Why, those cheeky scamps at Introversion! They’ve only gone and stolen Infinity Ward’s thunder by adding dogs to Prison Architect. Although admittedly Call of Duty: Ghosts probably nicked the idea from Fable 2, which probably nicked the idea from real life, so I guess it’s okay after all.
This latest Prison Architect alpha build – Alpha 14, to be specific – does indeed add dogs, which are useful for ferreting out contraband, discovering tunneling prisoners, and leaping on any naughty types who happen to be making a break for freedom. Considering the last alpha update added in tunneling, this gives you a much more helpful way of putting a stop to anyone who saw The Shawshank Redemption. It also means that you now actually have a way of detecting narcotics, which is nice.
To employ dogs, though, you’re going to need kennels and handlers, and they run out of energy pretty fast so you’re likely to need a fair few.
On more minor notes, there are a few performance fixes, and bits and bobs like the way you set up patrol paths have been adjusted. You can check out the video below for the full details.
The alpha build is available now, and will apparently be the last build until December due to designer Chris Delay having another baby (congratulations on that, by the way). If you bought Prison Architect on Steam it’ll presumably auto-update; if you got it through the official site, I’d wager you know how to get your hands on the new alpha.