Daveyd has seen that Prisonscape was now on Steam with an estimated release in March 2022. Heaviest Matter released their first beta shortly after. Thanks @daveyd!

Prisonscape on Steam

Prisonscape Steam page is now LIVE!

Our page is located here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1682370/Prisonscape/

Please wishlist it and share it to your friends who might be interested!

Prisonscape Beta 1 Release

Trucking along. This is a smaller release, mostly to get Prisonscape working in Steam.

NOTE1: Release notes might contain spoilers!
NOTE2: Please wishlist Prisonscape on Steam!

Features

• Implement Steam build
• Implement JAR file to EXE build process

Tasks

• No changes.

Bugs

• No changes.

Editor

• Fix world object labels in editor

Prisonscape is still in development:

Prisonscape Alpha 2 Release

Only took a year to release.

Anyways, I recently started working part-time so that I can concentrate on finishing Prisonscape.

This release contains mostly bug fixes and code refactoring.

List of completed stuff:

• add license attributions (LICENSE file)
• add teleports to level editor
• add trigger areas (game model + level editor)
• fix all bugs found from Alpha 1
• refactor texture atlas creation process
• update all libraries
• upgrade to Java 8
• fix redundant code style issues
• delete useless libs
• update lib folder structure
• update and clean build file

Alpha 3 will contain Consequences and Drug Effects, maybe some improvements to the combat as well.

Lunar Enigma has posted for blog updates for Prisonscape on the games IndieDB page since the kickstarter failed to get funded. So lets get started with the first blog.

Failed Kickstarter and future plans

In this blog post we go through our KS pitfalls and tell about future development of Prisonscape. 

Writing for Prisonscape

In this post we go through the writing process and story of Prisonscape.

Rendering in Prisonscape

In this blog post we tell about the rendering engine of Prisonscape. We also tell about state of the alpha and other things.

Progress, achievement and experience in Prisonscape

This blog post tells all you need to know about the NEW experience system in Prisonscape.

The Prisonscape team is looking for via Twitter

a talented pixel artist who can do similar style to our previous graphics. We pay with money.

Prisonscape is another kickstarter RPG that looks like it will fail in the next thirty six hours, and the developer has posted a new update with more infomation.

Goodbye, Kickstarter.

So the Prisonscape Kickstarter didn't succeed. Our goal was to get 49 500 USD and there's little over 17 000 USD with only 46 hours to go. Getting this sort of money at the final hours is not unheard of, but for many reasons we decided not to go for the final push. It was a good run, and we had plenty of coverage from the press and at least people now know about Prisonscape. 

What comes to reasons for the campaign failing, I really can't pinpoint any single thing, but here are some of my guesses: 

• We didn't have a demo or enough gameplay in the KS video. Some of the bigger sites were asking for a build. It's not given that they'd write about your game, but with stable and polished we would've had better chance in getting those big articles
• Not enough press coverage on the big sites. Not many big sites wrote about us, and so we didn't get enough traffic on the campaign page.
• The beginning was too slow. The campaign really needed those big numbers to look like a successful campaign. This could be me speculating, but I checked some successful campaigns and they all had a very strong start.
• PR mails were sent too late. This could partially explain the slow start. We sent the promo mails AFTER we launched, because we wanted to provide the KS link in the e-mails. We got plenty of articles but they were probably too late and people were already speculating that this will another failed Kickstarter.
• Our goal was too high. This has been said many times, but I still feel that our goal was reasonable when you take a look at the budgeting.

I'm really happy that we have a big number of backers and if you exclude friends and family, all of this money came from organic sources. I know that some people grow their total pledge amount with some of their own money, and there's nothing wrong with that, but we decided against it and it was fantastic to see that over 1000 people were ready to fund our game.

So what happens now? Well, we keep on making the game, of course! There's no reason to quit altogether after one adversity - we just have to learn from out mistakes and do things better next time. We have already started by launching a pre-order on Paypal: http://www.prisonscape.com/preorder.htm

Our next goal is to make a great demo for the Prisonscape beta team, the press and for the Youtubers which hopefully brings more attention towards the game. We also want to build a good community which gives us feedback and new ideas about the game, and we're hoping that YOU would be part of it by pre-ordering the game.

