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Prison Architect from Introversion, pre-orders from $30 (inc. alpha access)

n0b said:
In 16 game hours I have SIXTY new inmates arriving, and a maximum capacity of 16 in cells, 8 more in a holding cell and 2 in solitary. I still haven't been able to build a medical wing to tend to the injured inmates and staff, and there's still a corpse in the yard. To top it all off I keep having drainage problems in the showers so it floods out into the cafeteria/common room and is causing damage to the foundation.
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I believe the 60 prisoners thing is a bug. To fix drainage, add a drain to the shower room - one per 3 or 4 shower heads.

Its a very hard and hectic game, but its really fun and well worth the money to me. (I'm a fan of introversion - well, mainly defcon - and I'm generally not the biggest deal-seeker around at least when I know I am supporting a developer that could use the money, so take my value assessment however you like)
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And this is why GAF should buy the game. Someone has finally tried to produce the complex, adult game that endless threads on GAF have pined for, and they have quite openly said that the reason they are asking for $30 for Alpha access now, full game later is that they want the money to continue to develop the game and not be forced to allow it to go gold with bugs still present just because of a lack of funding. If you pay now, you're not really paying for the alpha, or the final game - really you're paying to offer your support for what could be a fantastic title.
 
kurtrussell said:
I believe the 60 prisoners thing is a bug. To fix drainage, add a drain to the shower room - one per 3 or 4 shower heads.
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I have built all the way up to 4 drains and only 1 shower head. Don't matter none.



kurtrussell said:
And this is why GAF should buy the game. Someone has finally tried to produce the complex, adult game that endless threads on GAF have pined for, and they have quite openly said that the reason they are asking for $30 for Alpha access now, full game later is that they want the money to continue to develop the game and not be forced to allow it to go gold with bugs still present just because of a lack of funding. If you pay now, you're not really paying for the alpha, or the final game - really you're paying to offer your support for what could be a fantastic title.
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Yeah, I was definitely getting it 90% just to support introversion, but I've also been really interested in the game since it was announced. I can see it ending up being a really great game if they get the chance to make it what they want it to be.
 
Seems they're deliberately pricing it this way for the purpose of alpha testing. They don't want people to impulse buy it at this point, so they're filtering the user base to those who will provide them with bug reports and testing.

Whether or not that's a good idea, I don't know.
 
I love Introversion, I just wish they hadn't gone with this hideous art direction... Frozen Synapse looks amazing so I had high hopes for this.

edit: wait, wrong studio. why did I think FS was Introversion?
 
Just for fun, here's a round-up of some of the funniest daily bugs that Introversion have been tweeting:

Today's bug: Escaping prisoners run in a hilariously organised line towards the gates pic.twitter.com/OF8fTLvz

Todays bug: Riot Police come screaming down the road, sirens blazing, pull up outside the main gates, and decide to help haul some garbage

Today's bug: intro scene poignance ruined somewhat by every prisoner going to the toilet when in shot.

Today's bug: two prisoners sat down for a relaxed chat between mates, in a canteen that was heavily on fire

Today's bug: a corpse of a dead prisoner in the morgue got up and starting watching the tv I'd just installed
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Fuck mature, I'm gonna be the biggest asshole warden when this game comes out. Can't fucking wait!
I'm going to teach these scumbag criminals that crime doesn't pay.

Welcome to Hell, motherfuckers!
 
Anyone still playing this? I'm a little late to the party and have recently picked it up during Alpha 9. I have put way too many hours into this game for what it currently is.

I eagerly await Alpha 10. I find myself searching the web everyday hoping for its announcement.
 
I just bought it last week, playing it off and on a bit, although at the moment I'm going to give it a rest until the next update.

Fun game, although if I wasn't interested in supporting Introversion I don't think it would be worth the $30 in its current state. There's a lot of cool potential though. Even though I was sad to see them cancel Subversion, Prison Architect feels like it will turn into a more interesting game.
 
