Prison Architect Alpha6 update lets you know who to watch

Introversion have released a new build of Prison Architect, implementing a categorisation system to let you know who's naughty and who's not quite as naughty. But still pretty naughty in the grand scheme of things. This is a prison, after all.

Coloured uniforms have been introduced to mark a prisoner's risk level, with grey signifying low, yellow for medium, and red for "grade A bat-shit lunatic". While this lets you house the most violence-prone inmates in a separate wing of your prison, Introversion's Chris Delay explains that there's some nuance to how the system works.

"As in life, prisoners are sometimes mis-classified and we thought it would be cool to have some doubt about whether a prisoner really is as dangerous as he first seems," Delay writes on the update's forum page .

"To achieve this we have implemented an internal "traits" system of which you have no visibility. These traits determine if a prisoner is violent, or murderous, or destructive, or all of the above and more. They determine how the prisoner behaves when he is angry or when a fight breaks out nearby. This system is totally internal and you never get to access it, so the only way to really see whether you have a pussy-cat or a Bane is to watch how they behave."

While traits are the determining factor of an inmate's behaviour, it's their rap sheet that decides their risk classification. Every prisoner now has a criminal history, but just because an inmate has been prosecuted doesn't mean they're actually guilty.

"A Prisoner who has been convicted of Murder may have pleaded Not-guilty and may, in fact, by innocent of the crime. This poor soul would pose no threat, and a miscarriage of justice has caused him to be surrounded by thugs and murderers - he would rapidly become a target and if you don't notice."

Currently there's no way to reclassify prisoners, but Delay notes that the feature is incoming as part of the inmates' journey from incarceration to parole.

You can read the full patch notes here , and buy the game from the Prison Architect website .

Phil Savage
Editor-in-Chief

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.

Latest in Sim
Cities: Skylines 2 screenshot - street level at night
Cities: Skylines 2's asset editor remains a distant dream: Colossal Order is still working on it but says it's 'proven more technically challenging than initially anticipated'
Town in Tales of Seikyu with two townsfolk sat on the stairs
Tales of Seikyu is just your regular farming simulator, apart from the fact I've got shapeshifting abilities and I'm engaged to a pretty persistent kappa
A spacecraft flying near the sun in Elite: Dangerous
Elite Dangerous just implemented an entire system colonisation mechanic, in case you really want to get off this planet
Birds in a garden in Birdfull
This cosy birdwatching idle game has me leaving behind my binoculars and enjoying the hobby from the comfort of my desktop
A cartoonish man gestures with his arms wide open in front of a Tuna interactive display, while his two children have their backs turned to him.
Two Point Museum review
An asteroid mining operation
Exploit asteroids for resources using automated mining equipment as they hurtle through your space-claim in Astronomics
Latest in News
sniper elite 5 cover
Sniper Elite CEO reckons Swen Vincke is right to snarl at short-sighted publishers: 'You could argue that their business at senior level isn't making games… their business is managing their shareholders' perceptions'
Phasmophobia Bleasdale Farm rework images
Phasmophobia is getting a big rework for one of its oldest maps, turning the Bleasdale Farmhouse into a horrifying and confusing maze
Seattle, USA - Jul 24, 2022: The South Lake Union Google Headquarter entrance at sunset.
Google is rolling out an even more AI-heavy search engine mode because 'power users want AI responses for even more of their searches'
A collage of Radeon RX 9000 series graphics cards, as shown in AMD's promotional video for the launch of RDNA 4 at CES 2025
'Don't despair' says AMD to PC gamers as it continues to 'encourage' AIBs to supply MSRP-priced 9070 and 9070 XT GPUs
Nvidia RTX 5070 Founders Edition graphics card from various angles
Nvidia RTX 5060 graphics cards are said to be revealed 'in about 10 days' and are expected to 'be on the shelf a month later'
Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 with an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 chip inside it.
Nvidia denies reports that the 'missing ROPs' debacle is hitting its RTX 50 laptop GPUs and could delay their launch