Prison Architect (Alpha 10) Preview

So I've been hearing some good stuff about this game, its from British studio 'Introversion software', best known for Darwinia and DEFCON and Uplink (all pretty good games).

Prison Architect is a bit of a curveball from them, as whilst most of their previous games have an emphasis on real time combat, Prison Architect feels and plays like a 'Bullfrog' game, that is, a business/management sandbox game.

Guys please stop rioting. PLEASE.

Though it has a very simplistic art style, you'll be too busy doing other things to pay it much heed, sure it doesn't have blockbuster graphics, but really as long as you are enjoying the game, you'll soon forget all about it, as you become immersed in expanding your prison (or as I found it, trying to quell the constant riots).
Gameplay will be familiar to anyone who has played Dungeon Keeper or Theme Hospital, you build a prison from scratch, zone out where you want your facilities, corridors, cell blocks and etc.
Then you can research better stuff, or unlock more facilities as your prison grows.
It's an effective tried and tested formula, and Prison Architect does it well, the fact that I started playing at some point and then it was midnight all of a sudden is proof. The twist of the game which seperates it from other bullfroggy games is that prison inmates don't take shit from no guards...

My prison was going pretty well, few hours of play in, and then all of a sudden - riots. Riots everywhere.
Prison inmates are punching the shit out of everything they can get their hands on, toilets, their bed, cell doors, the guards..

GUYS PLZ ;_____;

In summary, Prison Architect is shaping up very nicely, I actually forgot it was an Alpha build until I started typing this up because it already feels like there are a lot of features, and the core gameplay is already there. If this is the sort of fun they can give in an Alpha version, then I verymuch look forward to the Beta's and the eventual full release.
There are a few little issues here and there (sometimes your workers wont build stuff no matter how much you ask, environment can glitch, pathing can be weird, guard AI is bad) but there isn't anything here that's a real dealbreaker - so-long as they get rid of it before an official release.