It's been a little while since our last  Show Us Your Rig, but we're coming back on a high note! We've featured Introversion Software before, back when Chris Delay showed us his custom built studio, but now that Prison Architect has officially launched, we're back with another member of the team. Alistair Lindsay is the Audio Architect on Prison Architect, and gave us a look at the musical paradise he works in. Guitars, keyboard, and more knobs and switches than I would know what to do with. Knobfeel, eat your heart out.

Lindsay was kind enough to show off his space and give some of the most detailed answers we've seen on the series yet.

What's in your PC?

It's custom built for creating audio by IntaAudio in the UK and is based around a quad i7. It's a few years old now and I've been waiting to finish work on Prison Architect so I can install my new PC. Due to all the other equipment and the number of DAW (digital audio workstation) software items and plug-ins that all have to play nicely with each other, swapping my machine over takes a day or two before I can be 100% happy the system is running as it should, and could certainly not be undertaken mid-project. I'm a freelancer, so waiting to be entirely project-free can take a while...

Anyway, I'm utterly salivating at the thought of using my new machine, which this time will be an Intel i7 Eight Core 5960X 3.0Ghz system with 64GB fast DDR4 quad channel, two 500GB SSDs, Dual DVI, running Windows 7 (very stable for my audio software), and will feature ultra quiet cooling to give me the completely silent running that I crave. Connected to this is a specialist UAD Apollo audio interface with high quality AD/DA converters in it and a bunch of its own dedicated processors that do further DSP tasks on the signals coming through the converters in real-time (zero-perceivable latency).

This set-up allows me to run in software multiple virtual recreations of various items of recording studio equipment. So that's why there isn't a huge mixing console in here and why there aren't racks and racks of special signal processors lining the walls any more either.

What's the most interesting/unique part of your setup?

Hard to pin down really. In one sense its probably the building itself. Being completely sound proof and windowless, when I step outside its like teleporting back from deep-space to planet earth, as one's nose, eyes, and ears are suddenly bombarded by the real world stimuli of the rural country setting in which my studio sits—a huge contrast to the silent and still atmosphere inside.

The exterior is built out of high density blocks 9 inches thick, then there's an inner wall which isn't allowed to touch the concrete floor and has to rest on special pads, and also hangs from special clips from the roof trusses above the ceiling rather than screwing directly into them. The ceiling board is 2 inches thick and has 20" of sound insulation sitting on top of it. The building is air-tight. Why go to all this trouble? Well, complete silence means I can record very very quiet sounds in here and make them sound like they are really loud if I want to. It means I can record sound FX sources or musical instruments at any time of the day or night and never have to worry about a passing car, singing bird life, or startled pheasant ruining an otherwise perfect performance. Laboratory conditions. It also means I can turn my Marshall stack up to eleven, although my ears almost bled when I turned it up to just past 3, and I don't want to go deaf so......

What's always within arm's reach on your desk?

My guitars which I use a LOT in my work, and the various bits of kit, new and vintage, that interact with them, to make any of the textures and sounds I end up creating for the music I make in here. I also have clever software that converts guitar playing into MIDI data in real-time if I want, allowing me to control anything from a digitally modeled kazoo to a whole orchestra from any of my guitars. I do play the piano keyboard too, but using the guitars instead creates an entirely different feel because the way you phrase or build chords or melody on a guitar is totally different to how its done on a piano keyboard. I feel this is important because there are so many great game composers out there already who use the piano keyboard as their interface with their computer, and I guess I want to sound and think differently to those guys rather than just compete directly with them. Same ends (creating music) but just using different dialects I guess.

I also do a heck of a lot of sound FX creation work too, so I think my 'sound designer head' would want to butt in and say that the collection of microphones I keep are also a vital part of my set up, and also my portable field-recorder. Zoom in on one of the builders in Prison Architect and you'll occasionally hear them whistling while they work. That's me whistling while I walked across the fields round here one afternoon!

What are you playing right now?

I've been so busy with work all year that time to play games seems to have migrated for the duration, and I am looking forward to getting back to some serious chill out time when I can get my hands on a mouse or controller for non-work purposes! Luckily the games I have been working on are really cool to play for fun anyway (perk of the job, right?) so the short answer to your question would be Prison Architect and RimWorld a heck of a lot, closely followed by Lumino City, Full Mojo Rampage, and Staxel. I wish I could get my hands on Battlefield 1942 again- the way you could jump out of one plane and parachute into another in mid air was sheer quality- I love surreal humour in games wether its deliberate or not!

What's your favorite game and why?