Finally, we would like to thank everyone who supported us, and remember, this is not the end of Prisonscape!

The RPG Codex's Crooked Bee took the time to interview Game Designer Pekka Kallioniemi, and talk about his current kickstartr game Prisonscape.

Prisonscape puts an emphasis on "advanced" RPG mechanics, and aims to include barter, crafting, factions and faction reputations, choices & consequences, as well as a variety of non-combat skills. That sounds quite ambitious! How did you go about deciding which of these features to include, and how are you going to ensure they all work together?

That's a great question, and not a day goes by when I don't think about possible feature creep in Prisonscape. Most of the ideas for these came from Oz, as all are very prominent in the show. We also feel that these are the features that make prison environment so interesting - these guys have their own micro economy, rules and hierarchy, and the things the inmates come up while being locked up 23 hours a day is unbelievable.

Ensuring that they work together is just a matter of adjusting, testing and adjusting some more. Our aim is to have a small but effective beta team that gives us constant feedback that is then used to balance out these game features.​

The game seems like a pretty concept but so far, the Kickstarter is only at around 1/3 of its goal. If your Kickstarter fails, will you still continue work on the game in some form or another? How do you think it will affect your motivation? And what impact will it have on the game?

We will continue working on the game like we have so far - hour or two here and there after our day jobs and full days during the weekend. It was our dream to be able to finish the game while working on it full-time, but now we just have to do it some other way. We'll set up Paypal for pre-orders some time next week, so that everyone who still wants to support to game or contribute to it in some way can do it even when the Kickstarter fails.​

What are the main lessons you have learned during the Kickstarter campaign, and what advice would you give to other developers who might want to turn to crowdfunding?

The beginning of your campaign is very important - be sure to send those PR mails early and don't expect any replies, especially from any of the bigger sites. They'll write you if they find the project interesting enough. Also, we really recommend running Greenlight and KS at the same time since they offer a great way for cross-promotion. Have a backup plan in case your KS fails and try to build a fanbase BEFORE you launch your campaign. Twitter is great! Kickstarter cross-promotions are also a good thing, and there's no shame in asking some of the bigger projects to give you shoutout in one of their updates. Finally, you won't have much time for actual development while you're running the campaign.​

Lunar Enigma has a new kickstarter update for Prisonscape that answers some of the Frequently asked questions they receive every week.

Frequently Answered Questions

In this update I'll answer some of the frequently asked questions about Prisonscape. Let's start with the most common one:

Q: You are far away from your goal and you have only 10 days left. What will you do if the campaign fails?

A: We have been financing and developing the game by ourselves from November of 2012. There are no plans to scrap the project and we'll work as hard as before if the campaign fails. We will also provide a Paypal payment option for those who really want to participate in the development process by giving feedback and creating content. The thing that will change is the deadline - we probably won't be able to release the game this year in case we do not get enough money.

Q: What's with the black demon stuff in the end of trailer?

A: It's almost 100% a drug-induced hallucination.

Q: How will you deal with sensitive issues such as sexual violence in prisons? Will there be social commentary on the current condition of American prison system?

A: The game will contain consensual sex and also sexual violence. Both of these things are part of prison culture and we feel that they should be included in the game, but not play a dominant part of the story.

As for the social commentary, some of the known issues of the American prison system, such as privatization, lack of rehabilitation and gang politics, will be prominent in Prisonscape.

Lunar Enigma has posted the fifth update for Prisonscape were they share a new video about how events will work in their game. The game has 15 days left to get funded.

It's time for another introductory video for Prisonscape! This time we'll take a look at the events. And since I am a man of few words, here we go:

 In the next video we will introduce the basics of combat and also see what happened to Diamond who was featured in the Jobs 101 video. You thought she would forgot what the player character did to her? Hell no.

Prisonscape has been on kickstarter for a few days now, and funding has slowed down. The game has only managed to get $8,692 of the games $49,500 goal.

The developer Lunar Enigma also released two more updates for the game. The first update is a new video the job system.

Introducing the job (quest) system

We created another video where we introduce the job system and story branching in Prisonscape. Hope you enjoy it!

The Kickstarter has been a bit slow lately, and based on Kicktraq we're not going on our way to getting funded. So please spread the word about the game in any way you can! 

