It’s been a while since our last blog post because we’ve been celebrating the holidays with our families. But now we are back in business! First of all, few general announcements about our progress and how Prisonscape is doing:

- Tuomas has been working hard on the collision detection and some graphic glitches, and the work is almost done. Next he will start working on the fight system
- I have done the map for the first part of the game and it actually starts looking like a prison now
- We started looking for a pixel artist and we already have a lot of potential candidates for the job
- We wrote short introductions about who we are, so if you’re interested, check this page

In this blog post I’ll be explaining what happens when the player “screws up” and how the punishment system works in Prisonscape. Based on my research, in real prisons it goes something like this: If you do a small misdemeanor, they’ll take away some of your privileges – no rec time, no books, etc. Offences like this are e.g. spitting on the floor, masturbating in public or shouting. For other offences you’ll get to spend some time in the hole. Your time in solitary confinement can vary from one day to months depending on the severity of your offence.

Don’t drop the soap…

Then there is the ‘game over’ scenario where you fuck up real bad. This means you are put into a Special Housing Unit where you get to spend the rest of your miserable days or until you get sentenced to death. In game terms it means that you have to either start a new game or load some previous state where you haven’t done that utterly stupid thing. Some of the crimes that will destroy your future altogether are: killing a guard, killing another inmate, and/or trying to escape. Of course, you won’t be punished if you can do these things without getting caught.

Special Housing Unit

But because of the universal rule of snitching, you often get away with the killing of another inmate. Gangs will frown upon these acts, though, since it breaks the balance of fear between ethnic groups. Gang wars are always bad for business and nobody enjoys constant lockdowns and shakedowns. For this reason ‘neutrons’ (inmates who are not involved in gangs) going on a killing spree are in great danger of getting attacked by the gangs.

From here on, spoilers.

The game is divided into three completely different parts: waiting for your sentence in the county jail, doing your time in the prison and trying to escape. In game terms, this means that if you don’t fuck up real bad (say, kill a guard), it’s impossible to get a ‘game over’ inside the jail and the prison. But after you start your escape, the game changes. You are constantly in danger of getting caught, and if you do, you have to reload from a save. I believe that this will not ruin the experience, and I can think of many ruthless games which are still extremely playable and enjoyable. If you don’t believe me, go play ADOM or Nethack.

- Pekka