{"id":4750,"date":"2014-05-28T11:00:49","date_gmt":"2014-05-28T15:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/?p=4750"},"modified":"2016-08-03T23:22:04","modified_gmt":"2016-08-04T03:22:04","slug":"prison-architect-the-dark-heart-of-every-sim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.playthepast.org\/?p=4750","title":{"rendered":"Prison Architect: The Dark Heart of Every Sim"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article is part 2<\/strong> of a 2-part series on prison management games, and the controversies surrounding them. You can read the introductory remarks for the series here<\/a>, and part 1 here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Playing Prison Architect<\/a> almost always cheers me up. Is that bad?<\/p>\n

\"PA<\/a><\/p>\n

When I play the game, I\u2019m always engaged. Sometimes frustrated, often puzzled, but generally enjoying the flow of things, having a laugh as my little prisoners complain, riot, and get into nasty tussles with the guards. I scratch my head when a pipe or door I\u2019ve tasked for construction just lingers in the task list. As I complete prison grant objectives \u2013 build a new cellblock, implement prison labour, enact inmate education programs \u2013 my prison complex expands, and I need to keep a constant eye on my prisoners. Recalling Will Wright\u2019s analogy<\/a>, playing Prison Architect<\/em> is like gardening, a combination of zen-like creative design and attentive micro-management – in this garden the \u201cweeds\u201d really<\/em> matter. And when I feel stuck or uninspired, I go check out prisons published in the Steam Workshop<\/a> by other Prison Architects, looking for solutions and comparing their achievements to my own.<\/p>\n

And then it<\/em> happens: my high security ward goes up in flames! I scramble in the fire brigade, going crazy with concern over the fate of my prisoners caught in their cells, strangely laughing at the extent of the disaster.<\/p>\n

\"Raging<\/a>
Raging fire in your ward? Sleep it off.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s only when I sit back and ponder my enjoyment that I\u2019m taken aback. Why was I laughing? This game is a Sim and it\u2019s about prisons<\/em>, of all things. These little cartoon prisoners are real convicts in the real world. Real prison disasters do happen, and they\u2019re tragedies!<\/p>\n

Now I\u2019ve thought long and hard about this, and I\u2019ve come to this conclusion\u2026 are you ready for it?<\/p>\n

Prison Architect is not a serious game.<\/p>\n

To say it with more pugnacity: Prison Architect<\/em> might well be, in fact, an anti-serious game<\/em>. That is, a computer game, which, though it handles serious issues, resists being pigeonholed into either mere entertainment, or utility.<\/p>\n

Serious games<\/a>, as they are commonly understood, are games that are made for purposes<\/em> beyond entertainment, for example teaching. Of course, Prison Architect<\/em> will not train you to become a prison warden, nor a prison profiteer \u2013 though you may act as both inside the bounds of the game.<\/p>\n

Beyond this, I did say Prison Architect<\/em> was an \u201canti-serious game\u201d, which is a strong statement. This means that I believe the makers of Prison Architect<\/em> have taken a stance, with their funding model and design decisions, about the way games about prisons should play out. Hopefully I am not too far off the mark in assessing their intention, which seems to me to make games in which players tackle dilemmas \u2013 strategic, creative, moral, etc. – from a \u201cstrange fun\u201d perspective, for critical effect.<\/p>\n

In a nutshell, it is my contention that the team at Introversion feel that an open-ended interpretive approach is more productive for debate than any \u201cserious game\u201d stance on the same topic – even the activist approach. How well they succeed at this, and how they go about it, will be the thrust of this article.<\/p>\n

Failure Conditions<\/strong><\/p>\n

As recounted by the developers in a Rezzed session in 2012<\/a>, the concept for Prison Architect<\/em> emerged out of the ashes of another game, a 3D high-tech stealth puzzler called Subversion<\/em>. If Subversion<\/em> worked as a concept, it did not as a game. In 2011, after a long hard look in the mirror, and a much-needed vacation, Chris Delay, Introversion\u2019s game designer and developer, returned with a fresh game in a sketch pad, inspired by his visit of the historic Alcatraz prison site<\/a> in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