I got it this past week and I haven't spent much time with it but I seem to keep running into bugs at the tutorial part. The guys either don't come out to start building the area for the electric chair or they do come out and finish building it but it never gets checked off on the list so nothing happens afterwards.

I'm going to put much more time in it soon.
 
I've had this pre-ordered for quite a while, haven't jumped into the alpha until a few days ago now that a good number of systems are in place. Fun stuff learning through trial and error, hilarious seeing how things can break down quickly.

For those of you who haven't checked in for a while, alpha 8, 9, and 10 have added quite a lot of stuff to mess with. The planning mode feature is brilliant, something more games of this style should implement.

rohlfinator said:
Fun game, although if I wasn't interested in supporting Introversion I don't think it would be worth the $30 in its current state.
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Think of it more as a pre-order for the final game that you happen to get alpha access to.
 
I got it a few days ago as well. Still has balancing issues, but then that's only natural because they haven't finished adding all the features they'd like to. Really interesting game, definitely feels like "Dwarf Fortress done right" in terms of the user interface.
 
XiaNaphryz said:
Think of it more as a pre-order for the final game that you happen to get alpha access to.
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Eh, I guess that's true. I'm of the belief that consumers should be rewarded for their early adoption rather than being charged full price though.

A gradual price increase as the game nears completion perhaps.
 
I refuse to contribute to price bloating from indie developers. This game for $30 is no different from a AAA releasing for $99. That said, I'm glad to see people are enjoying this. Ill buy it the minute I see it for $15. I think that's an ethical pricepoint given the game's scope and scale.
 
TekGryphon said:
I refuse to contribute to price bloating from indie developers. This game for $30 is no different from a AAA releasing for $99. That said, I'm glad to see people are enjoying this. Ill buy it the minute I see it for $15. I think that's an ethical pricepoint given the game's scope and scale.
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I don't get it...there's defintely lots of potential for this game getting to the scale of a Theme Hospital or other city builder type of game, and those games were initially released at full price points. If they keep adding features/systems to each alpha release at their current rate, I wouldn't worry about scope and scale. Are you just basing that off the initial vid in the OP? There's been a lot of changes since then.

Then again, it's still too early to tell of course. But I think things are promising so far.
 
XiaNaphryz said:
I don't get it...there's defintely lots of potential for this game getting to the scale of a Theme Hospital or other city builder type of game, and those games were initially released at full price points. If they keep adding features/systems to each alpha release at their current rate, I wouldn't worry about scope and scale. Are you just basing that off the initial vid in the OP? There's been a lot of changes since then.

Then again, it's still too early to tell of course. But I think things are promising so far.
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While I generally agree with you, I am with the guy you quoted based on what I see from other Indies monthly in the Indie Games threads. I checked out about 200 Indies (and bought quite a few) over the past 4-5 months and the 30$ price point doesnt seem in any relation to the prices of the other Indies, even similarly deep ones.

However, I never considered the 30$ their main price point and figured they raised it to 30$ to have only dedicated people testing it, lowering it to an easier digestable price on launch. I remember reading that somewhere.
 
I'm new to Steam and PC gaming in general so I've been looking for cool indie games.

I've never liked or had any interest in management games like The Sims, SimCity, Tycoon games. I find them boring. But damn, I was reading about Prison Architect and it sounds amazing.

Would this game be too complex/difficult for someone with zero experience with that type of game?

Does stuff actually happen onscreen or is it all menu and text based? Like if I decided to initiate a search, is it just a menu saying the results or is the prisoner actually removed from his cell and guards look through his stuff?

Also, if I buy an early access title, what happens when the game officially releases?
 
So I got this during the steam sale, and I can't figure out why my room assignments are still showing me a warning if I already met the conditions for them.
 
markot said:
Hows the Alpha?

Im waiting till at least beta... but I am looking foward to it >.< bought it yesterday!
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A lot more playable now than it was at first. Alpha 12 should be out soon, if you were interested in checking things out you may want to wait until then.

