We finally got the bottle open! What can this message mean?

Join us on Today at 15:00 CEST for the Cleared for Transfer release stream - we may find out more about this mysterious message! http://twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive

We went for a stroll today during our yard time, and we found this. What could it be?

Join us on Thursday at 15:00 CEST for the Cleared for Transfer release stream - we may find out more about this mysterious bottle there!

https://www.twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive

Welcome to Show and Cell, our little corner to showcase the creativity of the Prison Architect community! Here you can find some inspiration and read about the people that create fan art/gameplay videos, or build awesome prisons!

If you want to join this creativity showcase, you can use #showandcell!

If you want to get the latest news and updates, you can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

"I got lost on my way to the canteen on my first day. When I finally found it, my serving time was over...” - Ray Powell

This prison was created by Brute, and this seems like a cool place to visit! There are so many details in every area, and this prison can handle everything from medium security to supermax. It even has a death row if prisoners are not behaving as they should! With safety in mind with all the utilities were planned perfectly. As a prisoner, you can join one of many clubs and even visit IronBar's cinema!



We had the opportunity to ask Brute a few questions.

How long did it take to create this prison?
I have been building this prison called "IronBar" for almost two months, and I feel there is still so much to improve on. I think, as a perfectionist in this game, you are never really finished.

I had to rebuild it two times to fix the issues that I encountered and remade it to perform better. I had some trouble getting the right pathing for visitors since I had a different main entrance for visitors and prisoners. The staff walking in and out of the prison using the reception and since that didn’t seem logical so I made a special "staff" road crossover to get to the place they wanted to be.

I also had to figure out how I wanted to implement the new mentally insane prisoners from the psych ward edition in my prison so they can get the care they needed without the chance to harm other prisoners and ended up with an extra wing specially designed for those.

Over the years I build a couple of prisons and enjoyed the part where I had to make it perfect in all aspects of the game until the prison could run itself. This time I tried something different, Instead of making everything with an eye for the functionality I tried to create something that also looked great.


Anything you want to mention about IronBar?
Everything in this prison has been build with an eye for detail. From the small common rooms up to the yard areas, the supermax facility, and even the prison entrances/hallways and offices.



Did you plan the layout of the prison before you built it?
I planned out and designed different area's inside the prison before I did build it. I used different saves to create something until I liked it enough to implement it in my prison. In every design, there's thought about micromanagement, pathfinding, realism. Small details like the way how pipelines face towards the middle of the prison instead of towards the outsides of the cellblocks.

How long have you been playing Prison Architect?
I have been playing prison architect since the release on and off, ones in a while I come back to the game to spend my time on building something new.

What made you start playing Prison Architect?
I always enjoy simulation/building/crafting games and I play many titles although prison architect is one of the most unique of its genre and when I found out about the game and having something else than building a city or theme park with all of its new challenges made me fall in love with the game instantly.

Any tips for someone new to the game how to get better on planning and building their prison?
There is so much depth in the game that it can keep you busy for days. I love struggling with logic circuits to make things like marques, airlocks, and even lights that turn on and off when people enter or leave a room. It gives an extra challenge to designing your prison and although it doesn’t add much to the overall gameplay its very enjoyable to see those custom made things work in your prison.

As a tip for those people new to the game, I would like to say, Trial and Error. Build something but don’t be scared to break it down again if it’s not working as intended. The only way to learn this game is to see things go wrong and try to understand why they went wrong. If you can find the source you can next time prevent it and design around it. In the end, everyone enjoys the game in its own way and where one likes to roleplay with a handful of prisoners, others like to start riots with 100's of supermax inmates. Where 1 tries to build a resort others build 1 single room with 1000 prisoners and have a laugh when things go as aspected "not very well" and after 100’s of hours, prison architect is still one of the games I greatly enjoy playing.

Do you want to try this prison? Then you can get it here!
IronBar

Mods:
Bulldozer payday 2,
Paint upgrade downgrade sign,
clean white canteen table,
Stock sprite fix (obsolete),
All Contraband Detectible,
More Floors Doors and Walls,
Additional Guard Sprites,
Additional Staff Sprites,
Shield Payday 2,
Enhanced Colored Jail Doors,
Canteen Tables in Colour,
Wood Bed for Cell
Prison Sorter

Thank you for this time and see you for the next Show and Cell!
The Prison Architect Team

Wardens,

We are happy to announce “Cleared for Transfer”: the next free DLC for Prison Architect, available from May 14! Join us live on https://www.twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive today at 17:00 CEST (8 AM PDT) to find out all about it.

