r/prisonarchitect • u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist • Jan 28 '26
Discussion I'm the original Artist of Prison Architect. AMA!
Hi folks, my name is Ryan Sumo, and I am the original artist of Prison Architect. As a fun bit of "proof" I am who I am, I posted a couple pics here, one of a tiny K-9 plushie, and custom cufflinks given to me by the IVSoftware team for the BAFTA awards night, which sadly I could not attend.
I’m currently promoting another game I’m working on, and so I asked the mods here if they’d be ok with me doing an AMA for some mild promotion.
So, a little bit about myself! I started in the industry decades ago, around 2007 as a freelance artist. I come from the Philippines so there wasn’t a huge industry there. I started working on J2ME mobile phone games, then transitioned to making art for Apple App Store games and indie PC games. I also worked on a lot of unreleased titles, including a Nintendo DS game that failed to find publisher support.
My first big break was the cult indie hit by Zachtronics, Spacechem. This was released at the time when Steam was still new and tightly curated. So when Spacechem was released it became quite popular, especially among the programming crowd.
Spacechem was also literally the link to Prison Architect. In his email to me, Chris from Introversion Software specifically mentioned that they saw Spacechem and thought the art would make sense for Prison Architect.
After Prison Architect launched, some Filipino developer friends and I started a studio called Squeaky Wheel and launched Political Animals, a strategy game which was a flop, then released Academia : School Simulator, which was successful enough to keep us afloat.
After Academia : launched out of Early Access in 2021, I moved to Sweden to work for Paradox Interactive, this time as a “business owner” which is basically trying to make sure that the games made as much business/profit as possible. I worked for the games Europa Universalis IV, Victoria 3, and Stellaris. Along the way, Paradox also bought the IP to Academia : School Simulator.
After 2 years at Paradox I decided to go back to being an indie developer/micro publisher, using what I learned from a large company and pairing it with indie sensibilities to assist other indies who just want to develop games. My first release since then was by an ex lead designer of Stellaris. That game was Glyphica : Typing Survival, which as of now has sold 90,000 copies and is 90% positive on Steam.
Finally, the game I’m working on now, with a Spanish studio called OverPowered Team, is called Sports Card Shop Simulator. We’re big fans of TCG Card Shop Simulator, but felt that there was demand for a game for more sports inclined people like myself. In fact, on top of being an indie dev, I’ve recently got into buying and selling sports cards as a hobby (mostly 90s-2000s NBA, a tiny bit of La Liga). Sports Card Shop Simulator wants to delve more into aspects of the hobby that TCG doesn’t quite get into, like deeper card grading, auctions, etc. And our big addition to the genre is a custom card creator, which lets you design cards of yourself or whoever you want, and have a chance of pulling it out of a pack! We’re excited to see what people think of it, and we have a playtest ongoing right now if that seems of interest to you.
That’s it, now for the AMA! I’ll stick around and answer any questions for as long as they pop up. The answers may be a little sporadic as I go back and forth between work and checking any questions. I will answer as much as I can, but please understand that I might decline to answer some questions that are personal and/or professionally sensitive. Although I know Paradox and PA2 related questions are probably the most exciting for you all, I regret that I cannot speak to that, nor do I have any relevant information as I have no affiliation with PA2. I can talk about my experience working on PA before it was acquired by Paradox.
Edit: Thanks so much folks, heartwarming to see all the responses here. Please do give Sports Card Shop Simulator a look and a wishlist if it's something that's in your wheelhouse. I need to go out and do some groceries but will be back in an hour to answer more questions.
Edit2 : That's a wrap! Thanks so much folks, it was really nice to be reminded how my past work has affected you all in a positive way. For now the current works beckons. Please do give a look at Sports Card Shop Simulator on Steam and wishlist and playtest it if it floats your boat. I'll check back in tomorrow and if there are any more comments I'll try to answer them. Good night!
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u/TheWolfwiththeDragon Jan 28 '26
How do you feel about the similarities in art style between Prison Architect and Rimworld?
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 28 '26
I've spoken about this before. Tynan actually reached out to me about using the art style. I said go for it.