Still a lot left to build though. If you're a fan of just building something and seeing what happens without a lot of structure or direction, you can have fun with it. Look around the dev wiki for some beginner tips though.
 
I'm enjoying this so far - haven't checked the Wiki or anything yet though, so really going from "I have no idea what I'm doing" and just experimenting.

I built most of the things in the CEO's letter, than had about $50 left, I was sat there thinking how long before I run out of money - then I realised you can take out grants - took the $40,000 one, and I'd already built most of what was required. The game got MUCH easier after that.

Is the road the only escape route for prisoners? Do they even escape? I'm not sure, but I've built a huge concrete wall behind the road, with a 'solitary door' to let new prisoners gain access. Not sure if that's the right way to do things, but we'll see.
 
PaulLFC said:
I'm enjoying this so far - haven't checked the Wiki or anything yet though, so really going from "I have no idea what I'm doing" and just experimenting.

I built most of the things in the CEO's letter, than had about $50 left, I was sat there thinking how long before I run out of money - then I realised you can take out grants - took the $40,000 one, and I'd already built most of what was required. The game got MUCH easier after that.

Is the road the only escape route for prisoners? Do they even escape? I'm not sure, but I've built a huge concrete wall behind the road, with a 'solitary door' to let new prisoners gain access. Not sure if that's the right way to do things, but we'll see.
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If a prisoner gets out of a building and there's no fence or wall between them and any side of the screen, they'll try to escape.

Also, note that you can stop intake of new prisoners in case you need more time to build more capacity/accommodations.
 
TekGryphon said:
I refuse to contribute to price bloating from indie developers. This game for $30 is no different from a AAA releasing for $99. That said, I'm glad to see people are enjoying this. Ill buy it the minute I see it for $15. I think that's an ethical pricepoint given the game's scope and scale.
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The difference would actually be $69.
 
TekGryphon said:
I refuse to contribute to price bloating from indie developers. This game for $30 is no different from a AAA releasing for $99. That said, I'm glad to see people are enjoying this. Ill buy it the minute I see it for $15. I think that's an ethical pricepoint given the game's scope and scale.
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This is wrong insofar as the game is not $30. Early access means you are funding it's development.

Wait until the game is actually done and it will be the usual 10-15 bucks affair.
 
XiaNaphryz said:
If a prisoner gets out of a building and there's no fence or wall between them and any side of the screen, they'll try to escape.

Also, note that you can stop intake of new prisoners in case you need more time to build more capacity/accommodations.
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Thanks, I'm glad that's an option because more prisoners kept arriving and escaping before I'd finished my prison. My penalties for escaped prisoners are huge, and one of my workmen died.

I'm having a lot of fun with the game though, to the point where I didn't get much sleep last night because I was awake playing this.

I've finally blocked all four sides of my prison with concrete walls so prisoners can't escape, and built a medical facility and 18 cells.

For an alpha, I'm really impressed with the amount of content in the game, I'm interested to see what they add in the future, because it already feels like a really fun game to me.
 
Absolutely loving this game so far! I love that you can now only get prisoners when you have the room, it really lets you explore the intricacies of the game which there are a lot of!

Does anyone know why a riot would break out when according to the game all my prisoner's needs are pretty much looked after? I had a couple try to escape (a few managed too, thankfully the penalties aren't in the game yet) and then all hell broke loose. Do the prisoners get angry if people escape?
 
Nickovic said:
Does anyone know why a riot would break out when according to the game all my prisoner's needs are pretty much looked after? I had a couple try to escape (a few managed too, thankfully the penalties aren't in the game yet) and then all hell broke loose. Do the prisoners get angry if people escape?
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They always attempt to escape, no matter how happy they are. At least they do in my experience. First thing I usually do is build a concrete wall box and then build my jail inside that box to give me an extra layer of security. In terms of the prisoner's rioting, there are a couple of things that may not be so obvious.

