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Devblog #6 - Survival mechanics

Hey inmates,

Today's devblog, we will talk further about what inspired our game and how we challenge ourselves with the idea of creating a survival game in a place as confined and strict as a prison.

[h3]Why a prison survival game?[/h3]

We wanted to make a space prison game from the start. We didn’t have a precise genre specified at the beginning, but survival mechanics made a lot of sense in a place like this.



We needed to give them a twist though as the situation of the player character is far different than in most survival games. You are not stranded on an island/ocean/planet/forest and your main threats don’t come from the environment, flora and fauna. On the contrary, you are surrounded by other people (and aliens)... however they are the main threat here. We needed to turn the systems so they reflect this social survival aspect through the Relations with other inmates, the gang hierarchy, doing favors, gifts and so on...

[h3]Inspirations[/h3]

We were of course analyzing the rich history of movies, series and games about prisons, but our main inspirations were Guardians of the Galaxy, especially the scene in prison, and Orange is the New Black. This series showed us how perspective changes when your freedom is limited and how many amazing stories can be told in a lockdown.



One of the major difficulty was to create a place where players were to be limited, but at the same time have an agency of their lives in prison. This is a challenge for most games – to make the repeatable game loop entertaining. We might have had an edge on this one as if anyone felt that the days in prison are getting a bit repetitive, they sometimes explained it to themselves that it’s how it goes down in prison.



Yet, there is a lot of unique content in the game with 18 crafted and interesting gang inmates, each with an original story that you can learn by doing their individual quest chains. From the beginning, we wanted to have a colorful cast of criminal characters.

[h3]Hope as a mechanic[/h3]

From a narrative perspective, it made a lot of sense to add a resource of Hope as in a grim and dangerous place like a remote jail, where you are sentenced to imprisonment sometimes longer than your lifetime, hope is one of the most important resources.

From a mechanic standpoint, we needed another resource that would balance Hunger and Health, so players could trade and balance these three, somewhat like Health, Hunger and Sanity in Don’t Starve. Hope was perfect for it with low and high thresholds reflecting hopelessness or hopefulness in character’s statistics.

[h3]A survival game in a prison[/h3]

It was a challenge as survivals are known for their open worlds. Prison’s idea is that it limits the inmates freedoms, one of which is the freedom of space and movement. That’s why we needed to get creative. We went more in the direction of a wild prison with simple rules. Think more Riddick or Alien 3 than Shawshank Redemption.

To make the space more interesting we divided it into biomes. We also divided it into locations that are available for inmates and those that are restricted, like labs, engine or control rooms, that also feed the grim narrative of the prison.



Furthermore, we needed to keep exploring the locations everyday fresh for players, so we came up with the idea of moving corridors. The prison map changes everyday, because the space station is designed in a way that the corridors move, disabling convicts from planning an escape. After all, you're sentenced here forever, right?



Thank you all for your support and the heartwarming feedback you gave on the release of the game. We read all your suggestions and enthusiasm about the life in Space Prison with great pleasure and feel free to leave us a review if you have not done it already!

Stay tuned for more insights as we continue to work on adding new content to Space Prison!

See you behind bars!
Wooden Alien Team



Space Prison Patch Note 1.0.7

Space Prison Patch Note 1.0.7


Hello, inamtes! Your W.A.R.D.E.N. and their Guards have been busy resting a bit after last months of working on the prison, so today's update is a bit smaller than you've been used to. The facility was a bit empty, don't know if you've noticed. If nowt, well, you might have just missed your chance for escaping. Nevertheless there are some changes that should put smiles on some of your crooked faces.

Thanks a lot to all of you who took their time to write us your feedback, suggestions and report issues in our discussions (https://steamcommunity.com/app/1865930/discussions/). It's thanks to you that we can improve the game further!

If you want to add some feature suggestions or vote on ideas that we already have, look here: https://spaceprison.featureupvote.com/



[h2]FIXES[/h2]
  • Added missing achievement for Dryshem's masked job chain
  • Fixed possibility to get stuck on creating new game if previous save was not deleted properly
  • Fixed items in stashes even in new game
  • Fixed Bondar Alchemist Quest 4 Q 3 blocker



[h2]BALANCE[/h2]
  • Gravity Fist Workbench - Scorpion Whip added
  • Hypernova Workbench - Spiked Club added




In the meantime, join our active community on discord: https://discord.gg/4THBwxFDyx. Stay tuned to the prison radio.

Wooden Alien Team

Space Prison Patch Note 1.0.6

Space Prison Patch Note 1.0.6


Attention, convict! Someone sent you a package. We opened it of course, so we can say that it's a pack of fixes for your time in the facility.

Thanks a lot to all of you who took their time to write us your feedback, suggestions and report issues in our discussions (https://steamcommunity.com/app/1865930/discussions/). It's thanks to you that we can improve the game further!