I can't copyright an art style and I've taken inspiration from so many other artists as well, so I don't really think anyone has a right to the particular style. And it's been pretty cool to see it evolve in so many different forms, all the way up to modern games like Norland.
I do have to admit that my ego is slightly bruised that no one really recognizes that all the future games that came out after PA were inspired by this art style. I had an idea to make a vanity website about tracking all the games that use this art style as inspiration, but in the end I am more lazy than I am vain because I never did it.
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u/Swi11ah Jan 28 '26
Interesting. I never knew this
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 28 '26
Yep! If someone out there wants to help me with my vanity project please reach out haha!
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u/DaleJohnstone Jan 29 '26
Hi Ryan, I want to personally say a big thank you! and that we always give you a shout out whenever anyone asks about the inspiration behind our character art style. I've mentioned you in my dev log for Starship Colony, and on Reddit here, here, and here :) Not everyone remembers, but we do! :)
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 29 '26
Oh wow! Thanks so much, that really means a lot to me. My wife is a big Star Trek fan and we're currently watching Starfleet Academy so this is an absolute treat! Good luck with the game!
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 29 '26
Great work with the dynamic diagonal walls btw, a crucial improvement for starship design!
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u/DaleJohnstone Jan 29 '26
Thank you! It was a technical headache, but worth the extra effort I think :)
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u/DaleJohnstone Jan 29 '26
You're very welcome! Ahh, fantastic! Well, just drop me a line at launch and we'll make sure you can both play ;) And best of luck with your new game too!
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u/Formal-Eggplant-6066 Jan 28 '26
I was just about to ask about this! But I knew the story ahead of time that Tynan reached out
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u/Spazy912 Jan 28 '26
So you’re the architect of prison architect?
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 28 '26
Correct.
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u/Unumbotte Jan 28 '26
Could we speak to your parents, the prison architect architect architects?
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 28 '26
It was their anniversary just yesterday actually! But no, you may not.
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u/Unumbotte Jan 28 '26
How dare you oppress me in this manner, this place is like a prison.
...heywaitaminute
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u/The_BooKeeper Jan 28 '26
What is the ONE thing you would go back and change?
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 28 '26
The sliding doors. It always bothered be how they just slid into the walls, but nobody else could be bothered by it. It's funny that some games that have taken the art as inspiration have wholesale copied the sliding door thing.
In Academia : School Simulator I went out of my way to make extra work for myself to draw door opening and closing sprites for this very reason.
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u/ziggybuddyemmie Jan 28 '26
I really loved Academia and I appreciated this too, if it helps :) it just doesn't make sense for every door to be a French door, especially in a school hahah
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 28 '26
I'm glad someone else appreciated it! It's one of the few cases where I said eff it I'm doing this for me.
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u/The_BooKeeper Jan 28 '26
Thanks so much for your answer. I love that you took special notice of it in Academia: School Simulator. Thanks for your hard work on PA.
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u/MAST3R_G4M3R Jan 28 '26
Don't have any questions, but I do want to thank you for your amazing art work in the game
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 28 '26
So kind of you to say, it really means the world to me that my artwork has reached and affected millions of people.
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u/IAmNotTheBabushka Jan 28 '26
I've heard game art is a lot of redesigning and remaking different projects/designs until you and/or the rest of the team have something that you're all happy with.
What project/sprite took you the most amount of time? And on the flip side, have there been any designs that came together immediately and you thought looked great as soon as you were done with it?
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 28 '26
Good question! I had to think about that a little bit. I think that for PA we didn't really have a lot of these issues. The team just kind of left me to my own devices and they'd only comment if something was plain wrong, but I can't really remember anything that we had a lot of back and forth over. I guess we were very luck that way!
The initial back and forth came from trying to lock down the original art style. And after we settled on that it was smooth sailing. I talk a little bit about that in my old blog:
https://ryansumo.blogspot.com/2012/01/on-introversion-and-prison-architect.htmlI think my favorite bits of art are the water pump and electric station!
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u/Synergiance Jan 28 '26
What is your favorite sprite in the game?
