Hey hey hey, my dear followers,

I promised you to deliver _something_ by the end of 2025, and I hold my word!

Most of the time I spent since my last post was to deal with the walls textures. Having stepped in shoes of a potential modder, I realized how inconvenient the last design could be. And I’ve made some changes… again. For the last time. Honestly. I won’t retouch this anymore in the closest future. Time to move forward to more interesting parts of the game.

Even with the refurbished walls textures requirements, they aren’t so easy to work with. But same can be said for Prison Architect, right? Anyway, as I’m striving to make a game friendly for modders, I think I’ll need to bring up a cozy textures bitmap editor as a part of SDK. Not right now, for sure, just announcing a far roadmap milestone.

Recap: differences to Prison Architect

  • Modders-first approach. Well-documented API, not alienated internal architecture allowing for much more flexible extending than the original title.
  • Walls between tiles. Walls should not occupy whole tiles. Projecting prisons should feel less restricted.
  • Multiple floors. Not a true 3D, but multi-level approach, allowing a player to build tunnels and bridges “natively” with no strange quirks.

What’s ready so far, and what’s yet up

  • ✅ Static demo scene. Rendering works. Textures are supplied by mods (technically; just a proof of extensibility). Camera flies. Switching floors works.
  • ✅ Basic textures. Brick wall, fence, dirt, grass, concrete flooring. Yeah, they’re ugly, but they prove the concept.
  • ❌ Wallclock. Everything is static. No game clocks ticking. Nothing moves.
  • ❌ Pathfinding. Not a single algorithm implemented so that an NPC could find his route from one point of the map to another.
  • ❌ Behaviors. Most interesting and essential thing making the game playable.
  • ❌ Mod API. It exists in some form (as I mentioned, textures and floor tiles parameters like walking speed are already supplied by “internal mods”, technically). But there is no documentation so far.

Demo .EXE

Here you go!

Archive (.7z)

VirusTotal

Please take 30 seconds of your time for README.txt inside the archive. It outlines the controls.

Attractive Ugly screenshots

Ground floor
Ground floor
First floor
First floor

What’s next?

And this is when I really need your invaluable input.

My next options are:

  • Mod API. By Mod API I mean a stable, documented, versioned contract: data schemas, lifecycle hooks, and replaceable subsystems (e.g. pathfinding), not just “here’s Lua, good luck”.
  • Add dynamics/gameplay. Wallclock, behavioral engine, pathfinding.

I’d like to thank you for your patience and your faith in this project. And I want to give you more control on what you consider most important for the upcoming game to get done first.

I’m taking a break for a couple of weeks, and when I return I’ll take the direction you voted for most.

Happy New Year! See you soon!