1) Do you have anyone working laundry duty (prisoners can do this). Prisoners get sad about dirty clothes

2) Do you have anyone cleaning the prison?

3) Have you assigned the prisoners to jobs?
 
kurtrussell said:
They always attempt to escape, no matter how happy they are. At least they do in my experience. First thing I usually do is build a concrete wall box and then build my jail inside that box to give me an extra layer of security. In terms of the prisoner's rioting, there are a couple of things that may not be so obvious.

1) Do you have anyone working laundry duty (prisoners can do this). Prisoners get sad about dirty clothes

2) Do you have anyone cleaning the prison?

3) Have you assigned the prisoners to jobs?
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I was getting to the jobs! I just ran out of money, haha. There is a steep learning curve in this! Hopefully the jobs will fix it. Thanks.
 
Alpha 13 is up.

Changelog

Escape tunnels

Prisoners can now dig escape tunnels when they are supposed to be sleeping. They will dig from the toilet in their cell outwards, avoiding buildings and walls as best they can. They will tend to dig along water pipes, especially large pipes, because these make the job much quicker. They require a digging tool stolen from somewhere in the prison, and will stash this in their cell. Searching a prisoner or his cell whilst he is tunneling will reveal the tunnel. Prisoners are motivated to dig escape tunnels if they fear for their lives (dangerous prison AND non-violent inmate), or if they have a very high Freedom need, meaning they've been locked up in their cell for days.

- New material: Perimeter wall This is an EXPENSIVE new wall type designed to prevent escape tunnels - a very high and very deep wall. Tunnelers will do their best to dig around it. It can be tunneled through, but it will take much longer than a normal wall. Note: You cannot build utilities through a perimeter wall, and building one will sever any existing utilities in those squares.

- You can remove tunnels you have uncovered by using the new material "Remove Tunnels."

Policy report

You can now control the punishments handed out to prisoners when they fight, escape, destroy things etc. This is unlocked from Bureaucracy by the Chief, and gives you a new "Policy" report. You can also request automatic searching of the prisoner and/or his cell when misconduct occurs. Eg. A prisoner caught with a tool may be digging escape tunnels, so you can auto-search his cell.

Needs System

- Prisoners now have an Environment need, representing the cleanliness of their surroundings. Hire Janitors!

- Prisoners now have a Privacy need. This can only be discharged by them spending time alone in their own cell.

- The previous "Defense" need is now called Safety. It charges up when they feel in danger.

Note: As a result of these changes, all Prisoner Biographies will be re-generated when you load an alpha-12 or earlier save game.

Patrol System

We are changing the patrol system to work differently and better. Previously Guards would auto-follow any patrol within their own sector, but wouldn't go outside the sector. In this new system, you must assign guards to a patrol manually by clicking on an existing patrol square. The immediate advantage is that you can specify exactly which patrols are walked, and by how many guards. Patrols can now go through multiple sectors as they are no longer connected.

Other

- Cells, holding cells and solitary cells must now be "Enclosed", which means surrounded by walls and doors. There will be no more building tons of open cells in a giant indoor area without any walls separating them.

- You can now perform several different types of search on any object or prisoner:

--- Search Prisoner/Object : Simply searches the prisoner/object and nothing else.

--- Search Cell : Searches the prisoner and his cell.

--- Search Cell Block : Searches all prisoners and hiding places within the current cell block.

- Pop-up Markers have been disabled for Alpha 13, because we broke them really bad.

- It now takes 50% longer to serve one year of a prison sentence.

- Nav system changes: There should be a lot less failed routing, and entities should now perform better when cut off from the rest of the world.

- The deployment screen now highlights inaccessible areas of your prison in a flashing yellow colour. Build doors!

- The Steam Workshop window now produces the list of subscribed prisons much faster than before. Great for those of us with 50 odd subscriptions!