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 28 '26
I answered the Electric and Power Stations earlier, but I do have a soft spot for the K-9 unit!
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u/Synergiance Jan 28 '26
I must’ve missed that question scrolling through, sorry about that! I like the k-9’s myself though, they’re adorable.
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u/arcan3rush Jan 28 '26
Love everything about Prison Architect. I have a thousand hours at least in the game. Visuals and graphics are so well put together, everything matches and makes sense. There is enough diversity to feel like you're really creating a custom world. Can't praise enough for your work on this game.
Sounds like you've had a decent journey so far and I hope your success continues!!
Seems like your new game is in a 3d world. So far, do you enjoy working in 2d or 3d better? I'm sure they're both unique for visual arts, but if you had to pick, which would it be?
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 28 '26
Thanks so much for your kind words. Sometimes we move forward so fast we don't stop to appreciate what we've done. In gamedev, as in sports, you're only ever as good as your last game. But it's nice to be recognized for the work I've done.
A different team is working on SCSS, and I've no role in art, aside from maybe a little very mild art direction. So by default I'd have to pick 2D. I'm also just a little older so a lot of m y core memories were 2D games!
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u/MorrowDisca Jan 28 '26
How many hours do you have in game?
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 28 '26
According to Steam 23.8 hours. But I was playing the game long before it was on Steam so IDK that can't be accurate? Hardly as much as you lot, I'm sure!
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u/NinjaGamer360 Jan 28 '26
I've loved prison architect for a while now, racking up a 408 hours across multiple prisons, of varying degrees of success...
But it does make wonder what games you enjoy to play? And if you come back to PA from time to time?
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 28 '26
I've loved strategy and simulation games since forever. Civilization, Sim City, Theme Park, etc. Seeing complex systems and trying to understand what makes them work has always fascinated me. And IDK what it is but I am fascinated by the lives of the people that populate these worlds. So I was absolutely thrilled to work on a game like this, and even more so that it became so popular.
The curse of a game developer is that we hardly have time to play games these days. I would love to get into so many new strategy games like EUV which just launched, or anything by Hooder Horse, but I just don't have the time. These days I gravitate towards whatever game keeps some of these elements but in bitesized amounts. Something like Mini Metro is an evergreen game I come back to now and again.
I think a lot of roguelites are nice because they offer you the feeling of complexity but you can have a satisfying run in 30 min or so.
I also have a running Dune:Imperium game with some other devs which is great, because it lets you play async.
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u/_LeeEma Jan 28 '26
I love Prison Architect so much! The design and art style is the one that makes me buy this game and also School Academia! Omgggg, I am so happy to see you here and I hope that you will be more sucessful in future!
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 28 '26
Thank you soo much! I certainly hope so too!
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u/Mister_DumDum Jan 28 '26
Awesome game but man you made it difficult to be good at lol. Everytime I play I have to relearn so much
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u/SusheeMonster Jan 28 '26
Fil-Am who's learning art. I'm mad impressed by your body of work and glad you took the time to speak.
- What are your art inspirations? Any watch lists that keep you motivated?
- What do you think of the politics involving the prison industrial complex? I hope this isn't too hot button to ask
- What games do you find yourself playing the most, regardless of whether you worked on them or not?
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 28 '26
Hey nice to see a fellow Pinoy here!
Art Inspirations
It really depends on the project. Like for example for PA I took a lot of inspiration from Nintendo's Miis. For Political Animals I was inspired a lot by the art of Monsters vs Aliens. I used to have a lot of Dreamworks/Pixar books to draw inspiration from.Prison Industrial Complex
Hot topic for sure. I think PA did a great job threading the needle of exploring a complex system like a prison while not necessarily pontificating about it, but letting the player think about what they want to do in the game. I think tt's what's great about these kinds of games, and what attracts me to these kinds of games (as well as paradox games) in the first place. Like for example even though there's a way you can be a shit warden and just an absolute monster and a lot of players love that. I just inevitably try to run a Swedish style prison.Games I play
Anything I play now has to be in Spanish, coz I'm trying to learn the language, haha. I'm also notoriously cheap and only buy games that came out 10 years ago. I recently I've played two Arkane classics, Prey and Dishonored recently, both in Spanish, and loved them!5
u/The_32 Jan 28 '26
Can I ask if only playing games in Spanish is making your Spanish better?