This is also a good moment to thank everyone who believes in this project and who have already pledged. You are the raeson why we are doing this!

The second update the developer talks about funding, and what will happen if the kickstarter fails in the next twenty days.

Talking about the money

A lot of people have asked us about the money and how it will be spent. In this update, I will answer some of the most frequently asked questions about this particular topic.

Q: How will you spend the money if you meet your goal?

A: There is a small chart in the Budget part on our Kickstarter page, but here is some more details about it: First of all, Kickstarter and Amazon Payment take their share which is something between 7% and 10%. Second, the taxation in Finland (where we operate from) is ridiculously high. We pay VAT of 24% for each sold game. So basically a third of the funds is already gone before we even see the money on our bank account. That comes to around 16500 USD, which leaves us with 33000 USD.

There are three people that would be working on the project full-time for a total time period of 5 months (until December of 2014, which is the release goal). The studio rent for this time will come to around 650 USD per month, costing us 3900 USD. After that we have 29100 USD left. Now we can start paying ourselves salaries, which will be around 5800 USD per month including taxes for three people (programmer, designer and graphic designer). After taxes we are left with around 1380 USD per month each to pay the rent and feed ourselves and our families.

Q: What happens to the game if the Kickstarter fails?

A: We will continue developing the game, but the pace will be slower. Me and Tuomas are the only financiers of Prisonscape, and everything has been paid from our own pockets so far. Fortunately we both have full-time jobs to help with this, but unfortunately this takes a lot of time away from the game development.

Q: Why is the goal so high?

A: Game development is not cheap, and if you want to do it full-time you need surprisingly large amounts of money. If we succeed and we'll start game deving full-time, our salaries will still drop drastically and we'll become particularly familiar with eating ramen.

The second kickstarter update for Prisonscape has information from the developers Lunar Enigma about some changes to some of the pledges.

Changes in pledges

We did some restructuring on the higher pledge levels. We added T-shirts to few, take notice that these T-shirts will all be unique with their own design, and there will NEVER be another one just like it. All pledges of 49 USD and over also get their name in the credits under different titles (e.g. secret message -> Messenger and quest designer -> Mastermind). The highest level pledges also contain a Prisonscape swag bag with Prisonscape soap, toothbrush/shank, a coffee mug, a big ass framed poster on your wall and some other Prisonscape related stuff. 

We also lowered the prices and the quantities for several pledges. Here are the changes:

• COMBAT COORDINATOR is now limited to 20 pledges, instead of 30.
• MASTERMIND (design a job for the game) now costs 159 USD instead of 201 USD and the amount is limited to 13, instead of 15.
• INMATE DESIGNER now costs 380 USD instead of 450 USD and the amount if limited to 5 instead of 10.
• THE PRODUCER now costs 2800 USD instead of 3500 USD.

All these pledges include access to the private contributor forums and participation in Google Hangouts with the team where we plan these new features.

Lunar Enigma has posted the first update for Prisonscape with a video about Crafting.

Crafting 101

We will be posting gameplay videos where we introduce some of the basic features of Prisonscape. Here is the first one, Crafting 101:

It goes through the basics of item handling and crafting and shows some examples for crafting weapons and the nectar of gods, the prison wine. Hope you enjoy the vid, and all feedback is appreciated!

If your tired of the usual fantasy RPG then you may like Prisonscape from develpoper Lunar Enigma on kickstarter. They are asking for $49,500 to get funded.

Here is the pitch video, and game description.

Prisonscape is an adventure/RPG game about the harsh and brutal life in prison, made for PC, Mac, and Linux.

The focus is on making the best of what you have. Gathering parts and crafting makeshift weapons, interacting with other prisoners (bartering, forming alliances, or making enemies) and learning the trade inside the prison.

You can develop your character to be a tough fighter, charismatic manipulator, intelligent craftsman, or a slimy snake, and the choices you make affect the story.

The game was heavily inspired by two HBO classics, The Wire and Oz and the art style inspiration was pulled from SNES classics such as Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 6. What separates Prisonscape from other games of same genre is its gritty, uncompromising atmosphere - we're not attempting to sugarcoat the prison life and culture.