Prison Architect plays in a 2-D top-down view, giving the player the scope of the entire prison and allowing them to both build and manage the prison structures, building different facilities for inmates. In 2019, Paradox Interactive acquired the publishing rights for Prison Architect. The game’s pre-alpha build was made available in 2012 and saw its final release in 2015.

They acknowledge they have not investigated the long-term consequences of these outcomes on a wider scale.Prison Architect is one of the happier stories to come out of crowdfunding for video games. The energy demands involved in producing enzymes, and whether their production is essential or merely beneficial, help determine which applies. Using mathematical modeling, the authors show that using quorum sensing to control cheating strains can be a beneficial strategy in some circumstances, extending the life of the colony. The authors found cases where populations commit “evolutionary suicide”, refusing to produce enough enzymes to feed themselves in order to take cheater-rich populations down with them. 'It's costly for a bacterium to contribute to the community, so for a selfish individual, it's best to simply take what's offered without giving anything back,' said lead author Dr Alex Moffett of Northeastern University 'But obviously this is bad for everyone, so the community needs a way to discourage bad behavior.' The system breaks down, however, if some members of the colony don’t pull their weight – feasting on the sustenance made available by the enzymes produced by others. If surrounded by many of their kind, each bacterium needs to produce less of the enzyme. The team was investigating an example of quorum sensing involving the production of enzymes used to break down food sources so their nutrients become accessible.

Top down colony survival game