The one that really sparked it all off for me was Half Life. I had just got my first job in the games industry at Rare Ltd and Half Life had not long been released. The sense of being within a story that was unfolding around me was so immersive, and way that the sound design, use of music, and art style carried that atmosphere along was brilliantly done for its day. I never really got into the sequels as much as that first one.

I have a lot of love for 8-bit games from my childhood too by the way, especially Jeff Minter's games—I think their sense of surreal humour and psychadelic sound fx must have affected my young mind! 

Prison Architect has finally tunneled its way out of Early Access, after 3 long years of additions and improvements. Check out the trailer above for the pitch, plus some stylish country scat.

With the now widespread popularity of the Early Access model, for many people this may well be one of those 'oh I thought that was out already' releases. If you're the type who likes to wait until devs tell you their game is 'done', however, this is your cue to start building some prisons.

There's been all sorts of excited chatter about Prison Architect since before the alpha was even available, Introversion blending free-form construction and personality into a compelling management sim. Look, like this:

I'm still waiting for the (sadly non-existent) Democracy 3 tie in that lets you choose whether to give prisoners the right to vote.

No one wants to end up in jail, but there’s something fascinating about life in the clink. There have been some great fictional prisons in literature and cinema—and video games too. The following hoosegows are some of the toughest, most brutal, and hardest to escape from in gaming. Some horrible prisons, both new and old, have made their way onto this list since we first wrote it.

From freezing Russian labor camps to max security space-jails, these are scariest imaginary prisons on PC.

B.J. Blazkowicz had to shoot an awful lot of Nazis to escape from the labyrinthine Castle Wolfenstein. As prisons go, Wolfenstein does offer some perks: ample access to weaponry, secret Nazi treasure, and delicious, hearty meals. On the downside, the dogs aren't very friendly and there's a giant Nazi with two machine guns standing between you and the exit. If you take too many bullets, you'll have to resort to eating dog food. Yuck.

Batman famously has one of the best rogue's galleries in comics, and his nemeses inevitably end up in Arkham, Gotham's prison for the criminally insane. 2009's brilliant Arkham Asylum makes the prison itself the star, imagining it as a densely interconnected 3D playground in the vein of Super Metroid. As Batman gains new bits of equipment he opens up new ways to explore and unlocks new shortcuts. In the end, Arkham Aslyum has some great depictions of Batman's villains and the dark knight's abilities, but mastering the asylum is the true joy.

The Souls series has some of the toughest prisons in gaming. Dark Souls starts you off in one, the Undead Asylum, which is guarded by an overweight demon that ruins newcomers on the reg. Dark Souls 2 has the Lost Bastille, a prison made entirely of cold grey stone, patrolled by undead knights and exploding mummies, and wraps with a boss battle against three nimble suits of armor. But Dark Souls 3’s Irithyll Dungeon is the prison-iest of all (most prison-y?). It glows a sickly green and greets you with the Jailers, spooky robed guards that lower your max health just by looking your way. Explore the cells and eventually you’ll run into the wretches, grotesque human-dragon hybrids, botched experiments of the Lothric family. Deeper in you’ll find giants taken prisoner, massive sewer rats looking for a snack, a downright mean basilisk ambush, some items that sound off a large scream when picked up to alert nearby enemies, a gluttonous humanoid with an enlarged hand for a head called—what else—the Monstrosity of Sin, and some sewer centipedes. Don't Google them.

It’s an awful place that folds over on itself in a disorienting search for one key after another, delaying your escape just beyond its rows and rows of thick iron bars. Get in, save Siegward, and never return. 

Protagonist Vito Scaletta gets busted for selling stolen ration stamps and ends up in the clink. This is an act break of sorts, separating the game’s 1940s and 1950s chapters. The slow walk through the gates, being yelled at by jeering prisoners, is straight out of The Shawshank Redemption. You pass the time by punching people and scrubbing toilets, before emerging into a terrifying world of quiffs and rock and roll.

JC Denton defects from UNATCO and becomes a wanted man. He’s captured and wakes up in a mysterious underground cell. With the help of a creepy AI calling itself Daedalus he manages to escape, only to discover that the sinister prison facility is located below UNATCO’s Liberty Island headquarters. Most people who mess with Majestic 12 end up dead, but JC uses his nano-powers to break out and flee to Hong Kong.

Butcher Bay is a space-prison for the galaxy’s toughest, gruffest space-bastards. Escape From Butcher Bay sees the titular Riddick, played by Vin Diesel, breaking out of this maximum security sci-fi prison by stabbing, choking, shooting, and sneaking past its small army of guards. But, even though escape is his top priority, he still finds the time to enter bare-knuckle boxing matches and shiv other prisoners.

