Prison Architect: Try Yourself as a Prison Governor

Prison Architect is a game simulator developed by Introversion, which offers users to do something ambitious: try themselves as the head of a correctional institution.

However, they will not only have to enjoy fame and power but also take on many responsibilities corresponding to their position.

During the game, the main character will need to master systemic and complex thinking by:

• Planning of reconstructions, mastering the budget, monitoring the progress of construction and reconstruction of buildings and the entire prison life support infrastructure, fixing wards in one place.
• Educating prisoners, resolving legal issues, controlling the situation and moods of prisoners, preventing riots. The effective suppression of riots by legal means and methods, without going to extremes. The death of prisoners, even during riots, leads to the dismissal of the chief from his post.
• One of the most important aspects is the competent management of accounting. You cannot do something well and keep it running if you don’t have enough budget money.

With all this, it’s not entirely clear why the game was called Prison Architect. A more appropriate name for the project would be Prison Administrator.

Big Boss

What is the art of administration? It’s not just being able to manage your subordinates and clients. The art of administration is the correct distribution of budget money.

• Prison Architect provides the main “architect” with limited amounts of money that they must use to maintain all aspects of the institution in order.
• If you spend money to equip all the bedrooms for prisoners with shower cabins, you may not have enough money for alarm systems.
• If you decide to save money on food for prisoners, this will lead to diseases, excess mortality, and, accordingly, to riots. It is impossible to predict what the outcome of the uprising will be. There have been cases in history when those who had no chance of winning won. The art of strategy says: “It is not the army that wins, but the commander’s will to win”. The Roman emperor Gaius Julius Caesar proved this many times.

Do Not Waste Your Budget, Build Assets

If you just spend money on “everything you need”, you will never have enough of it.

Wise politicians invest the money instead of spending it, they build assets that will become sources of various income for them in the future.

Here it is important to think deeply and learn to compare and predict the consequences.

For example, if you spend more money on educating and feeding prisoners, they will be less likely to get sick and die. But no care will make them stop thinking about freedom. So you will also have to ensure that the prison is well guarded to avoid escape attempts. Good food and a well-equipped sports field will make the prisoners build up strength, which will inevitably result in riots, escapes, and prison gang wars later.

As cynical as it sounds, poor prison food is one way to keep criminals in check. Hungry prisoners don’t care about riots, all they think about is a piece of bread.

Prison Architect develops your systematic and creative thinking and teaches you how to spend money wisely.