Hello fellow architects!

The devs of Prison Architect 2 are back with some additional notes and tidbits related to the topics of Charlie’s latest video.

Embracing 3D

3D presents many cool opportunities in this area, but also challenges. We realized very quickly we’d have to develop character pathfinding from the ground up in Prison Architect 2, to ensure characters aren’t constantly walking through 3D objects and furniture, which is more acceptable with a 2D, top-down approach. This meant that rooms would also need more space, and the prison map would need to be bigger too. Multiple floors were a resounding benefit for providing more creative and construction space, in addition to more land to expand on, on both sides of the road. Players should be able to expand in all directions and create much bigger compounds.

Objects

Many new objects provide new functions, as well as audio and animations. Shelves added to the Storage room will see your Workers stack delivery crates and supplies, making use of the game’s verticality. Fuse Boxes act to protect against power surges, only shutting down branches of your electricity network and not the entire prison. Any new objects will interplay with the new prisoner Connections system in Prison Architect 2; a chess table for example gives two inmates a place to bond and build a connection. Similarly, adding a bunk bed to a cell will provide the opportunity for a cellmate, and social interaction.

Object placement can help to cater to inmate needs and daily routines too. Adding a shower to an inmate’s cell may save them a journey to the shared shower block. Alternatively, outfitting their cell with other ‘enrichment’ objects such as a radio or arcade machine (if you’re really generous), will help reduce Comfort and Recreation needs. This may also help cater to their ‘Privacy’ need, giving them more reasons to enjoy more time alone in their cells.

Aesthetics & Decor

Prison Architect 2 will launch with tons of aesthetic objects. In early playtests of the game’s new 3D world, we found ourselves wanting to decorate and make the outdoor areas of some prisons look more realistic or peaceful with various flora and fauna. So we added a wide variety of objects in their own menu tab, which we think will appeal to creative players.

All the surface (or flooring) types and trees in our environment generation at the start of a new Sandbox game, are also available to place in desert, urban or rural maps. The new 3D presentation, along with new options to install dramatic lighting (which we’ll talk about later), allows players to build something both functional and beautiful.

Rooms

Decorating rooms is also very simple, as Charlie touched on. ‘Area Fill’ options allow players to carpet or wallpaper a whole room, area, or corridor really quickly. And the control is still there to decorate on an individual tile (or wall column) basis.

Prison Architect (1) players will also be pleased to hear we brought back the Quick Builds (Rooms) feature that we developed for console, and then brought to PC. Quick Builds, along with Cloning, allow players to for example ‘quickly’ copy and stamp down cells next to each other, and above, creating instructions for their workforce to build a multi-floor cell block in no time.

Lastly, Room minimum-size guidelines are now based on area, so players can create L or other oddly shaped rooms more freely. The new ‘Intake’ room (or zone) is a personal favourite! Similar to Deliveries, Garbage, or Exports, players can now essentially decide where the bus transporting their new prisoners will stop along the road.

Lights

Within a 3D world with a day/night cycle, lights are now more aesthetically relevant and provide a lot more creativity for players. Windows and now skylights (since we have roofs) can allow sun and moonlight into rooms, and a whole variety of floor, wall, and ceiling lights can further illuminate the prison during the night. An optional setting also exists for players to choose to let the sunlight flood into their prisons, vs the more realistic default of global light being blocked by ceilings.

In the future it could be quite cool to perhaps expand in this area, there are a lot of future possibilities.

Closing Comment

We love Prison Architect (1), which was developed (in part by us) and molded over a span of 12+ years. Similarly, we also see Prison Architect 2 as the start of a journey; taking fans, feedback, and feature requests along the way to grow the game for YOU, the passionate player base, and the modding community. As such, if you have any queries about the aspects covered here, cool expectations, or ideas for the future in this area, we, the devs, would love to hear and collate them.

If you haven’t already, please check out Charlie’s previous video (on Construction) here, and some of our accompanying insights. See you soon for the next video :)

Next up: Prison Architect Academy - Prisoner Needs

We have another tutorial made by CharliePryor coming up. Tune in to learn about Prisoner Needs, and tap the bell on YouTube to get notified.