Bug Fixes

- Fixed: The starting Deliveries and Garbage zones were being defined wrongly. (each square added several times to the room)
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Alpha 14 is out.

Changelist:

= Guard Dogs
You can now hire guard dogs from the staff menu. Every dog has a dog handler.
Dogs will sniff any nearby prisoners or hiding places, and will detect drugs, cigs etc
Dogs can sense escape tunnels and will scratch at the ground when they find one, giving the player a strong hint
If a dog smells a prisoner digging under them, they will dig up the prisoner and reveal the entire tunnel
Dogs are fast runners and are very good at chasing down escaping prisoners
Note: Dogs smell drugs and detect tunnels incorrectly sometimes
Note: If either a dog or his handler is killed, the survivor will act unpredictably for a while, before leaving the prison

- Dogs can be assigned to patrols just like Guards : From the Deployment screen
Click on "Dog Patrols" then click on any existing patrol to assign a dog to it

= Kennels
New room type. Requires dog crates for each dog to sleep in
Can be outdoor, but must be surrounded by walls or fences or doors
Dogs have an energy level represented by a green bar under their body, which discharges as they work
When they become exhausted they will return to a Kennel and sleep in a dog crate to recover
They will also heal any injuries sustained in the line of duty

= Prison Sale
You can now sell your prison from the Valuation report screen, and use the profits to start a new prison with a large bank balance
You require an Accountant on site, a minimum positive valulation of $50,000, and at least 20 prisoners to be eligable for sale
You can always return to a prison you have previously sold and continue managing it, but you can only sell a prison once
Note: You cannot sell someone elses prison shared via the Steam Workshop, for obvious reasons
Note: We are aware this system is highly exploitable, and it will remain that way until we balance the financial side of the game

= Major performance optimisations
We have resolved numerous performance glitches and done a great deal of optimising for this alpha.
Areas optimised : Sector system, Work Queue, Rendering
The navigation / route planning system has been multithreaded and will now run on a second processor core
On large / heavily populated maps the average frame rate is now significantly higher

- Escape tunnels have been nerfed and are now much more rare.
- Only prisoners with the "Clever" trait will even consider escape tunnels (10-20% of your inmates)
- They need to have a stolen digging tool within their possession
- Motivations for digging: Fear for life, High freedom need, Misses family
- Prisoners caught digging will have the punishment for "Escape Attempt" automatically applied

- Deliveries and Garbage rooms can now be placed anywhere on your prison site, including behind locked doors
- Delivery trucks will stop and load/unload when aligned with delivery/garbage rooms
- Prisoners will get off the truck immediately if they can walk to deliveries easily
- However if your deliveries zone is within your prison they will be escorted in by a guard

- The Load / Save dialogs now have the option to sort by "Date modified" as well as by filename.
This is very useful for quickly finding your recent prisons.
Click on the column headings to toggle the different sorting methods

- There is now much more variety for many of the existing staff types:
Male and female versions of many staff types
Body shapes and sizes vary
Skin tone also varies

- Planning Mode continued
We have extended the planning mode to permit three different types of materials:
Walls : Plan where your walls will be
Objects : Drag out any size of object to show where you plan to place the furniture
Paths : Use this to mark your planned outdoor pathways

- Fixed: Workers will no longer load and unload garbage in an endless loop
(This happened when you had the Garbage zone above the Deliveries zone)

- Fixed: The tooltip regarding guard patrols was being displayed in all kinds of wrong places

- Fixed: All entities would drop whatever they were carrying after loading a saved game
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No alpha release next month as one of the devs is going to be off on paternity leave, so alpha 15 will be in Dec.
 
This game is turning into something special. I guess I took simulations for granted years. Now that so few good management sims are released, stuff like this really stands out.
 
