Octopus Overlords

Posted: **Tue Oct 02, 2012 8:02 pm**

I'm playing the alpha version of Introversion's newest game. It is a dwarf-fortress like roguelike where you control staff, make facilities, and manage a prison population. I'm loving the game despite the expected bugs in the Alpha version it is fun.

Introversion sort of launched a self-run kickstarter to fund the game with tiered contributions.

Posted: **Tue Oct 02, 2012 11:18 pm**

I saw this, and looked kind of interesting. Not ready to grapple with another alpha though and my backlog is substantial, so as I can probably wait with no problem. But hoping to hear good things, as the game gets closer.

Posted: **Tue Oct 02, 2012 11:33 pm**

I'll definitely pick this up later, I love Uplink and defcon (though I suck at it) and still play it every once in a while.

Posted: **Tue Oct 02, 2012 11:50 pm**

Love Introversion games and have been watching this but my backlog and recent spending spree has prevented me from jumping in.

Posted: **Wed Oct 03, 2012 1:52 am**

I got this and gameplay is pretty spot on, however in my view this is not a $30 game, maybe 15. The ride is going to be fun so 30 may ultimately prove worth it but I suspect it will finally retail at the 15 level

Posted: **Wed Oct 03, 2012 6:51 am**

I do agree that it is not a $30 game. However, I love the concept. I like building games... and I wanted to have input (even if it is small) into how the game progresses. Well I also wanted to play it so I broke my rule of waiting until it goes on sale...

Posted: **Wed Oct 03, 2012 9:20 am**

I would drive home this evening and buy this TONIGHT if it was $15.

In fact, I really want it and would love to try it. $30 is too high though.

Posted: **Wed Oct 03, 2012 10:48 am**

It's not quite worth $30 yet, but I think it will get there pretty quick. They've got a lot of really cool elements and the theme works really good with the mechanics they setup. I've really only played far enough to get a basic prison setup and get 3 or 4 loads of prisoners, but I really enjoy how you have to be careful with your designs or prisoners will just run, and I like the way you have to unlock new staff through the bureaucracy.

Posted: **Wed Oct 03, 2012 11:02 am**

I'm glad it's $30. At $10 I buy it and shake my fist at you for adding another game to my Steam account that I don't have time to play. At $30 I can wait for it go on sale for $10 or end up forgetting about it or wait until I want something new and pay full price for it if something else doesn't grab my attention.

But the concept has me interested. The concept for this style of game always has me interested, though. The only ones that ever actually hooked me were Dungeon Keeper and Tropico 2.

Posted: **Thu Oct 04, 2012 7:03 am**

How is this a roguelike? Isn't it just a Tycoon game?

Posted: **Thu Oct 04, 2012 7:32 am**

TiLT wrote:How is this a roguelike? Isn't it just a Tycoon game?

Yeah, that was my big question as well. People seem fond of throwing around the roguelike epithet for games with randomness nowadays, whether they are roguelikes or not.

Going by e.g. the definition agreed upon in the first international roguelike development conference (a.k.a. the Berlin Interpretation - see http://roguebasin.roguelikedevelopment. ... rpretation" target="_blank), how does this game fit the roguelike criteria?

Major factors:
Random Environment Generation
Turn-based
Grid-based
Non-Modal
Complexity
Resource Management
Hack'n'Slash
Exploration and Discovery

... from quickly looking at it, I'd expect it to have Random Environment Generation, Complexity and Resource Management... but that is less than half the list - definitely not what I would call a roguelike. Feel free to educate me if Prison Architect is in fact a Turn-based Hack'n'Slash... sure didn't look like it.

Posted: **Thu Oct 04, 2012 7:35 am**

Oh, and just wanted to emphasize - it still looks like quite an interesting game. Just not a roguelike one. I'll definitely be keeping an eye open for reviews and impressions of this one, once it is finished. (I find I too often get misled by reading alpha / beta impressions... tend to prefer to wait with that kind of research until the game is finished and released.)

Posted: **Thu Oct 04, 2012 11:08 am**

Ah my bad... and good point. I blame studying, and taking care of my newborn. I changed the title post in the forums.

Posted: **Thu Oct 04, 2012 11:20 am**

It's all good. I'd have never paid attention if you didn't throw on the roguelike adjective and while it's not a roguelike, I get the comparison. It has the same tileset feel that a lot of the $10 - $20 non a list roguelike games have and it's catches my attention.