Cleared for Transfer will bring new mechanics to your prisons, such as the possibility for Inmates to move to another Security Sector if their behavior meets your expectations.

Yes, you read it right - YOUR expectations! It is up to you to decide what are the requirements for prisoners to apply for a transfer to a lower security level, and use benefits as an Incentive to make the transfer appealing to your inmates.

You will also get more options to control the cell quality in your sectors - and we will be including other room types to this system.

Along with Cleared for Transfer, we will also be releasing a free update called the Bucket. This update will bring you more items, more cosmetic options, quality of life changes… and Gyms!

If you want to be up to speed with the latest Prison Architect news, don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

New Features Breakdown:

Prisoner Transfers: Prisoners can now transfer between sectors (or wings) of your prison. Requirements for transfer to a lower-security sector are entirely up to you.

Special Privileges: Privileges can be assigned based on the security sector, giving your prisoners a motivation to transfer. Prisoners in high security areas are able to see the privileges given to lower security sectors.

Room Grading: You can now grade other rooms, such as yards, classrooms, common rooms, and a new gymnasium.

Custom Security Sectors: Create areas with custom security sectors that can include prisoners from different security levels.

New Actions and Enhancements: You can initiate actions like shakedowns, tunnel searches, and lockdowns by security sector.

To all Wardens,

We just announced “Cleared for Transfer”, the next free DLC that is coming to Prison Architect on May 14. The development team is working on fine-tuning the changes, and we can’t wait to get the new content in your hands!

Before you start exploring the new transfer mechanics, we wanted to share an important decision we had to make to keep the development of new content sustainable: reducing the number of supported languages.

As of now, Prison Architect supports 26 languages, a number that is impossible for us to maintain to an acceptable level of quality without impacting the development of upcoming content and highly anticipated features. We, therefore, decided that moving forward, we will focus our efforts on supporting the following languages: English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Spanish, Italian, Swedish, Dutch, Turkish, Polish, and Brazilian Portuguese.

This decision will only impact future updates starting from Cleared for Transfer. All the content you played and enjoyed so far will still be available for you to play in all of the previously supported languages - we don’t intend to remove it. Additionally, to support our global communities, we already have the localization files available to facilitate community translations. On top of this, we will also release a guide on how to make your community translation before the release of Cleared for Transfer.

We understand that this decision might disappoint some of you, but we took it with the game’s best interest at heart. We have exciting plans for Prison Architect, and great things are ahead of us!

Welcome to Show and Cell, our little corner to showcase the creativity of the Prison Architect community! Here you can find some inspiration and read about the people that create fan art/gameplay videos, or build awesome prisons!

If you want to join this creativity showcase, you can use #showandcell!

If you want to get the latest news and updates, you can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.


"I have been here for 20 years now, and I still can’t figure out where Nopton is. Fake news, I tell you!” - Paul Burgess

This time we will take a look at Nopton Penitentiary, which was created by Rattman. This prison looks impressive: the different cellblocks marking make it easy to distinguish where all the prisoners should go. Nopton Penitentiary seems hard to escape from, and even if you manage to escape, you will have to survive the unforgiving terrain that surrounds the prison.

We had the opportunity to ask Rattman a few questions.

How long did it take to create Nopton Penitentiary?
It was built on about a week of on and off playing, and I would say it took maybe two full days of real-time.

What was your goal when you started creating Nopton Penitentiary?
My goal when I started was to make a secure prison that had 4x4 cells and large enough cell block hallways to put in lettering.

How did you come up with the name?
I came up with the name (and description) off the top of my head.

“Nopton Penitentiary isn't actually built near Nopton, as Nopton doesn't exist! It was a lie cooked up by the mayor of the nearest real town who wanted people to think the town he ran was bigger than it actually was. As it is, the Penitentiary is surrounded by miles of unforgiving terrain.”

Anything you want to mention about Nopton Penitentiary?
This prison was based on another prison that I played in escape mode, called "Grade 9 Prison". I liked the design and central courtyard in that prison, so I decided to imitate it.

Did you plan the layout of the prison before you built it?
Yes, I planned what a cell block would look like and where each room would go (or if it would be external).

