be Subversion, that one game with that fancy city generator.

 

[Li Mu]

I've enjoyed PA however since they introduced the gameplay mechanic hot water I've been hating it ever since. Seeing as they ending all update support and that they'll not tweaking as to what as I see as a stringent element in the game then I guess It's gonna get shelved in my Steam library. I do kinda wish I never brought now.

You know that you can just turn off the hot water mechanic? Bizarre that you'd get so upset about something so small.
"I hate the game because it has a feature that is entirely optional and I don't even need to select it, but I do, because I like being upset."

 

[Naldan]

Way to be unnecessarily hostile for trivial reasons, comment section.

 

[busterkeatonrules]

I own the console version, and am genuinely amazed at its depth and complexity. A game of this sort of scale is always going to have some teething problems, but it's clear that the developers have been focusing on making the best game they possibly can.

And unlike your typical game, the 'early access' approach has allowed them access to the biggest and most dedicated group of beta testers in the world - the gamers themselves - for six years!

Most modern developers would have considered such a game to be complete on the day of its official release to the public. I don't blame Introversion a bit for thinking that Prison Architect is complete now.

And I'm very much looking forward to seeing what they do next!

 

[mad825]

I've enjoyed PA however since they introduced the gameplay mechanic hot water I've been hating it ever since. Seeing as they ending all update support and that they'll not tweaking as to what as I see as a stringent element in the game then I guess It's gonna get shelved in my Steam library. I do kinda wish I never brought now.

You know that you can just turn off the hot water mechanic? Bizarre that you'd get so upset about something so small.
"I hate the game because it has a feature that is entirely optional and I don't even need to select it, but I do, because I like being upset."

Yes, say that to my 100+ hour prison. I cannot find the setting in the save file nor am I going to go through all of 16k lines of code. Fuck them.

FTR mate, I had no fucking choice.

I'm surprised that you're getting so upset about this, I was just expressing disappointment. I'm not quite too sure if someone pissed in your corn flakes but direct your hate somewhere else. GTFO. please.

 

[Li Mu]

You always have a choice. Make a new prison, problem solved. If you don't want to make a new prison, don't.
I'm not upset at all, I am calmly expressing bewilderment over your bawwwing. Also, I can't really GTFO of the internet since it's not a physical space in which I can be or not be.

I don't eat cornflakes either, I'm more of a toast kind of guy.

But nice try.

 

[Laughing Man]

Yes, say that to my 100+ hour prison. I cannot find the setting in the save file nor am I going to go through all of 16k lines of code. Fuck them.

EnabledWeather true

change the 'true' to 'false' and away goes the temp issues and the requirement for hot water at everything other than radiators, which you don't need any more because you have no weather or temperature variations.

I am still wondering why the anger at this, it would be easy to implement the changes to an established prison and to be honest half the fun of the game is redesigning things to incorporate new mechanics (during the Alpha stages) or make things work better. The only scenario I could see for how this would be a major issue was if your prison was already on the brink of a violent outbreak (for whatever reasons) and the introduction of the temp variant to the update being enough to push the entire situation over the edge. You wouldn't have had enough time to build radiators, install hot water systems, boilers and piping before the prison went tits up.

 

[Zydrate]

Is the learning curve smoother? Right after the tutorial which only taught me like, 30% of the interface, immediately gave me an empty plot and gave me 24 hours to house 8 prisoners.
Granted that was like, a year ago. I've been afraid to touch it since.