What I don't like about the model is the expense for buying in early. If that's the way these games start to go then I'll be going back to my old routine. I've been buying a lot of new games and some alpha/betas because of discounting structures, making me feel like I'm getting a deal.

I won't say their model is wrong. It could be working great for them. Or they may be deciding that's what they need/are entitled to to make a living. But for me $30 for this is not competitive with a game like FTL which I didn't even have to give a second thought to trying.

Posted: **Thu Oct 04, 2012 11:25 am**

I don't think it's going to be a $30 game on release. RPS said something something something about Introversion wanting to set a high bar to make sure they got people in the alpha who were genuinely interested in it.

I keep having a bug with one prisoner who can't leave the cell because every time he reaches a door his thought changes to "poo" and he has to go back to the toilet. Also, it turns out that the biggest flashpoint in jails are...doors. If you don't give people multiple ways to get into a room then they will get stuck and then stab each other with broken mop handles.

Hence doors doors doors!

Three on the canteen, plus one that's only for the cooks, four on the showers and five on the yard.

Posted: **Thu Oct 04, 2012 2:20 pm**

How PG13 is this game? I mean, what can happen in the shower

??

Posted: **Thu Oct 04, 2012 2:28 pm**

Wait, why is the yard inside?

Posted: **Thu Oct 04, 2012 2:47 pm**

Technically it doesn't have to be inside, it just has to be behind a door. So you could ring it with fence, I think. Ringing it with concrete walls designates it as "inside."

As for showers... I haven't seen that yet, but I have seen a mass fight, featuring one dude who took an electric drill into the shower, which is just dangerous.

Posted: **Thu Oct 04, 2012 3:02 pm**

Mr Bismarck wrote:As for showers... I haven't seen that yet, but I have seen a mass fight, featuring one dude who took an electric drill into the shower, which is just dangerous.

Forget drills, this game desperately needs hot female prisoners to "manage"

Posted: **Sat Oct 06, 2012 4:58 pm**

I ordered the basic $30 package yesterday, but now 24 hours later I still haven't got the promised email with the download instructions and/or product keys.
I wonder what's going on.

Posted: **Sat Oct 06, 2012 7:47 pm**

I would contact them via their support webpage on their forums. They seem to be very responsive to any issues that occur.

Posted: **Sat Oct 06, 2012 7:55 pm**

I did use the contact page. No response yet.
I got the forum registration email, so I know Yahoo mail isn't eating them.

Posted: **Sat Oct 06, 2012 8:01 pm**

If you can register and get to the Wiki... that is where they are posting builds.

I just checked and the e-mail with the information needed to register for the wiki came from an account:
noreply@digitaldeliveryapp.com

It starts with the line: Thanks for purchasing 1-PA-30-BasePack. (this does not include the license key... which should be unique to each pack).

Oh their support e-mail is: support@introversion.co.uk

Posted: **Mon Oct 08, 2012 9:29 am**

Whatever the problem was, it's OK now.
Monday morning, the confirmation email is in my inbox and I can download the alpha files just fine.
So I'm good to go.

Posted: **Mon Oct 08, 2012 10:28 am**

I really want to try this.

I really don't want to spend $30 on it. That's three times as much as I spent on Minecraft, which is a game that totally created a genre and brought about the indie game Renaissance. So why should I triple that investment for an unproven shop that is not making any of those revolutions?

Posted: **Mon Oct 08, 2012 10:39 am**

msduncan wrote:So why should I triple that investment for an unproven shop that is not making any of those revolutions?

Because if you based all your purchases off comparisons to Minecraft you'd never buy anything?

Plus they're not exactly unproven.

Posted: **Mon Oct 08, 2012 12:09 pm**

Ok so is it fun?

I love the concept so much that I'm still considering it despite the 30 dollar price tag.

Posted: **Mon Oct 08, 2012 12:13 pm**

It's got some quirks and needs a bit more structure, but yeah it's fun even now. It's really a graphical, streamlined Dwarf Fortress in a lot of ways, but definitely more approachable.

The "architect" part of the name is important as planning your buildings and laying them out well is a big part of the game. You also have to connect everything to power and sewer lines as well, so it definitely pays to have a plan before you just start throwing stuff down.

From there it's about managing your prisoners and expanding as needed. The interactions of the prisoners is pretty interesting and this is where the game still needs to grow. They will get pissed off and riot if you don't treat them well now, but eventually there will be gangs, smuggling goods into the prison, elaborate escape attempts, stuff like that.

Posted: **Mon Oct 08, 2012 7:22 pm**

How is death row handled? Can you choose not to execute prisoners or would this adversely affect your progress in the game?

