Prison Architect update brings mod support and further performance boosts

A scenario: somebody builds the biggest prison imaginable, fills it full of the most hardened criminals, then, through careful management, has it turning a regular profit. Are they proud of their achievement? No. All they really wanted was to run a jail full of clowns. By default, Prison Architect doesn't contain clowns, which I think we can all agree is a shame. Luckily for our fictional warden, this latest update for the prison management sim codifies mod support, making it easier for them - or other clown hating players - to reskin the game's prisoners.

Those with alpha log-in details will find a full list of currently available mods here . Right now, people are doing clever things with federal funding, and with changing all prisoners into Darwinians.

As of this update, the game should be much faster. A long campaign of optimisation has meant that, according to the graph posted on the update page , performance on large maps has more than tripled.

In addition to those major updates, staff have been tweaked so that they now become tired. A new staff room designation lets you build areas for them to recharge.

Prison Architect alpha 15 is out now.

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.