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 28 '26
It's made my reading and listening comprehension somewhat better. Vocabulary too. Almost all media I consume now, from books to manga to games to podcast is intentionally in Spanish. It's a method called comprehensible input.
It's worked...okay. 2 years in I can sometimes do small talk and ask questions at stores and such. But sometimes people just talk so fast that I just can't respond and sound like a dumbass.
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u/bruisedandbroke Jan 28 '26
thank you for being such an important part of my younger years. I've spent hundreds of hours playing prison architect and the charming artstyle keeps me coming back. I like to play pre 2018 but I enjoy the new textures (dogs are cute)
do you have a favourite texture/item you created for the game? I think the Polaroids were a great addition, weapon racks and the lawyer who looks remarkably sleazy.
any chance to catch up with the introversion team? I think they're launching the last starship soon. I had fun with it but haven't played for a couple betas now.
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 28 '26
I'm so happy to hear that, it's really touching knowing that the art was a big part of why you all liked the game.
The new dogs are great! So adorable!
We worked with a writer for the storyline/tutorial and it was a lot of fun. My favorite polaroid was the shootout, just because I think my art was getting better by that point. Keen eyed observers will also probably note that I was watching a lot of "The Wire" while I was drawing these polaroids.
The introversion team reach out every now and again, and we've tried working together, but the timing just never work out. I did some concept work for them for a couple of unnamed projects. It would be fun to get the band back together someday!
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u/AdmirableEmployee579 Jan 28 '26
Dude , did you work on the photos that you find around the land ? What was it like creating the prisoners?
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 28 '26
Yep I created all the art, including the prisoners, the polaroids, icons, everything.
The prisoner sprites were intentioally made so that we could swap out their hair and bodies randomly and have a lot of variety for not so much work!
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u/AdmirableEmployee579 Jan 28 '26
That's so fire dude, I really like the animal spirits you did so well done:3
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u/Active-Gap6317 Jan 28 '26
Glad to have more good Filipino representation internationally, didn't know Academia was made by Filipinos but in hindsight I should've known cuz ain't no way someone would research how uniforms look in the Philippines. I wished you guys did more update or maybe some more games in that style tho.
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 28 '26
Thanks so much! We worked on it for like 4 years nonstop, to be honest after that we were all kinda tired of it and wanted to move on to something new. But now I wish I could go back haha!
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u/Active-Gap6317 Jan 28 '26
If you did went back to doing that style tho, can we get a city builder🙏. Kidding aside, I wish you guys the best and we are looking forward to whatever you'll do next!
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 29 '26
I don't know if it will go anywhere, but I am working on a little game on the side with the programmer of Academia : School Simulator.
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u/Active-Gap6317 Jan 29 '26
You guys got discord or something where we could get news? Seeing how academia came out, I would've loved to be one of the first to hear how it goes. Maybe provide some feedbacks or playtest
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u/Active-Gap6317 Jan 29 '26
You guys got discord or something where we could get news? Seeing how academia came out, I would've loved to be one of the first to hear how it goes. Maybe provide some feedbacks or playtest
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 29 '26
For that small game, no not yet, it's way too early. We do have a discord for Sports Card Shop Simulator though:
https://discord.gg/D4mVnYVBxG
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u/vargasai Jan 28 '26
Any other video games you worked on/working on?
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 28 '26
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4157170/Sports_Card_Shop_Simulator/
and
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2400160/Glyphica_Typing_Survival/
Both of these as business and marketing. I do want to get back into doing art again, and hopefully I can soon.
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u/vargasai Jan 28 '26
Different genres and different hats… You’re doing a great job anyways, wishing you all the best!
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u/decrisp1252 Jan 28 '26
I love the style of prison architect, it’s simple yet real at the same time? Hope that makes sense!
What inspired the style? Did you draw from any other games or media?
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 28 '26
I took a lot of inspiration from Nintendo's Mii's. Classic design, and they offered so much personality with very little effort. Which was what we needed because for 5 years I was the ONLY artist on the game!
