The player is also responsible for the finances of their prison, and for keeping their inmates content. The player needs to recruit staff to unlock more aspects of the game. The player is responsible for managing various aspects of their prison including building cells and facilities, planning and connecting utilities, hiring and assigning staff, including a warden, guards, workers, and more.
The game is a top-down 2D (with a partially 3D mode) construction and management simulation where the player takes control of building and running a prison. On 8 January 2019, it was announced that Paradox Interactive had acquired the rights to Prison Architect for an undisclosed sum. The game was available on Steam's Early Access program, and was officially released on 6 October 2015. Prison Architect was an entrant in the 2012 Independent Games Festival. With over 2,000,000 copies sold, Prison Architect made over US$10.7 million in pre-order sales for the alpha version.
It was made available as a crowdfunded paid alpha pre-order on 25 September 2012 with updates scheduled every three to four weeks. Prison Architect is a private prison construction and management simulation video game developed by Introversion Software.