How long have you been playing Prison Architect?
I started playing on my brother's computer in 2014, and I got the game on my account in 2017, I believe.

What made you start playing Prison Architect?
When I started playing on my brother's computer, I was just bored and wanted to see if the game was good. It was!

Any tips for someone new to the game how to get better on planning and building their prison?
Never use the shower room. Always put showers in cells, on top of the toilet, on top of a drain. It cuts down on riots and shower deaths so much, and they can shower during free time as well.

Do you want to try this prison? Then you can get it here!
Nopton Penitentiary

Thank you for this time and see you for the next Show and Cell!
The Prison Architect Team

Welcome to Show and Cell, where we showcase the Community's creativity! As we are always impressed with the prisons that you guys share over the internet, we decided to create a small corner to highlight some of our favourite creation. Here in Show and Cell, you can find some inspiration and read about the people that create fan art/gameplay videos, and prison builds!

Would you like to have your prison to be featured next? You can use the hashtag #showandcell!

If you are looking for more inspiration, and to get all the latest news and updates on Prison Architect, you can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.


"This is the neatest prison I’ve ever served time in, and I served time in Norway! 10/10 would evade again” - Inmate # 10482178"

KeiwaM is the creator of this prison, and it’s design and layout are stunning! The prisoners have access to an outdoor space and can enjoy the snow. For safety, the prisoners are separated into different cellblocks to avoid fights between gangs. The daily income for this prison is over 31.000$ per day, and even if this is a giant prison, KeiwaM is already working on a bigger one.

Here are some questions we asked KeiwaM.

How long did it take to create this prison?
This prison took around 15 hours of gameplay to build.

Anything you want to say about this prison?
It is a bit on the smaller side of what I usually do, but I really enjoyed the smaller cellblocks. Usually, I'm the type that would stuff all prisoners in one canteen, but splitting them up really helps with both management and troublemakers.

Did you plan the layout of the prison before you build it?
Yes, I always plan first. The Planning tool is one of the most valuable tools in the game if you ask me. It is extremely useful to plan the layout before spending thousands on building and removing it.

How long have you been playing Prison Architect?
I have been playing Prison Architect since Alpha 2.

What made you start playing Prison Architect?
I have always been a fan of management games, and I liked the art style, then I just saw it in my recommended, so I gave it a shot.

Any tips for someone new to the game how to get better on planning and building their prison?
Patience is key. Planning can be an annoying task, but in the end, it will really help. I also recommend messing about with unlimited funds and maybe even Cheats & Developer Tools just to get a feel for your building style. Everyone builds in their own style and having unlimited money to discover it is a great way to start off. Other than that, I would simply say, don't copy others. As said, everyone has their own style, find which style you find enjoyable and try, rather than copy prisons you've seen off youtube.

Do you want to try this prison? Then you can download it here!
Bedford State Prison

Thank you for this time and look forward to the next Show and Cell!
The Prison Architect Team.

The Steam Lunar New Year Sale has started! Take the chance to grab the new expansion Psych Ward: Warden’s Edition! And start creating your own Psych Ward now!

Hello Wardens!

The delivery truck just arrived with a new patch addressing some of the issues that were discovered! We appreciate your continued support and feedback.


Changelog:

• Criminally Insane inmates or associated prisoner traits will no longer spawn if the “Psych Ward: Warden’s Edition” Expansion is not installed.
  
• Female prisoners with babies should no longer become criminally insane. This is also fixed in existing savegames.
  
• Players can cancel cloned rooms and get a refund for the item(s) canceled depending on the progress.
  
• Fixed prisoners’ hands and some carried items being displayed incorrectly when crossing bridges.
  
• Fixed some crashing issues.
  
• Fixed localization errors.
  
• Fixed benches incorrectly attaching to walls and breaking alignment with tables.
  
• Fixed an issue with some rotations of Guard Pavilion (Corner).
  
• Fixed the prisoner count being displayed incorrectly in Reports.
  
• Fixed room quality stating some prisoners deserve higher Cell quality than 10.
  
• Fixed prisoners not always being assigned a cell in sectors other than shared ones.
  
• Fixed issues with the game being forced into a windowed state after loading a savegame on Mac OSX.
  
• Fixed the “Prison Danger” statistic calculation including dead prisoners.
  
• Fixed an issue where Criminally Insane Inmates were being unintentionally blocked from Chapel and Canteen rooms, even when said areas were flagged as "Insane Only" zones in Deployment.
  