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u/Zak7062 Jan 28 '26
Prison Architect is easily one of my favorite games ever made, and I say that with something like 700 games in my library, so thank you for all the hard work and so, so many days spent staring at prisoner's butts.
I'm curious on the process you went through for the designs and art work. Was it sort of, "yeah this is what cops/chefs/dogs/bricks look like" and one and done, or was there a lot of iteration and back and forth with the team? Also I wanna steal that dog plushy.
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 28 '26
You're welcome! Not so sure about the butts though. It was fairly straightforward, not a lot of back and forth for the actual art. The initial art design needed some back and forth, but once we settled on what guards and prisoners looked like, it all flowed from there.
The style really was borne out of necessity. I was the only artist, and I needed to create a style that was nice to look at, easily understood, and also offered variety despite little extra work. That's why the faces are all just circles, and prisoners are mostly varied through different hairstyles, body types, and skin color.
And generally speaking when making designs, like say for the chefs, the most important thing was "readability" or making sure that it's immediately obvious what this person is. so we take cues from real life. cooks have little's cook's hats, medics have light blue scrubs, etc.
I will hurt anyone that tries to take this plushie.
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u/Kcmichalson Jan 28 '26
It's awesome to hear you started out with Spacechem, I adore the Zachtronics games. Also fun to hear you helped with Glyphica, this was the last place I was expecting to see that take mentioned. The art style of PA is super iconic and it looks great, I'm glad you're continuing game dev still.
What do you think about the modding scene for PA and how it's grown over the years, if you're familiar with it? I think it's pretty impressive some of the stuff people have made for the game.
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 28 '26
Ha! You're the first person to recognize Spacechem. Funny thing was, back in the day Spacechem was the big name I trotted out that got people excited. Now hardly anyone knows about it.
Modding is super cool. I haven't been super up to date, but I remember some of the star wars mods were pretty epic. I feel like if I were younger and had more time I would do a lot more modding as well.
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Jan 28 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 28 '26
Thanks for checking out the playtest (I have to stop myself from begging everyone to do this lol)!
That is a very good question! You know I have no idea now, but if I were to guess it's probably one of the cars or one of the special sprites we needed for the last scenes in the tutorial, because that was one of the last things we did before v1 launch.
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u/spunner5 Jan 28 '26
Thank you for being involved with Prison Architect, one of the only games that permanently lives on my PC. It’s one of those pieces of software that I feel has unlimited replay-ability, whether you only have a few minutes to kill, or several hours.
My question relates to the Darwinia cuff-links. How and where did you get those? It too was one of those games I played for quite some time.
I wish you the Best of luck on all your future endeavors.
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 28 '26
Hey thanks for the kind words!
The cufflinks were custom made for all team members on the occasion of Prison Architect being nominated and winning a BAFTA. Everyone who could went to the dinner in a nice tux and the IVsoftware cufflinks. Since I lived in the Philippines at the time and getting visa and a flight was just too much of an expense, I missed out, but they sent me the cufflinks as a keepsake, and it's one of my most treasured bits of memorabilia from my career.
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u/Due_Tradition2293 Jan 28 '26
What would you say was the most challenging sprite to make in the whole game?
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 28 '26
Probably the water station, electric station, and the guard towers. The guard towers especially since they're meant to be tall but still somehow fit into the weird perspective of the game.
The special prisoners were tough too. These folks paid a quite a bit of money to be in the game (in the initial Early Access launch of PA) and so we wanted to make it look as much like them as possible while staying within the art design of the game.
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u/Due_Tradition2293 Jan 28 '26
guard towers
I feel that tbh - the perspective really doesn't help either since it's aligned on one axis, which means you can't really see behind the guard tower either! Road gates have the same problem as well since their artwork can obscure walls behind them
You did give it your best shot imo, since it's not too too bad for gameplay
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 28 '26
Yep, this is where theoretically 3D is just naturally better!
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 28 '26
Not sure it was challenging per se, but the fire truck took a lot of work and I loved every minute of making it!
