Quick Look: Prison Architect

I absolutely love how everything goes to hell the moment Patrick says "Okay, I think I got this shit down."

It's not that funny if you purposely play bad so that stuff will happen.

Drew Scanlon: "Are they Naked?"

Yes, yes they are.

I have always been curious if someone asks them to play a game for a Quick Look that isnt technically released yet or if they just pick it on a whim or word of mouth. Regardless of that, this looks worth of a pick-up, although the $30 price tag is a little steep for a beta/alpha game at the moment.

This game seems really cool, but not 30$ cool, if this was 10 or even 15 I would of bought it right away.

This game looks really fun. Thanks, guys!

It's a shame Patrick didn't show the entire prologue/tutorial/intro. It's quite dark.

Can I build my prison over a mine shaft and have all my prisoners work in a chain gain mining gold and diamonds for extra cash flow? Or make an arena where the prisoners fight in televised gladiatorial combat?

These are the important questions.

Seems obvious that squeaky clean Klepek ain't done no time. However ol' 'Two Pens' Caravella has been in the big house before I think. Jus' pumping some weights in the yard brother.

sounded fine to me

They should of brought up in the video, but the game is MORE money during alpha stages as they want more dedicated fans testing the game. It should be around $15 or 20 on launch I imagine.

lol, I thought the same thing. Vinny even has to bring it back up a couple minutes later just so he could tell us why he had mixed feelings.

Looks like a reinterpretation of the Dwarf Fortress formula with an interesting social justice slant, but without the annoying monsters and goblins that inevitably come and wreck your shit just as stuff starts ticking over nicely. Awesome, right up my alley. I would be pretty damn excited over this, apart from the fact that it's $30 and completely unfinished.

This looks like a lot of 'fun', but why in the hell would you put your kitchen IN your holding cell?!?

Yea except in conversations usually let the other person explain, in this case, why he had mixed feelings. Not just say "That is all we are going to say about the subject". Vinny even had to speak up a minute later just to finish why he said that.

Your title should be more like

BREAKING: PATRICK HAS CONVERSATIONS LIKE HE IS A 12 YEAR OLD ON THE INTERNET!

@beyond_the_infinite: The devs made the price high for the alpha access because they "want people who will provide solid feedback" or some such.

Goes with the game perfectly

2013, the year of Patrick Looks.

Prisoner #97P904, Patrick Klepek. Convicted July 12th, '97. Two counts of scoops, five counts of being a hipster, possession of controlled Chicago Bears shirt, criminal possession of a creepy goatee. Sentence: life in the Langzone, up for parole in 12 years.

There is a clone tool to copy and paste, to make new construction.

Was sold all the way up to the point where they said it was $30. $15 would be the most I'd be willing to pay.

Excellent QL Patrick.

@johnny5: I guess they charge a little extra so you can play earlier as well, I hope the price drops soon because I really want to buy this, but Ill prob just wait and when I beat all my other games I have ill just get it out of boredom

Usually early access games sell the game cheaper so you're getting an unfinished product but you've paid less by the time it's released, all while having helped test the product. Selling an alpha at full price is shameful.

Also, for anyone thinking of buying this it does not have an option to rebind keys so if you don't have a middle mouse button you'll need an emulator to play properly.

This looks pretty awesome. Thanks for covering this Patrick, I don't think GB would have without you.

Is there a sandbox mode where you can just build everything without worrying about build time and costs? That's the main difficulty I have with enjoying these games. I can't handle planning and layout while also worrying about budgets and build orders and NPC's using my half built facility.

@fiberpay: He's also playing the game and half distracted the whole time. Anyone who is playing and stressed usually isn't thoughtfully engaged in a full conversation at the same time. No one is able to compartmentalize their brain well enough to do both.

@endlessmike or buy a mouse that was not made in 1989 or by Apple.

@herbiebug: I did some looking on youtube and I saw that you can turn off new prisoner arrivals in one of the menus(even before your first group arrives), No clue about money though.

Man this looks like something I could really dump an embarrassing amount of time into.

Think I'd rather wait until it's finished, or at least deep into beta.

lets be real. patrick sucks at talking, dressing, playing games, facial hair, haircuts, being funny.......but the guy can write.

One of my favorite developers of all time making a game with an awesome premise?

Yes, please.

Never wall off the toilets in a prison. Especially not three of them, together. That's only going to lead to bad times, in one form or another.

This is what Michael from Prison Break played as a kid, also biting social commentary on the United States' incarceration rate.

I totally agree. If I am going to spend a lot of time playing, I want it to be a little more polished and close to being finished. Don't want to play too much that I don't end up playing the completed version.

Soundtrack:

Patrick's building his prison all wrong...

Unlock Finance Through Bureaucracy is the name of the self-help book I'm working on.

This game looks pretty cool. I'll have to check it out when it gets closer to release.

Reminds me of Theme Hospital in some ways. It looks awesome, will certainly check this out.

Oh man, this was fun watching.

We also need more randomly redacted comments.

BREAKING: GAMES THAT REQUIRE A LOT OF CONCENTRATION TO PLAY LEAD TO MUDDY CONVERSATIONS

Seriously, if Patrick wasn't laying pipe, he was building walls for the cells the entire Quick Look, I think we can forgive him for not being the best conversationalist.

I am the only one that sees the Theme Park parallels? Which is totally awesome! Call me when it is 15$

Surprised to see Patrick likes this. He is not into strategy/sim games so much.

This looks very interesting. But not $30 unfinished interesting. If they wanted a tenner for it, I'd be playing it now. I know how I play games like this; if I got into it, I'd play it for all my free time for 3 days straight and probably never touch it again. $30 is real money, and past my value break-point atm, Steam sale ho?

Super interesting quick look. Interesting games like these are where quick looks really shine.

agreed if it was 10-15 i would buy it but 30 is pretty damn high for an indie game

@stahlbrand: @spyder335: The game is only $30 during alpha stages as they want dedicated fans as testers instead of a LOT of more casual players. When the game is released it will be cheaper. My guess is on $15-20

I swear this is the 3rd time Ive posted this because i'd love this game to get more exposure. I just really wish they mentioned this in the QL lol

@johnny5 said:

Is this just a prediction? Or has the developer said something along these lines?

@fminus: My mouse is a two year old Logitech. Many cheap mouses don't have a middle click. The game needs key bindings and I stand by that.

The developer themself have said it more than once. To be honest I'm not sure where to find it exactly right now, it was probably in some of their preview videos. It's a pretty well known thing though so I'm confident it's confirmed at this point. I'll look a bit more. EDIT: They dont post explicitly in interviews because im sure they dont wanna discuss the final price and turn off early adopters, but in the PC Gamer interview they do explain why they have a high price for the alpha, specifically stating they don't want to turn off less hardcore fans by giving them a bad impression when they might not fully understand alpha status.