Basically, it went like this. With Subversion<\/em>, we created a tool for constructing architectural forms. Why not hand over the level design toolset to the player, making design and construction the fun part of the game, like SimCity<\/em><\/a>. Next, in the manner of Dwarf Fortress<\/em><\/a>, we make a game where the player cannot directly control characters, and must micromanage elaborate tasks and activities, and respond to complex, emergent in-game events.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s make a construction and management Sim<\/em>. About\u2026 prisons!<\/p>\n

After Subversion<\/em>, Introversion\u2019s next challenge would be in initiating and sustaining this new development effort. Luckily for them, a new model of indie game financing was emerging in the digital distribution marketplace: crowdfunding. In this short video interview, Chris Delay explains how Introversion adapted the Kickstarter formula to its long-term development needs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=2r7Rl9PB4bc<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Their strategy seems to have worked out extraordinarily well. Introversion has so far raised $10 million<\/a> (crowdfunding and digital sales combined) for a game still in its Alpha stage. As of May 2014, the Prison Architect Alpha is in its 20th\u00a0iteration, with substantial improvements and game features added into each monthly release. Full disclosure: your intrepid reporter is a name-in-the-game contributor, and is happy to see the game flourish.<\/p>\n

\"Name<\/a>
Name in the game, shame in the name.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Prison Sim Success Formula<\/strong><\/p>\n

As much as we can attribute Introversion\u2019s success to indie experience, intelligent choices and good timing, Prison Architect<\/em> (PA) has one elephant in the room: it has reached a level of mass<\/em> appeal. This was noted by Play the Past contributor Mark Sample<\/a>\u00a0after my first article on this Prison Sims series<\/a>, and I will devote the remainder of this article to analyzing the factors that have gone into making PA into as \u201cearly access\u201d hit, with implications for the debate surrounding our \u201cprison culture\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ingredient #1 \u2013 Build a game on the shoulders of giants.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The shelving of Subversion <\/em>and a failed attempt at franchising (Darwinia+<\/em> and Multiwinia<\/em>) may have triggered a strange existential response in Mark Morris and Chris Delay of Introversion. Albeit with no department heads to roll and barely any staff to \u201clet go\u201d, Morris and Delay chose\u2026 to review their ideas about good game design. If Subversion<\/em> wasn\u2019t fun, why<\/em> was that?<\/p>\n

The only place to get answers was with critically acclaimed titles appreciated by Introversion\u2019s core fan base. It is no coincidence, therefore, that PA\u2019s pedigree includes Bullfrog\u2019s popular Theme Hospital<\/em><\/a> and Dungeon Keeper<\/em><\/a>, as well as the very<\/em> niche PC-gamer hit Dwarf Fortress<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Dwarf<\/a>
Dwarf Dwellings, or Inmate Cells?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Introversion\u2019s borrowing from these titles isn\u2019t mere hipster referencing. PA\u2019s core mechanics are heavily derived from its spiritual predecessors \u2013 Theme Hospital<\/em>\u2019s scope and setting for tycoon-style management mechanics, Dungeon Keeper<\/em>\u2019s dungeon sprawling, minion tasking, and \u201cEvil Overseer\u201d vantage-point, Bullfrog\u2019s tongue-in-cheek use of humour, and Dwarf Fortress\u2019<\/em> fortress design creativity and emergent gameplay. In the course of PA\u2019s development, these three landmark titles have been referenced over and over again in Introversion\u2019s Alpha release videos<\/a> and on the PA dev wiki<\/a>, attesting to their importance in the development process.<\/p>\n

Why does this matter? In an industry busy rehashing the same old \u201cinnovations\u201d, Introversion tempered its entrepreneur\u2019s gamble with a revamping of some of the best PC God games<\/a> of the past two decades, ensuring it had strong design footing for the protracted game development that lay ahead.<\/p>\n

Ingredient # 2 – Leverage your crowdfunding strategy with a topical game.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Developers wishing to replicate Introversion\u2019s success will have to consider the many factors behind this success: reputation, timing, smart use of PR, a tailor-made crowd-funding formula, and a development cycle that rewards early access users with regular scheduled updates, etc.<\/p>\n