If you want to add some feature suggestions or vote on ideas that we already have, look here: https://spaceprison.featureupvote.com/


[h2]FIXES[/h2]
  • Fix: enemies in outer ring loot corridors disappear after exiting to menu during combat
  • Fix: Combat start button not working (Guard Dog combat)
  • Fix: Fixed workbench bug - selecting disabled recipes
  • Fix: Supporter Pack Player Cell - flower pot moved to foreground layer



[h2]LOCALIZATION[/h2]
  • Português brasileiro in language selection instead of Português
  • Fixed missing translation on Toxic Bottle and other items that spawn entities
  • Fixed value bug in the spanish translation for the 'skill uses left' amount
  • Created description text with entity names value attached for usable items 'spawn entity effect'
  • Removed redundant "+" and "-"sign from french, spanish and chinese translations for the resource modifiers effects descriptions
  • Missing names and translations added for critters occuring in Quest objectives (where given critter need to be killed) - update part 2
  • Updated polish translation for IC3 (NPC) personal quests titles



[h2]BALANCE[/h2]
  • Medical Pod - Morpher Matter interaction +40 HP -> +50 HP




In the meantime, join our active community on discord: https://discord.gg/4THBwxFDyx. Stay tuned. Next update soon...

Wooden Alien Team

Space Prison Patch Note 1.0.5

Space Prison Patch Note 1.0.5


Attention, convicts! A new transport of fixes and fresh improvements just arrived! And among them you can find what most of you have been voting for. Yes, you guess it, you can now pet your rats.

Thanks a lot to all of you who took their time to write us your feedback, suggestions and report issues in our discussions (https://steamcommunity.com/app/1865930/discussions/). It's thanks to you that we can improve the game further!

If you want to add some feature suggestions or vote on ideas that we already have, look here: https://spaceprison.featureupvote.com/


[h2]FEATURES[/h2]
  • Pet the Rat (yes, you wanted to pet your rats, now you can pet your rats)

[h2]IMPROVEMENTS[/h2]
  • Skill Button - uses number font changed
  • Party Members Window - UI art adjustments
  • Resized custom interaction button

[h2]FIXES[/h2]
  • Fixed recurring error with talkable guards
  • No more errors when hovering invisible skills
  • Hazard are no longer hoverable in Start Combat Window
  • Fixed doubling quests after death
  • Fixed possibility to join the gang twice or more (it was a bug, guys)
  • Crime type update for NPC characters (aka Too many thieves)
  • Fixed Interactable objects range for gamepad

[h2]LOCALIZATION[/h2]
  • Missing names and translations added for critters occuring in Quest objectives (where given critter needs to be killed)


In the meantime, join our active community on discord: https://discord.gg/4THBwxFDyx. Stay tuned. Next update soon...

Wooden Alien Team

Space Prison Patch Note 1.0.4

Space Prison Patch Note 1.0.4


Morning, prisoners! Catch what the Warden brought you, a nice bowl of steamy fixes and frech improvements!

Thanks a lot to all of you who took their time to write us your feedback, suggestions and report issues in our discussions (https://steamcommunity.com/app/1865930/discussions/). It's thanks to you that we can improve the game further!

If you want to add some feature suggestions or vote on ideas that we already have, look here: https://spaceprison.featureupvote.com/


[h2]IMPROVEMENTS[/h2]
  • Added Stun immunity effect
  • Drone Frequency Relay and Additional Combat Slot perk statuses are now displayed on the status bar
  • Made default fade to black duration a lot shorter, from 2.5s to 0.75s
  • Backing up previous save files up to 4 times
  • More secure save on day start



[h2]FIXES[/h2]
  • Fixed soft lock after end of combat when loot box is present
  • Fixed not working perks (statuses) after death or mind transfer
  • Weapon Swap fixed - unavailable to use on HUD - Credits moved and and LT button moved
  • Medical Pod in Medical Bay and Gunk Snail i Moonshine - hard to reach interactive objects fixed
  • Phantom of the Prison - File cabinet open interaction requirement fixed (Rusty Screwdriver --> Rusty Screwdriver / Chrome Screwdriver)
  • Medical Pod interaction fixes
  • Boss Fight Location Collider Bug fixed
  • Fixed double achievements
  • Added missing Reaper achievement
  • Liquid Jailbreak: Drink Me - stuck in the Garbage Chute - Added operational Garbage Chute exit if we are not in the middle of the quest
  • Fixed order of sleep bonus/penalty and daily bonuses
  • Removed all possible ways to accidentally reset secret stashes. This fixes missing items.
  • Fixed blocker in tutorial combat. Added additional log info to corridor load
  • Fixed black screen stuck when exploring map nodes
  • Player's body stash in the Morgue should not hide by itself anymore
  • Fixed spawning NPCs in locked locations
  • Movement blocked after gangs button clicked in interaction window fixed
  • Severed Ties - Cut Off interaction requirement fixed (Rusty Crowbar --> Rusty Crowbar / Metal Crowbar)



[h2]LOCALIZATION[/h2]
  • Added missing translations to a text line in Pedra Personal Quest
  • Added missing translation to "cost" button on Merged bodies Interactive Objects
  • Missing translation keys attached to interaction buttons on interactive objects
  • Added missing characters in Chinese fonts added
  • Fixed missing Chinese localization in Gang Perks selection, Info panel, Relation Trait, NPC details screens and Bathroom


[h2]BALANCE[/h2]
  • Horny Destruction weapon - Mindmelt Solo stun chance: 100% -> 75%
  • Stun Immunity added to: Final Boss; The Great One; Mutated Fodder



In the meantime, join our active community on discord: https://discord.gg/4THBwxFDyx.
Stay tuned. Next update soon...

Wooden Alien Team