Alpha 15 is out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIx92W6Q3dk#t=539

= Mod system
We have started work on much better mod support within the game
All mods should be installed in your AppSaveFolder/PrisonArchitect/mods/
They will then show up in a new Mods interface (Main menu -> Extras -> Mods)
You can activate and deactivate as many mods at once as you wish
There are several types of mod:

Graphical / Presentation : Updates the graphics and sounds in the game
Translations : Translates the game into languages other than English
Scenarios : Full story driven chapters, similar to our Death Row introduction
Content : Adds items to the sandbox or changes the behaviour of items, eg Grants mods which add grants

All mods must have a manifest.txt which details the title, author, version etc
And mods should come with a thumbnail.png image which will act as a graphical preview

For a list of all existing mods: http://devwiki.introversion.co.uk/pa/index.php/Mods
For technical details on how to create a mod : http://devwiki.introversion.co.uk/pa/index.php/Modding

You must register your purchase to gain access to the wiki.
If you haven't registered yet, go here: http://www.introversion.co.uk/prisonarchitect/register

= Performance optimisations continued
The game now runs much faster, especially on Windows/PC
Lots of unneccesary memory copying has been optimised out. Makes a big difference on Windows particularly.
Long running prisons (100+ days) sometimes experienced extreme slowdown due to the list of all contraband
Fixed a bug that caused the building of foundations to become very slow and laggy on large maps
The lighting system has been multithreaded, freeing up much CPU time
Nb. The lighting system now updates at 20hz (previously 4hz), so changes in light happen quicker as well

= Staff exhaustion
All staff now become tired as they work
Their energy level is rendered as a green bar in their nameplate (only shown when less than 33%)
When they become exhausted they will stop work for a while to recover
You can now build a Staff Room, and exhausted staff will go there in preference
Staff resting in a Staff Room will recover energy much faster, and feel more rested
NOTE: Guard dogs still rest in the Kennels

- You will now receive a different federal grant for each category of prisoner:

Minimum security prisoner : $50 per day
Normal security prisoner : $100 per day
Maximum security prisoner : $150 per day

Note: Previously you received $100 per prisoner regardless of category

- New clock speed option : very fast. Runs the game at 5x speed. (Previous fastest speed was 2x)

- The Deployment view is now unlocked by the Chief.
You can then research Deployment to attach guards to stations, or Patrols to attach guards to patrols
This fixes the issue that you could unlock Patrols before you had access to the Deployment screen.

- You can now scroll by pushing the mouse to the edge of the screen

- The Contraband view now has a sub-toolbar with display options:

Dangers Shows all the locations around your prison that contraband could be stolen from
24 hours Shows all contraband confiscated in the last 24 hours
7 days Shows all contraband confiscated in the last 7 days
All time Shows all contraband confiscated in the history of your jail
In addition, all recovered contraband icons are colour coded:
Red = Weapon, Blue = tools, Green = narcotics

Several main menu items have been moved into a new Extras sub menu:
Names in the game
Steam workshop
Mods
Timelapse
Fixed: Many types of irrelevent equipment will no longer be smuggled into your prison
eg Mop, Rake, Hose, Leash etc

- Fixed: Power lines were rendered without colour once you'd built more than four power stations

- Fixed: Not all of the Complaints thought bubbles were displaying correctly

- Fixed: Some invalid jobs would appear at the top left of the map as a price
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I'm probably most excited about different levels of inmate giving different amounts of money. That minor gameplay hook is what I wanted to motivate me to build unique prison wings.
 
Thought I'd ask this here rather than in the Steam sale thread, but since is this a good time to jump in? This really looks like the sort of sim I'll enjoy, but rough alphas aren't for me. Sadly, waiting for release is also tough for me. :p

It's on sale now, but it's pretty much always on sale. I may jump in on this or wait to see if Kerbal goes on sale again (unless I missed it).
 
calder said:
Thought I'd ask this here rather than in the Steam sale thread, but since is this a good time to jump in? This really looks like the sort of sim I'll enjoy, but rough alphas aren't for me. Sadly, waiting for release is also tough for me. :p

It's on sale now, but it's pretty much always on sale. I may jump in on this or wait to see if Kerbal goes on sale again (unless I missed it).
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I play a lot of early access games and this is by far the best one yet. Other than over the holidays, there is a monthly update, and its a significant update. Not just bug fixes but they add/fix major systems and features. I'd definitely recommend jumping in right now. It was worth it almost a year ago and they've added all kinds of stuff since then.

