I've always had a problem with buying games in alpha, playing the hell out of them, and then losing interest before they even officially come out. I played hundreds of hours of Minecraft only to stop playing entirely a few months before the 1.0 official release. I bought Kerbal Space Program, sent things into orbit, went to the moon, and had all sorts of fun, and now i've lost interest (Its even on steam and I can't bring myself to click on it.) I'm like an Alpha build gaming hipster, I liked games before they were feature-complete. My Starbound and Project Zomboid alpha purchases are looking bleak.

Are they adding enough stuff in the future that i'll be able to jump back in once I play through what's there? Is there a reason to go back and play regularly or will I build a prison and then forget about it?

Hopefully someone can give me an idea of whether or not I should buy in now or later.

It's pretty much at the end point, with just a lot of spit and polish and some gameplay bits/research stuff still needing to be implemented I'm the same way and have gotten to the point that I just avoid alphas/betas for games until they come out and I think this one is far enough along that you should wait.

Yeah that is my entire situation here I'd rather just wait until an official release where all the bugs and issues are ironed out. So I can experience the best version.

I just can't bring myself to pay $30 for this. Yet.

Art thou bored? Need a little excitement?

I had a similar thought when watching the quick look. As much as I'd love to play this now, I'm pretty sure that by the time it's finished I'd be done with it. I'd rather wait and play it when everything's in.

Minecraft has probably tripled in it's number of mechanics since I stopped playing and I still have no interest in going back. I feel like I missed out on alot of that game because of it. I'm amazed Prison architect is as complete as it is for an "Alpha" I suppose thats kind of the point, get feature complete in Alpha and then bug-fix in beta, but the final release can't be that far off, right?

I think they will still add a lot more to this game as members of their forums are throwing idea's after idea's to them and some of them aren't to bad either. I think it's fun even with the bugs n such. It's funny seeing a prisoner get stuck in his bed then he gets all pissy about it. Or other prisoners getting upset that they have no clean clothes yet they have a fresh pair right in front of them but don't know how to change. I've had a hell of a lot of fun so far with this game.

It hasn't gotten stale yet, but I'm taking a break until the next build. Once the prisons get big, managing laundry is a pain (laundry is bugged atm). You have to micro a lot to see who needs clothing every night and put them in the cells that new clothes came in. They keep putting clean clothes in the same cells every night.

I want to play this but I too have a short attention span. At this point I'm waiting for it to be less than $30 or the game to be finished. I'm torn on the price now, do they need money to help them finish? or should be charging less for people to play and help point out bugs of an unfinished game? At some point I will get to build my prison.

also the videos on steam are great

If you want a complete experience, do not play the game right now.

The game is very buggy. And often in game breaking ways. But I do not mind, because it is pretty refreshing to see, in this world of beta access = demo. Also being a hobbyist programer it is just kind of fun to see how professionals work together to put something out that works.