[SPOILERS] Ultimate Sandbox Mode (Guide with Pictures)

[HowPeculiars]

Hey,

For me Prison Architect is a bit too Alpha to play seriously (Budgeting etc etc), but I'm still having fun playing "sandbox mode". This is for those that want to have as much money as you like, and all rooms/staff unlocked from day one.


1 - Start a new game, pause and immediately save, remeber what you call the save.

2 - Go to your windows username >AppData>Local>Introversion>Prison Architect>Saves

3 - Right click the save game file, and open it with a text editing application (Windows Notepad is fine)


4 - Press CTRL+F and type "finance" then find.

5 - Change the field next to balance to however much money you want to begin with. For example In the following screenshot, I have changed it to $250k


6- To unlock all rooms and staff members, scroll down slightly from the "FINANCES" section to the "RESEARCH" section and change the ALL the numbers next to "Progress" to 1.0...


7- Save changes and reload the game. Have funs!

[diametric]

This should get implemented as a feature. I love playing sim type games in sandbox cheat mode. It lets you try all kinds of things you wouldn't be able to do in normal mode. I love it in RTS games too. It's just fun to play around in.

[Illanair]

I wonder if the variables are kept equally open in the game memory - shouldn't be hard to add a simple memory hack that auto unlocks everything.

[Zevras]

I was easily able to edit all of these with cheat engine.

The one thing I _haven't_ figured out yet is the daily budget - that is the real restriction from "going big".

[gsuberland]

I was easily able to edit all of these with cheat engine.

The one thing I _haven't_ figured out yet is the daily budget - that is the real restriction from "going big".

I'm working on it. It's not as easy as just changing the max, because it's calculated rather than a fixed number in a struct somewhere. Essentially you have to remove the limit check code, so you can just keep building staff.

[maxgee]

I was easily able to edit all of these with cheat engine.

The one thing I _haven't_ figured out yet is the daily budget - that is the real restriction from "going big".

Once you've hired an accountant, you can go over the daily budget by however much you want.

[mrekim]

I've no problems with money in sandbox mode. Just "activate" the grants from your reports.

[XmAkiNA]

They only go so far, after about day 5 I'm out of cash to build a new cell block for the new prisoners

[GBHsl]

Is there a way to change the money midway though the game?

[Delusional Logic]

Couldn't you just, you know, do it again?

[HowPeculiars]

Is there a way to change the money midway though the game?

Yes, simply edit your latest save game file and change the balance value again.

[SardaTFK]

I support a sandbox mode with unlimited money and all the research complete at the start (or at the very least leave the save game easily able to be edited like now). Now if only there was a way to delay the prisoners from arriving until I say they could come. lol

[Pan7h3r]

I would love to see a sandbox mode inbuilt in the game because it adds the ability to test out different things without having to start a new game and wait for money etc.

[samlaw]

Just to note, if you're on a Mac then the directory is ~/Library/Application Support/Prison Architect/saves

Open Finder, from the "Go" menu, select "Go to Folder...", copy/paste the directory above. You can edit the files with textedit.

[FatFreddie]

I support a sandbox mode with unlimited money and all the research complete at the start (or at the very least leave the save game easily able to be edited like now). Now if only there was a way to delay the prisoners from arriving until I say they could come. lol

Well, if you've edited the file to give yourself (effectively) infinite money, you could just recruit a huge army of building staff to insta-build the entire prison!

ETA or you could edit 'amterials-new.txt' to reduce build time of all objects to 1.