“It used to be a high security prison,” says Alyx Vance, gravely. “It’s something much worse now.” She always was good at introductions. Nova Prospekt is an old prison that the Combine have converted into a facility for processing any ‘anti-citizen’ who fights against their tyranny. ‘Processing’ meaning being turned into a hideous half-machine monster. A grim place indeed, but no match for Gordon’s gravity gun.

The Suffering is a mostly forgotten 2004 shooter from Midway, set on the twisted Carnate Island off the coast of Maryland. The penitentiary itself, where you're on death row, is just the beginning—the whole island has a dark history, including an insane asylum and a whole lot of executions. Hell breaks loose immediately when an earthquake calls up hordes of twisted monsters, who proceed to wreak havoc on the prison. It all may sound like standard horror fare, but The Suffering stood out thanks to some fabulously creepy designs by Stan Winston Studios. Those are monsters we would not like to be trapped on an island with.

Probably the toughest prison on the list, Vorkuta is grim Russian labour camp and one of the most memorable levels in Black Ops. With help from Viktor ‘Gary Oldman’ Reznov, your fellow prisoners, a mini-gun called the Death Machine, and giant slingshots loaded with explosives you battle to freedom and destroy half the prison for good measure. Shame about that rubbish vehicle section at the end.

The prison ship Purgatory, operated by the Blue Suns mercenary company, is where unstable biotic Jack finds herself. Commander Shepard, hunting for the galaxy’s baddest asses, flies there in order to recruit her. Before it was a prison, the ship was used to transport animals, which explains the tiny cages masquerading as cells. It’s not all bad, though: if it gets crowded, the Blue Suns will dump you on a nearby planet.

This desert prison used to be a peaceful coal mining town, but now it’s a hellish jail. Cloud and co. are dumped here after a misunderstanding, and have to earn their freedom by entering, and winning, a chocobo race in the Golden Saucer theme park that looms over the prison. As far as I know, this is the only time in gaming history where you escape from jail by riding a giant chicken. Hopefully it’s not the last.

That’s not a very nice name. Why not Warmridge Prison? Dishonored protagonist Corvo Attano is sent here after being wrongly accused of murdering the Empress he was charged to protect. It’s an imposing building—designed by the same guy who dreamed up Nova Prospekt, Viktor Antonov—and serves as the game’s tutorial. Murderous inmates, brutal guards, and rats are among this foul place’s residents.

This Alaskan military base isn’t technically a prison, but Solid Snake finds himself imprisoned in a cell there during the first MGS. There are a few ways to escape, but my favourite is spilling a bottle of ketchup and lying down next to it. The idiot guard thinks you’ve killed yourself and rushes in to help, giving you a window to break out.

Only slightly harder to endure than listening to the band Bastille, this famous French prison was notorious for its brutal treatment of prisoners. It’s here that the foppish hero Arno Dorian learns how to fight, and ultimately becomes an assassin. After the French Revolution it was demolished and replaced with a monument, but it will live forever in the decidedly average Assassin’s Creed Unity. C’est la vie.

Hell's Prison, posted on Reddit, is just one of thousands of devious, depressing prisons concocted by Prison Architect players. There's probably a harsher prison lurking on a hard drive somewhere, but Hell's Prison is a good example of how totalitarian Prison Architect lets you be as a warden. 

"At any given time about 90-100 prisoners are in the initial stages of starvation and taking damage," reads the description. "The entire prison is one giant infirmary so that doctors automatically tend to them. Prisoners who are close to death are brought to the medical beds by the guards. I have yet to lose a prisoner to starvation."

Prison Architect's Steam Workshop is also full of fantastic creations and recreations, like Alcatraz. Now that's a tough prison.

One of the most famous video game prisons, this is where you start your adventure in Oblivion. You don’t know what your crime was or how you ended up there—you’re supposed to fill in the blanks—but a fateful encounter with the Emperor of Tamriel leads to your escape and transformation into a hero. You can return later and take the opportunity to teach gobshite Valen Dreth some manners.

We got a chance to play Prison Architect's new 'Escape Mode' with Introversion Software co-founders Chris Delay and Mark Morris on this week's PC Gamer Show, and I was impressed with how much it flips the game on its head. After being a building game for 36 months of early access, Escape Mode lets you take control of individual characters, fire guns, and personally do everything else you've only been able to view at a distance until now. Watch the video above to see Delay give us a hands-on look at the chaos that can ensue. Prison Architect will be leaving early access, along with Escape Mode, on October 6th.