Read my post history. I love this game.
 
Alpha 16 came out earlier today:

Procedural Landscape Generation

There are new options when generating a new prison:

Forests adds random collections of trees, including new types of tree. (Oak, Pine, Orange, Cypress, Palm)
Buildings are usually derelict and can be used or demolished as you wish.
Lakes provide additional construction challenges by forcing you to work around them.

Warning: Including lakes can make your map totally unplayable. Experimental!

Wood Industry

You can now cut down trees using "Dismantle" from the objects menu, and each tree will produce wooden Logs.
You can sell the logs for an immediate cash boost. ("Sell" from the objects menu)
Or if you have a workshop, your prisoners will cut the logs into stacks of wood planks, which sell for more.
Gardeners are now required to plant trees, and trees take time to grow from saplings.
Stacks of finished wood planks will auto-sell at 1am.

Steam Workshop For Mods

(Steam versions only)

Mods can now be shared via the Steam Workshop, just like prisons.
The mods menu now lets you publish mods, highlights mods you have published, and shows newly downloaded mods.
Mods will automatically download when an update is available.
Adding FileID "-1" to your mod's manifest.txt will stop the game asking users to publish the mod. Useful for mods shared outside of the Steam Workshop.

Full Segregation Support

Extensive AI work means you can now fully segregate your prison by prisoner category.
You can create self contained wings (eg. for Max Sec only) containing their own cells, yard, canteen, laundry, workshop etc.
New zone type: Med Sec, for medium security prisoner ONLY. (orange)
Note: The default zone colour (White) is SHARED, meaning all prisoners are permitted to enter.

Work / Employment / Industry AI Improvements

Kitchens are now significantly more efficient. (Chefs waste much less time)
You can now build any combination of kitchens and canteens, and your chefs will figure it out. (Eg one kitchen serving multiple canteens, or each canteen having its own kitchen etc)
Fixed: Multiple chefs would sometimes go to collect a box of ingredients from the deliveries zone, wasting time.
Fixed: Chefs often stood around doing nothing in the kitchen when they should be cooking.
Laundries and Workshop jobs are now performed more efficiently and intelligently.
Laundries will only service zones of the prison that prisoners working in that laundry would be permitted to reach.
Janitors will now help out with the prison Laundry service.

Cell Re-assignments

Prisoners can now move to re-assigned cells without requiring shackled guard escort if possible. They will be shackled and escorted by a guard if they are not permitted to make the journey themselves

New Object: Road Gate

Can be built spanning the entire road
Acts as a secure door, requiring a guard to unlock it whenever a vehicle or person wants to pass through
You can use this to span your prison across the road, or build a totally contained drop off zone

Door Speeds

Doors now open at different speeds. A normal wood door is the fastest. The large road gate is the slowest.
The Large jail door opens slower than the normal jail door.

Unlocked Doors and Prisoners

Prisoners will now "make a run for it" if they are near the exit and if you leave too many doors unlocked. Be careful when setting zones to "Unlocked" (green), or setting doors to "Locked open."

New red marker icon for escaping prisoners.

Note: More dangerous prisoners are more likely to take advantage of lapses in security.

Electricity

Electrical items no longer short out when wet. It is now safe to use Firemen in the kitchen, or to repair laundry machines without having to worry about electrocution EXCEPT the power station which now explodes most spectacularly when wet.