And a lot<\/em> of special sauce.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s where things get interesting. This build-your-own prison toy is a runaway hit<\/em>. We\u2019ve mentioned the specific business and design factors that have gone into the early access version of the game, and yet they don\u2019t, by themselves, explain the Prison Architect<\/em> phenomenon<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The secret behind this phenomenon, in my opinion, lies in the \u201cmindset\u201d that the game enables.<\/p>\n

In the first article of this series<\/a>, we looked at the flaws and resistances to prison-themed games in the Tycoon genre. We saw how the prison theme as a simulated business enterprise provoked negative reactions, because of the focus on management and profitability in Tycoon games. With PA, the theme somehow becomes more palatable. Despite being more controversial in its content than titles from the Prison Tycoon<\/em> series, PA has been generally seen as thought provoking instead of being in bad taste. Why is that?<\/p>\n

In my opinion, this is because PA lets the players define the scope of controversy around prison management, as they wish to approach it.<\/p>\n

\"Prison<\/a>
Prison Architect Deployment View<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As with any simulation, the scope of play<\/em> in PA is bounded within a particular model of prisons that exclude \u201cexternalities\u201d \u2013 in this case: civilian life, the court system, politics, and criminal activity itself. The single road that traverses the sandbox vertically represents the conceptual limits of the simulation: whatever comes into the playspace is part of the model, whatever leaves it, leaves the game, \u201cinto society\u201d.<\/p>\n

Out of sight, out of mind?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Within the bounds of the model, the player is basically left to discover the inner workings of the prison microcosm. The player\u2019s choice of grants provide short- mid-term objectives to help prioritize construction and regime management choices, against which the game system will push back in a set of overlapping feedback loops: construction tasking, schedule and activities, and NPC behaviours. Later on, when prison operations reach a certain scale, the player may begin to express his\/her ethical preferences in prison regime and policy. Are we aiming for a facility that punishes high-risk inmates, or a regime that encourages prisoner reform and rehabilitation?<\/p>\n

\"Less<\/a>
Less a prison, more like a fishing net with a huge hole in it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Prison grading metrics and failure conditions (new in Alpha 20) provide aggregate benchmarks against which a player must<\/em> measure his\/her facility design and prison management: Punishment, Reform, Security and Health. Somewhere between micromanagement and high-level policy, each player thus carves out his\/her own unique \u201cpath of controversy\u201d, different for each prison, and even each play session.<\/p>\n

This interplay between micro and macro views in PA, with the added element of extreme time compression, is what gives the game its unique identity, somewhere between simulation and art.<\/p>\n

Ingredient # 3 \u2013 Blur genres, or invent new ones.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prison Architect<\/em> is a simulation. Prison Architect<\/em> is a comedy game. Prison Architect<\/em> is a tool for activists. Prison Architect<\/em> is\u2026 a new visual art form?<\/p>\n

There is an inherent difficulty to critiquing video games, which have to do with assessing games as cultural objects. In How To Do Things with Videogames<\/a> (2011), Ian Bogost employs the media ecologist\u2019s toolkit to look at the \u201cuses\u201d of play from a broader cultural perspective. According to Bogost, we play videogames to experience Art, Empathy, Reverence, Pranks, Transit, Kitsch, Relaxation, Titillation, etc. to name but a few of his explorations.<\/p>\n

Videogames are finite programmatic experiences that lend themselves to tightly bound, yet infinitely varied, recursive play. In turn, what meaning<\/em> we ascribe to this play, Bogost argues, can end up subverting the content and mechanics of the game.<\/p>\n

In the case of PA, we have, strictly speaking, a sandbox-type builder game, with Dwarf-Fortress-like management mechanics, with a prison theme to contextualize the player\u2019s experience. Yet, you only have to visit the Steam Workshop and look at the published mods and Prisons to see another side of PA: the creativity of the \u201carchitects\u201d.<\/p>\n

Or should I say painters<\/em>? Like machinimists<\/a>, Hardcore PA fans derive much aesthetic pleasure in their elaborate creations. By including a time-lapse feature into their first shipped Alpha, Introversion was no doubt aware that this dimension of gameplay would be a key attraction to many players.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n