Prison Architect to just "Architect"

[Hessen]

Bare with me, this is a complete braindump of some thinking I've been doing in the last few hours and it's going to sound far more garbled that it probably should!

I can't stop feeling that the basic engine that has been built for PA could be used for so many other similar situations. With minor changes to the graphics, and rewording of objects and features.

Using a bit of "out of the box" thinking, you could easily apply the same engine and principles, with just a simple re-skinning and the game becomes Train Station Architect, or Hospital Architect.

Now there are two ways for this to become possible, one is that PA continues to be as moddable as it is now (perhaps even a bit moreso) and let the community make mods that completely change the context. Or, as crazy as it might sound, the devs themselves repackage PA as simply "A" and then provide different theme modes within that.

I'm probably thinking too "big picture" here (a habit of a strategic job I'm afraid!) but I think there's potential huge scope in the market for this type of game, but not just restricted to Prisons as a theme. And I've love IV to be able to take advantage of that.

[Causeless]

No.

Don't turn the base game into a "sim everything". That's a terrible idea, to be frank. The core of the game is prisons, and it should stay prisons; if it tries to achieve too much then the game loses direction.

Sure, for mods (though we'd need enhanced modding support, probably), or for expansions, yeah, add different stuff. But do that to the base game and it'll turn into a bunch of boring mini-games, none of which have had particularly much focus or work put into it.

[nycerine]

No.

Don't turn the base game into a "sim everything". That's a terrible idea, to be frank. The core of the game is prisons, and it should stay prisons; if it tries to achieve too much then the game loses direction.

Sure, for mods (though we'd need enhanced modding support, probably), or for expansions, yeah, add different stuff. But do that to the base game and it'll turn into a bunch of boring mini-games, none of which have had particularly much focus or work put into it.

Well, in that case the point of keeping things moddable and extensible would benefit later on.

When PA is released and becomes a success (no if's), then maybe it'd be nice to have options.

[Ste881]

Would love to see hospital architect done as a sequel/mod

[Saranis]

No thanks, I would like to see mods that do it, or even expansions/sequels but for right now I would rather them be focused on just PRISON Architect.

[kadawg13]

nice idea but I would like to see this game stay as is. down the line it would be cool to see mods or sequels that change the theme but I would rather see where this goes for now.
ever since I first saw this it has reminded me of Theme Hospital, so I would love to see what they could do as a sequel with hospitals.

[ronanc]

We already have people making apartment blocks in the vanilla game. No reason why a mod couldn't do this.

[koshensky]

I was kind of into this idea as a potential community led future for modding, and then I realised that it would essentially just end up being a dumbed down subversion. Personally, I'd rather have subversion.

[a__gun]

I did have similar thoughts myself a while back, but came to the conclusion that it would end up being a jack of all trades and a master of none; gameplay spread too thinly for any individual projects to be any good.
The only way I can see this idea working at all in an official context would be to stick to the theme of prisons, but open up to a larger map where you can also build on seperate sites - different types of prisons, accomodation for staff, courtrooms etc. Gives a bit of diversity without losing focus

[DonkSpirit]

First get Prison Architect done. If it's final version is fun, think about expansions or things like hospital architect or whatever architect.

Yes, I hope, there will be a lot of mods IF it is a great game.

Just my 2 cents...

[Hessen]

A Hospital mod obviously already has a huge potential customer base because of Theme Hospital (and the utter failure that was Hospital Tycoon), I just think that won't be exploited if it's just a fanmade mod for a Prison game.

Fanmade mods will keep me happy though. Just need to get creative now and think of some "themes" that could be done.

[ElectricGlow]

Architect Architect - build and run an A&E (arcitecture and engineering) firm!

On second thought, please never do that.

[cyberis]

While I hope that the community or the developers create a lot of good sim games from a solid engine, prisons and hospitals don't mix (unless you want to create a Morgue Architect as well ). Get this one out the door and let the others come as people get good ideas. Also, while the sandbox might be able to use the same engine and similar mechanics, the story line probably would look a bit long in the tooth it if had a similar presentation over each of the various Architect games.

[Hessen]

To be honest I don't care at all for storylines or scenarios, they don't interest me whatsoever. I'll only ever play PA as a sandbox builder.

[SupernovaDX]

I don't know how to feel about this, but I do think that with potential the game engine could be reworked to build office building and have it be an office sim, and all other sorts of things, but I PAID for a game about building prisons and I expect to get it.