Workshops Nerfed

The workshop has been judged far too ridiculously profitable:

Cutting sheet metal and stamping license plates now takes twice as long as before.
Sheet metal now costs $10 per sheet, and produces 2 license plates which sell for $10 each, giving $10 profit. (Previously $3 per sheet, producing 3 license plates selling at $10 each, giving $27 profit)
Workshop saws and presses now cost 50% more to build.

Contraband Usage

Prisoners will now make better use of their stolen contraband when misbehaving:

Lighters if they are feeling destructive.
Weapons if they get into a fight.
Tools if they are escaping.

Miscellaneous Changes

All staff now have a base toughness of 5 (previously 1) so they no longer die from a single punch.

Offices must now be indoor.

Vehicles will no longer be blocked by entities, objects, trees etc.

Fixed: Purchasing neighbour plots of land sometimes caused the game to get the road location wrong. Vehicles spawned in the wrong place and construction was blocked in a stripe down the middle of the prison.

Fixed: Purchasing land west or north of your prison broke all in-progress escape tunnels.

Fixed: Prisoners who are digging escape tunnels will now be rumbled if a guard comes to escort them somewhere. (Previously they were able to keep digging despite being taken to a different place!)

Fixed: Some long running prisons had active escape tunnels that were being dug by prisoners who were no longer on site - either dead, escaped or released.

Fixed: Sometimes workmen took a very long time to finish foundations, leaving them unfinished for hours.

Fixed: Trees will no longer be generated on the road.

Fixed: Workers will no longer get stuck in the first delivery truck trying to do a job.

Fixed: Guards no longer need to use their keys to open wood doors.

Fixed: Mod system now correctly loads replacement font graphics every time.

Fixed: Mods can now override the base grants with their own if the grants share the same name.

Fixed: Dead visitors will no longer float home.

Fixed: Historical contraband moved when you purchased a neighbour plot of land.

Fixed: Released prisoners will no longer get stuck on the toilet or in bed.

Fixed (Alpha15b): Right click to cancel stopped working.

Fixed (Alpha15c): All existing contraband was being lost after level load.
Click to expand...
 
This game is on Steam sale...management sims are a hit or miss for me. They're either extremely addicting or extremely boring and I don't know which this will be for me. I ate hours of my life away with The Sims and Zoo Tycoon, yet Sim City and other Sim games from EA bore me to tears. I dunno, it really depends.

This is $15 though and it's kind of intriguing but I was hoping to not spend more than $10 for anything right now. I suppose you guys really like it though, right?
 
The Lamp said:
This game is on Steam sale...management sims are a hit or miss for me. They're either extremely addicting or extremely boring and I don't know which this will be for me. I ate hours of my life away with The Sims and Zoo Tycoon, yet Sim City and other Sim games from EA bore me to tears. I dunno, it really depends.

This is $15 though and it's kind of intriguing but I was hoping to not spend more than $10 for anything right now. I suppose you guys really like it though, right?
Click to expand...

Have you played Theme Hospital?

That sort of style of game is what excites me when I look at this, and Double Fine snew game.
 
The Lamp said:
This game is on Steam sale...management sims are a hit or miss for me. They're either extremely addicting or extremely boring and I don't know which this will be for me. I ate hours of my life away with The Sims and Zoo Tycoon, yet Sim City and other Sim games from EA bore me to tears. I dunno, it really depends.

This is $15 though and it's kind of intriguing but I was hoping to not spend more than $10 for anything right now. I suppose you guys really like it though, right?
Click to expand...

The main thing I think to consider (besides the fact that it's still alpha and therefore not feature complete yet, though at this point there's a ton of stuff in there compared to when it originally went out) is how much direction you need. There's a basic tutorial to introduce you to some controls, but for the most part it's very open ended with no real structure outside of the first couple of grants telling you some initial stuff to build.

If you don't mind either trying a bunch of stuff and seeing what happens (and starting over when things inevitably go horribly wrong) or digging around the developer wiki and forums for guides/tips, you're much more likely to have fun with this.
 
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