Posted: **Mon Oct 08, 2012 7:51 pm**

While they have the electric chair... etc. in the game it is only for the tutorial. They have yet to implement anything that would allow you to actually use the electric chair (maybe later). Instead you can just ignore the contraband weapons and let them fight with the guards/each other. Though handling the dead bodies is sort of a permanent solution at the moment.

Posted: **Fri Oct 19, 2012 11:39 am**

The first Alpha update is out...

Major changes:
1. Zoning for guards (this helps reduce the click-fest that was trying to manage the prison population).
a. Patrols for guards.
2. Prisoner intake control option when starting a new prison. Prisoners are bused in when you have capacity for them.
b. There is a bug with it now at the moment in that you need to build a cell-block before a holding cell otherwise you get massive amounts of prisoners.

Undocumented feature...
Eggs are now being served in the canteen.

Posted: **Fri Oct 19, 2012 1:52 pm**

On a side note regarding prison. I have a friend who is a CO at San Quentin State Prison in California. He was telling some stories the other day. Now, he currently works in the kitchen watching the inmates and paid staff. Apparently it's popular to smuggle food out of the kitchen and then sell it back on the cell block. Two of the most disturbing stories - An inmate tried to smuggle out a burrito. He had it duck taped to his scrotum. It wasn't wrapped, it wasn't protected - just straight up taped on ...hairs, ball juice and goodness knows what else. Gah! Second, an inmate trying to smuggle out cheese. He had it in his shoe. Again, not wrapped or protected, just in the bottom of his show, all loose and nasty. When they found it it was actually starting to melt from the foot heat.

Posted: **Sat Nov 03, 2012 4:20 pm**

New release version:

Spoiler:

Posted: **Sun Nov 04, 2012 3:27 pm**

Here is the blog post with the video explaining the new updates. I love all these update videos.

Posted: **Sun Nov 04, 2012 5:25 pm**

Been playing the new version, but I'm not sure I really like the fog of war mechanic so far. In theory it sounds cool, but it's also making it really annoying to try to get my prison built with it on. As soon as a new building goes up, so does the fog of war, and then I just have a tiny vision radius around my cursor to try and design the interiors.

Overall I'm starting to get more into it and and love what I see. There's already a lot of little details you have to watch out for and it makes it fun to come up with new building designs and layouts.

Posted: **Wed Nov 07, 2012 1:50 pm**

Not really an issue for me, but I can see how some might dislike fog of war when building. I usually just hire a guard and send him in there. I end up paying his $100 per day early, but with all the cash from the grants ($80k?) it's not that big of a deal.

The thing that I dislike is continiou8s intake. It says a random number of inmates comes each day, but from what I've seen - it's 8 inmates each day, every day, and that is a little overwhelming, especially since nobody ever gets released. With continious intake turned off the game is pathetically easy, yet turned on it's impossilbe. I need a middle ground and I need people to get released or paroled once in a while. It's a fun game and I'm looking forward to what they come up with.

I find that a lot of prisoners actually show up to my prison with weapons. Thank goodness for metal detectors and midnight searches.

Posted: **Wed Jan 30, 2013 4:06 pm**

Any updates on how this game is progressing?

They still want 30 bucks for it, which is steep in it's current form methinks?

Posted: **Wed Jan 30, 2013 4:44 pm**

Sure... Alpha 6 is out...
Blog post.
Alpha 6 update on Youtube.

I have enjoyed the game though it has been a while since I have played with any of the updates. This last update actually added something that feels like a move forward in gameplay. The prisoner population has been changed to have classifications.

There is also now an ability to look at the prison population screen and toggle whether you are getting prisoners from each of the new populations (maximum, medium and minimum risk). You can assign certain cellblocks to be maximum, medium or minimum risk... and guards will sort the populations.

Alpha 5 added firemen...

Posted: **Wed Jan 30, 2013 5:00 pm**

After the Project Zomboid mess I'm not touching an Alpha again. It's been 7 months and they STILL haven't released anything new. This looks pretty cool, I'll check it out when/if it's done.

Posted: **Wed Jan 30, 2013 5:39 pm**

hehe I have a little more faith in Introversion after years of doing right by their fans, but I can understand the sentiment.

The game is definitely playable right now, but it's lacking a lot of features and it needs a ton of balance. No sense in buying in this early unless your really curious though.

Octopus Overlords

Prison Architect by Introversion

Prison Architect by Introversion

Re: Prison Architect - roguelike by Introversion

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