Prison Architect
Build and Manage A Maximum Security Prison.
Build and manage a Maximum Security Prison. As the sun casts it’s early morning rays on a beautiful patch of countryside the clock starts ticking. You’ve got to crack on and build a holding cell to detain the job lot of maximum security prisoners that are trundling to your future prison on their yellow bus. As your workmen lay the last brick you don’t have a moment to let them rest as they need to get started on the first proper cell block so you can make room for the next prisoner intake. Once they’ve all got a place to lay their weary heads the fun can really start.
You’ll need a canteen, infirmary and a guard room, oh, and don’t forget to plumb in a toilet, or things will get messy, but what about a workout area? Or solitary confinement cells? Or an execution chamber?
Game Discussion
Steam User 26
I do recommend this game, on sale. Do not ever play full price for this unless you're just stupid.
I have owned this game longer than I have had Steam, I originally played a *arrg matey* version for a year prior to buying it on steam. I enjoyed watching Introversion develop the game. It was quite the experience and it was great watching the main aspects flush out. Even today that is still worth the time.
Its a really fun game. Its quite enjoyable.
But over time the game got buggy. Some things just wouldn't work out, then the dev saw the golden egg...PARADOX they sold the game to them, and it turned into a DLC-fest.
Sadly none of the bugs introversion left in the game got fixed, the DLC just made them weirder and a bigger problem. The game didn't need more content, especially irrelevent content. It needed better debuggers. The new developer, doesn't have a clue how to fix it.
Nobody has solved that, and today its a fun game with bugs that will just break your game. Not make it unplayable, but it won't work they way its supposed to.
I'm done with it. won't be playing it anymore it's been a great deal of entertainment for over 1000 hours for me and could be for you.
Just know your not getting a polished, well finished game. Its buggy, and some of them will break your immersion. My suggestion if that happens. Sell your prison and take the money and start over.
That is the goal after all. Make more money, build better.
For less than $10 this is a solid pick, bugs and all. The DLC is really a mixed bag. Some of it is neat, some of it is stupid, some of it makes the bugs worse.
Steam User 27
Prison Architect isn’t just a game.
It’s a psychological test in slow motion, where the only correct answer is: “More solitary cells.”
You start with good intentions.
A small holding cell. A humble kitchen. Maybe a yard.
You’re thinking rehabilitation. Dignity. Maybe even a library.
Then someone stabs a guard with a fork.
A fire breaks out in the showers.
Two inmates overdose during free time.
And suddenly… you’re installing sniper towers, armed patrols, and remote-controlled doors with kill switches.
“This isn’t a prison anymore,” you whisper. “It’s a machine.”
And you love it.
You micromanage every meal.
You schedule 30 minutes of sleep and 20 hours of forced labor.
You build an execution chamber — just in case.
You give them books, then remove the chairs so they can read standing up.
Riots break out? Good. Let them burn.
You’ll rebuild. Stronger. With more dogs.
Gameplay? Deep.
Systems? Interconnected.
Morality? Optional.
You can be a benevolent warden.
Or a madman with a CCTV obsession and 80 % of the budget going to tasers.
The game doesn’t judge.
But you will. Oh yes. You will.
10/10 — Rehabilitation is for cowards.
Let them try to escape. My walls are two tiles thick.
Steam User 16
the real reason to play this game is to follow around the one ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ who keeps stealing 10 sets of keys a day and tries to break out twice a day, yet fails every single time because he's a little twink who can't take a taser to the face
Steam User 11
"Missed potential" really is the memo here regarding most, if not all of Paradox's implementations to the game, and it's quite a shame. A lot of their additions are, frankly, kind of underbaked, if not downright buggy (highly suggest grabbing a bugfixes mod off the workshop to mitigate a lot of them). Maybe it's not exactly surprising... still, by now, the game is cheap enough on sale to be good fun despite these problems; it's one of the standouts in the building/management genre for being one of, if not THE only game to focus on constructing and operating a prison that can hold hundreds of inmates across wildly different security levels.
Get it. Play with most of the DLC disabled to start, don't touch them until you're confident in the base game; there's a lot to dig into there already.
Steam User 9
everyone was angry and killing cops and overdosing and i couldn't figure out why. the only thing that fixed it was a room with a chessboard and a tv. 10/10 game
Steam User 8
its one of those games where you play non stop every day for 2 weeks, then forget about, and revisit like 6 months later and do the same thing. I LOVE IT
Steam User 10
The beatings will continue until morale improves.