Prison Architect is a video game that lets players build and manage a private prison. It was created and published by Introversion Software. The game was first offered as a pre-order during a crowdfunding campaign on September 25, 2012. Updates were released every three to four weeks until 2023. Over 2,000,000 copies were sold, and the alpha version earned more than US$10.7 million in pre-orders. Prison Architect participated in the 2012 Independent Games Festival. The game was available on Steam's Early Access program and officially released on October 6, 2015.

In 2019, Paradox Interactive purchased the rights to Prison Architect for an undisclosed sum. A sequel, Prison Architect 2, is currently being developed.

Gameplay

The game is a top-down 2D simulation with some 3D features. Players build and manage a prison as both architect and governor. They control tasks like designing buildings, connecting utilities, and managing staff. Some game features, such as financial information, require specific staff members, like an accountant, to be hired.

Players must manage the prison’s finances and ensure prisoners’ basic needs, such as sanitation, are met. They can introduce programs to reduce how likely prisoners are to reoffend after leaving. Players set schedules for prisoners to guide their daily activities. The game is inspired by other games like Theme Hospital, Dungeon Keeper, and Dwarf Fortress.

Players can add challenges like simulated weather, gang activity, or extreme temperatures to make the game harder. They may also build a female prison, which requires adding nursing and childcare facilities for mothers with infants. The prison’s performance is evaluated in-game based on factors like prisoner happiness, violence levels, and how likely former prisoners are to reoffend.

Prisoners are grouped into five security levels, each with different traits, sentence lengths, and impacts on the prison’s finances. Death Row prisoners have a "clemency" percentage that can be lowered through failed appeal sessions. If the percentage drops below a certain point, the prisoner may be executed without legal consequences. A Protective Custody category allows players to isolate certain prisoners.

Players can be removed from their role by the CEO if they fail to meet requirements. A "creative mode" lets players ignore financial rules, unlock all research, and build instantly for a more open experience.

The first official non-beta release added a story-based tutorial and an escape mode where players act as prisoners trying to escape. The Psych Ward DLC allows players to manage criminally insane prisoners, requiring special facilities like padded cells and staff such as psychiatrists. Other DLCs include Going Green, Perfect Storm, and others. Development ended with the Sunset update on May 16, 2023, following the announcement of a sequel, Prison Architect 2.

Development

Prison Architect was created by a British video game company called Introversion Software. The game was first announced in October 2011, after Introversion delayed work on another game called Subversion. The first version of the game, called an Alpha, was released on September 25, 2012. People could buy the game early, and this helped the developers raise over US$270,000 in two weeks, with nearly 8,000 sales. Mark Morris, a co-founder of Introversion, said that raising money from people online allowed the team to take their time with the Alpha version and avoid fees from crowdfunding platforms. By December 2013, the developers had raised more than US$9 million.

Introversion announced that a mobile version of the game was being made. The PC version of the game officially launched on October 6, 2015. In a video called Alpha 30, the developers said the game would come to iOS and Android devices in October 2015. On March 21, 2013, the developers tweeted, "I guess Prison Architect won't be coming to iPad then! Your loss Apple," with a link to an article. Later, the developers explained that Apple was not impressed with the first version of the mobile game, so they paused the project.

The effort to make the game for mobile devices continued later, with Paradox Interactive as the publisher and Tag Games as a co-developer. A version for iPads and Android tablets was released on May 25, 2017. On January 20, 2016, Introversion said that Double Eleven would bring the game to Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. The console versions came out on June 28, 2016. The Xbox version was given to Xbox Live subscribers through the Games With Gold program in September 2018. The console version had controls adjusted for use with a game controller.

On June 6, 2017, Double Eleven released a trailer for an expansion pack called Psych Ward on their YouTube channel. Psych Ward was later released on Steam on November 21, 2019.

Update 16, which added a multiplayer mode to the game, was released on September 4, 2018. This mode allowed up to 8 players to work together to build and manage a prison. In a December 2018 update, the number of players was reduced to 4.

On May 16, 2023, Paradox Interactive released The Sunset Update, which was the final update for the game.

Reception

When Prison Architect was fully released, it received positive reviews. It scored 83 out of 100 on Metacritic, a website that collects reviews. IGN gave it a score of 8.3 out of 10, stating that "Prison Architect is one of the most detailed and satisfying builder games in a long time, if players can complete the initial setup." On April 7, 2016, Prison Architect won the 2016 BAFTA award in the Persistent Game category. It was also nominated for the 2016 BAFTA award in the British Game category, which was won by Batman: Arkham Knight.

As of September 26, 2015, Prison Architect had made more than $19 million in sales and sold over 1.25 million copies. By August 31, 2016, when version 2.0 of the game was released, it had reached 2 million individual players. In June 2019, it was reported that the game had been downloaded more than 4 million times on computers, consoles, and mobile devices.

Sequel

A sequel called Prison Architect 2 was originally planned to release on September 3, 2024, but the release has been delayed without a set date. This game is different from the first one because it uses 3D graphics and lets players build prisons with more than one floor. The game will be available on Windows PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S. It is developed by Kokku and Double Eleven, and published by Paradox Interactive.