Prison Architect tease continues with new image

humble indie bundle trailer polaroid thumb

Introversion's ongoing Prison Architect treasure hunt and ARG continues to confuse the hell out of us. The game's being teased in a series of grim Polaroids, with the latest very briefly appearing in the Dungeons of Dredmore Humble Indie Bundle reveal trailer .

This one's numbered four of five, and shows a man - possibly a prison warden - sitting at his desk with a cup of coffee. We received image one of five, showing a gun being held by an arm in a green sleeve. Image two was found by PC Gamer forum user The_B in Introversion's Subversion city generator, and it shows some canoodling violently ended by a man in a green shirt. Image three was sent to Rock Paper Shotgun , and it shows a man - probably the same man - kneeling in front of a priest (not like that!), possibly begging for forgiveness. The final image, also found by The_B, shows the man sitting on the electric chair.

So, clearly, this is telling the Shawshank-esque story of a man who's sentenced for murdering his wife, gets sent to prison and ends up taking a seat on 10,000 volts. It ties into the shots we've seen in Graham's preview of the game, where the story is told using Polaroids. So, case closed.

But there's more. Each of the Polaroids so far has had a series of numbers or letters at the bottom. So far, in numeric order of the Polaroids, these are:

  • 3612
  • ghdn
  • 3id7
  • nawn
  • 38dh

There's a distinct lack of vowels here, so it's unlikely that these spell out words in their current form. The numeric codes all start with the number three, too, which could indicate that these are some kind of level code, or something.

If that's not enough, users on Introversion's forums are uncovering yet more images, apparently tied to two new series of four images. The images are the same as the one's we've previously seen, but the codes are new, and punctuated this time - m.e.? and e.x.t.i., which seem more like proper words.

Finally, a brief image flashes up before the main Polaroid image in the Humble Indie Bundle trailer. It's very distorted by noise, but using the “enhance” feature on PC Gamer's CSI-style crime lab (OK, we used paint.net), we were able to come up with this. A slightly less blurry mess. It could almost be the figure one, or a map, or nothing at all.

We've been thinking so hard about all this that our ears are bleeding. Let us know what your cyber-sleuthing skills bring up in the comments below.

Latest in Sim
An ancient, angry stone mech from No Man's Sky's new Relics update
No Man’s Sky lets you unearth ancient, angry mechs in the astro-archaeology filled Relics update
Dwarf Fortress adventure mode art
After 23 years of making Dwarf Fortress, even its creator is still 'terrified' of drowning all his dwarves with aquifers: 'Part of the problem is we are just not good at videogames'
Tarn Adams, who cofounded Bay 12 Games with his brother Zach, talks about their single-player simulation game "Dwarf Fortress" during an interview at their home office in Poulsbo, Washington, west of Seattle, on December 9, 2022. - A cult favorite among indie game fans, "Dwarf Fortress" has been available for purchase on the Steam online store since December 6, a first for this title that has been distributed for free since its debut in 2006. The real-time management game, set in a medieval-fantasy world and involving overseeing a group of dwarves seeking to build a mighty fortress, has climbed to the fourth best-selling weekly title on Steam. (Photo by Jason Redmond / AFP) (Photo by JASON REDMOND/AFP via Getty Images)
Dwarf Fortress' creator is so tired of hearing about AI: 'Press a button and it writes a really sh*tty, wrong essay about something—and they still take your job'
Decorations in TCG Card Shop Simulator
TCG Card Shop Simulator finally adds the ability to decorate our stores, and suddenly all my profits are being spent on adorable Pigni posters
A person on a snowmobile riding a track in the forest in game Sledders.
Powder enthusiasts seem pretty pleased with new physics-based realistic snowmobile sim Sledders
Dean Hall at GDC 2025.
Outer space inspired DayZ's Dean Hall to become a modder and game developer, and now he's making a Kerbal successor called Kitten Space Agency
Latest in News
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all
The new Prime Asset featured in the upcoming update for the Outlast Trials.
The Outlast Trials puts its already paranoid players under surveillance for a time-limited story event
A Viera looking confused in Final Fantasy 14.
Old armor continues to fall victim to Final Fantasy 14's bizarre two-channel dye system, unless you're super into changing the colour of teeny-tiny eyelets: 'Why even bother at this point?'
Starfield: Shattered Space
By the time Bethesda was on Starfield, you'd 'basically get in trouble' for breaking schedule, says former dev: 'A lot of the great stuff within Skyrim came from having the freedom to do what you want'