The PC Gamer Show is our weekly livestreamed podcast. You can catch the show live on Tuesdays at 1 PM PDT on our Twitch channel, or and the archive of past episodes right here.

Note: The thumbnail image used for this video is from Introversion's previous game Darwinia, not any new project.

Today on The PC Gamer Show, our weekly livestreamed podcast, Introversion Software's co-founder Mark Morris told us their next game would almost definitely be ready for VR. "I think it would be almost inconceivable that our next game would not be playable in VR," Morris said, but was careful to point out that he doesn't think it will be exclusive to VR as the technology is still "too bleeding edge." What that game is and how much longer they'll be updating Prison Architect, which leaves early access next Tuesday, is still unknown—but both him and fellow co-founder Chris Delay are very excited about VR's prospects. 

You can watch the video above to see him explain his thoughts on their next game, and you'll be able to hear their full thoughts on VR when we post the show later today, including Morris and Delay discussing some of their early prototypes for the HTC Vive headset.

Prison Architect is leaving Early Access in October—October 6 to be exact. However, Introversion's prison management sim isn't going to slip quietly out without raising the alarms: its story is being expanded with a new four-chapter campaign, while the game is getting a brand new mode upon release.

The new Escape mode turns the game upside down, putting the player in the role of an inmate trying to flee from one of the thousands of player-made prisons already uploaded to the Steam Workshop.

"It started life as one of the endgame scenarios," designer Chris Delay explained to Eurogamer at this weekend's EGX, "where if you did so badly at the game you could be convicted of corporate manslaughter if there are too many deaths in your prison. And it was a joke. I made it so that you arrived at your prison on a prison bus in handcuffs - you've been put in jail at your own prison. But you couldn't do anything; that was the end of it. It was just a joke.

"In the background we've been fleshing it out gradually until it's a whole game mode in its own right now. Anything the prisoners can do in the game, you can do, so you can steal knives from the kitchen, you can make digging implements in the workshop, you can dig escape tunnels, you can recruit other prisoners to join up and form a little posse."

Those four story chapters, meanwhile, will serve as a tutorial to the main sandbox mode. Here's a bit more on that, and the new Escape mode, from the press release:

"Prison Architect opens with the story of Edward, a man facing the electric chair for committing a crime of passion. Introversion have extended this with four additional chapters focusing on different characters and aspects of prison life. From Mafia Dons to power-crazed senators, Prison Architect brings these characters to life. Introversion teamed up with award-winning professional writer Chris Hastings to produce an enthralling tale of corruption and human misery set against the background of the modern prison industrial complex.

"Escape Mode sees the traditional Prison Architect gameplay turned on its head. Take control of an individual prisoner, load any of the tens of thousands of prisons uploaded to the Steam Workshop and get on with the important business of escaping. Earn experience points by shanking a guard, form up a posse of rough-necks and head to the armory to shoot your way out or steal some tools from the workshop and start digging a tunnel hidden behind a picture of Raquel Welch."

Here's Introversion detailing the new features in an EGX presentation from the weekend:

Alpha 36 represents the end of three years of Prison Architect's alpha. As we found out last month, Prison Architect V1 will be available in October, and while the game will continue to receive updates they'll no longer be alpha updates, which means an end to these alpha update videos (with the exception of a special live V1 launch video planned for EGX in late September).

This final alpha update includes the new "random event system", which the developers describe as like the random events in SimCity but not as "stupid". Examples include fire. Rather than have individual cookers set to catch fire once per set period of time, which in a big prison would lead to almost constant fires, the random event system sits apart from the rest of the simulation and just decides every now and then to create a fire, for example in a kitchen or power station.

As with gangs, which were introduced in another recent update, the random event system is optional. It's designed to make things more challenging, and so is set up to only induce events when you're doing relatively well. Players will need to keep possible events in mind and do things like install sprinklers, keep their power stations running relatively low, etc.

Check out the 35-minute update video if you want to find out more about the kind of random events you can expect, like the viruses that make people look like zombies.

Prison Architect has been caged up in Early Access since September 2012. After more than three years of hard time, it'll finally be let loose into society for an official release this October.

I wasn't kidding about the hard time, either. Introversion has released the Alpha 35 build of their prison management sim, greatly expanding upon the gang system. Prisoners can now form protection rackets, and gang leaders will instruct soldiers to acquire new territory throughout the prison. You can see the new system in action via Introversion's latest update video.

It's been a while since I last checked in with Prison Architect, but even then it seemed like a solid simulation. Hopefully the next few months will round out its feature set to create a brilliantly bleak look at prison administration.