You can now play Prison Architect for free on Steam to see why it’s one of the best management games available, but you’ll need to act quickly if you want to take part in the action. After serving as an early access title for a while, Prison Architect was finally published in October 2015 and quickly rose to popularity. Since been acquired by strategy juggernauts Paradox Interactive, the studio behind Crusader Kings 3 and Stellaris, you can now play this classic jail management sim for free on Steam for a limited time.
As you might expect, Prison Architect puts you in the shoes of a Warden tasked with building the ultimate penitentiary. You’ll be taking on truckloads of the top troublemakers, so you’ll need to ensure your facilities can handle the gnarliest criminals around. However, you’ve got to make sure everyone has a decent quality of life, with access to the basic facilities and amenities you’d expect.
That means carefully planning your prison layout, sorting out routines for everything from activities to showers to yard time to bedtime, and making sure you’ve got the staff on hand to ensure all your prisoners can be kept in check. You’ll also want to make sure that those staff are kept content and that you’re ready to handle any incidents from the more dangerous crims in your establishment.
With the release of Prison Architect’s Sunset Update in May this year, touted as the game’s final update, there’s never been a better way to play. A generous helping of quality-of-life updates and overall polish means this is the ultimate, complete version of Prison Architect – and if you want even more on top, there’s plenty of DLC add-ons to enhance the experience even further.
Prison Architect is free to play on Steam until Monday July 17, 2023 at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm BST / 7pm CEST. If you like what you see, you can keep it for cheap too. Prison Architect is 80% off on Steam until Thursday July 20, 2023 – expect to pay $5.99 / £4.75. Its DLC packs are also 20-40% off each, or you can buy the Prison Architect Total Lockdown bundle to get the full package for 51% off – expect to pay $43.36 / £32.62 for everything.
You don’t have long to check out the free version, but it’s a great way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon – so head over to Steam to check it out and see if it takes your fancy. Following the release of its final update, Paradox says, “While we’re closing this chapter, the book is certainly not yet finished. We’ll see you around.” If the end of the Sunset trailer above is anything to go by, perhaps a 3D overhaul or Prison Architect 2 is on the cards.
For the time being, we’ve got more of the best crime games around if you love to delve into the seedy underworld, or you can find all the best free games on PC and never run out of great things to play without ever spending a thing.