• Fixed an issue where the planning aspects of the "Conviction" campaign story were not compatible with the new Planning Mode features.
  
  
• Added ability for Modders: You can now turn off shadows using “SpecialRestriction NoShadow”.

Known Issues:

• MAC/Linux: Changing the language during gameplay can lead to all objects turning into black squares. Restarting your game will fix this issue.
  
• MAC: There is a chance that the plot options “Snowbound Plot”, “Jungle Plot”, “Desert Plot” and “Lunar Plot” will not get applied when starting a new game.

Wardens,

Thank you for the feedback you sent us following the release of Psych Ward: Warden’s Edition and the biggest free update so far, The Sneezer.

We are delighted in seeing how many of you are enjoying the new content, and we are addressing many of the issues you reported since the release with this hotfix. We really appreciate all your reports, and we constantly monitor the ongoing conversations to understand how to address your concerns.

In order to facilitate this process, we are creating a sub-forum on the Steam discussion board dedicated to technical issues reporting. While we might not answer to every thread, we are reading what you write!

Finally, we’ve been observing some players reporting crashes of which we believe many are related to the use of outdated mods. As we introduce new content and additional art/sprites, it is feasible that mods with scripts that are not up to date with the current game’s architecture may cause issues. We are working closely with our active modders before releasing an update to avoid these issues as much as possible.

In case you are experiencing these issues, you will find a short guide on how to disable mods at the bottom of the post. A more extensive guide written by Murgh, a member of the Prison Architect community, can be found here.

Changelog

• The Main Menu update notes are now localized in all languages.
  
• Various Localization and Typo fixes
  
• The Fog of War darkness was reverted to its original state.
  
• Orderlies will now take breaks when Staff Needs is active.
  
• Fixed an issue where Inmates could turn insane for players that do not own the Psych Ward: Warden’s Edition expansion.
  
• Issue fixed where setting the intake to Num Per Day or Total Prisoners was not offering the player Criminally Insane prisoners.
  
• Issue fixed where Criminally Insane gauges were appearing under the prisoners when crossing a bridge.
  
• Issue fixed where excess text and functionality were displaying in the Room Grading feature.
  
• Issue fixed where changing the screen resolution via the Paradox Launcher wasn’t being reflected accurately in-game
  
• Issue fixed related to resolution when using multiple monitors.
  
• Issues fixed where the Psychiatrist Quick Room walls were not built correctly.
  
• Issue fixed in Planning mode, where pathways and outdoor objects were not being saved.
  
• Issue fixed where deleting a wall would leave a foundation in Planning Mode.
  
• Issue fixed where Programs could not be run during Work/Lockup Regime periods.
  
• Issue fixed where ‘New’ Star icon was not being removed from menus.
  
• Issue fixed where the number of Gravestone objects was being limited to five.
  
• Issue fixed where Small ironing boards were not being used to iron clothes.
  
• Multiplayer: Issue fixed where the Client and Host could not see each other’s planning.
  
• Issue fixed where Staff were not using Oak benches and Oak Tables.
  
• Issue fixed where the Remote Door didn’t have dump or dismantle option.
  
• Issue fixed where the Visitor doors were opening the wrong way
  
• Issues fixed where a crash could occur when outdated mods were active, using older referenced sprites.
  
• Issue fixed when copying a room over itself, where workers will get stuck in a loop
  
• Improved the display of overlapping contraband icons in the ‘Intelligence’ context, when rooms are close together
  
• The mail system is now improved. This should prevent Mail from building up endlessly on older savegames.
  
• Watching a cutscene from the menu will no longer cause a freeze..
  
• Crash fix that could occur when loading Escape Mode.
  
• The walk speed tile for Grass Corner matches the speed of Grass flooring.
  
• Improved various new art assets that were presenting a thin white halo around them.

Help, my game crashes since the last update!

If you are experiencing a crash while starting the game or when loading a prison we highly recommend disabling all your mods. To do this, follow the steps below:

• Turn off all mods in the game’s Main Menu > Extras > Mods menu.
  
• Unsubscribe and Deactivate Mods via the Steam client
  
• Check your mods folder and remove them manually: C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Introversion\Prison Architect\mods

You can also check the mods page of any mods you have installed to see when they were last updated.

If you still experience game crashes after doing that, please reach out to us at https://support.paradoxplaza.com/.