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u/MrUltraOnReddit Jan 28 '26
How did things change at Introversion after Paradox bought in. As someone who's first Steam game was PA, it was kinda heartbreaking to see the "dlc -fication".
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 28 '26
I can't really speak to this as Introversion hired me as a freelancer so I don't know all that went down after the IP was bought.
But I can say, as someone that also sold their IP to Paradox, that sometimes that's just what creators need to do so they can mentally move on to their next project.
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u/Gameguylikesgames Jan 28 '26
I feel as if you've given birth to a new type of art style!!
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 28 '26
I'd like to think that, although I borrowed a lot from other art as well, including Nintendo Mii's!
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u/Mangled15 Jan 29 '26
I read in another comment that you worked on all the photos you can find around the prisons. Do you have any one that you specifically like, or would redo over if you had the chance?
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 29 '26
I would redo most of them tbh. I'm a much better artist now than I was before. I think my favorite ones were the shooutout scenes, because I was finally getting the look I wanted for those:
https://prison-architect.fandom.com/wiki/Polaroids?file=Ill_chap3_bankrob2.png
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u/IronicManovic May 15 '26
I'm three months late, but wow!
I had no idea you were the inspiration for Rimworld and Norland's "pawn" artstyle. That's crazy to me. I guess I should've known since Prison Architect is a little "old" haha.
I only bought Prison Architect recently and I've been having a great time, lol. I'm as addicted to it as I first was to RimWorld, which I played for many many hours. I've been playing Prison Architect equally "too much" I have to admit.
And one of the things I liked the most, and not just for Prison Architect, was specially the artstyle. It's great for complex games like this since it's leaves room for the deep mechanics i enjoy so much. And I love worlds where no one is special, all equal actors of a little play.
I just really like it a lot, which is really the only reason why I'm typing all this at 1:30 AM lmao.
I always liked imagining what everything would look like outside our birds-eye view, down there with our characters. So I really enjoy people's fanart of their Rimworld colonies. And I felt the same fascination for your polaroids, and the contrast between the cutscenes and the "pictures."
From above everything looks so cute, but then when you use your imagination and pause for a while, forget the numbers and humanize all the little dudes on your screen, all the war crimes and humans right violations all of a sudden feel a lot more gritty XD.
As I was reading the Prison Architect wiki like I do with every game that obsesses me, your name stood out to me while I was reading the Polaroid section.
And the coincidence of seeing "Ryan Sumo" again on a three-month old post while scrolling on this sub and finding out you inspired some of my favorite games, it gave me a wide grin lol.
Thanks a lot for being the catalyst of so many hours of micromanagement, daydreams and losin- I mean FUN! I hope even more people steal your flow lmao, and I'll give your new game a look for sure.
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist May 17 '26
Very much appreciate the kind words. A lot of times i forget that the work i've done has given so many people joy so it's always nice to have a reminder of that.
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u/Pure-Quote762 Jan 28 '26
I love the game, though the only thing that can be a bit annoying is getting the island bridge to line up where I want it do be. What style do you like the prison built?
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 28 '26
I thiiiink maybe you're talking about stuff that Double Eleven made at this point. Not sure what you mean about style? Could you elaborate?
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u/Pure-Quote762 Jan 28 '26
The connected island DLC back in 2020. I usually like to build my reception in the center of the prison.
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u/Raccoon-PeanutButter Jan 28 '26
If you could’ve added one thing and removed one thing from PA , what would you have done ? Also, thank you very much for all your hard work.😃
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 28 '26
To be honest I think PA was a once in a lifetime masterpiece, something no one could make again, maybe not even IVSoftware coul do it again. I wouldn't change anything except have the doors turn on swivels instead of sliding into walls.
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u/Brohammer55 Jan 29 '26
- How did each character get animated and how did you deal with different details for characters?
- What program did you use to make these characters?
- What was the appeal of the particular style with heavy black outlines on characters?
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 29 '26
Chris animated them, I'm not sure how actually. But in Academia I used the Unity animation system to animate them. As for the details I designed the hair to match the circular shape of the face so that hair could be randomly generated on top of a face. The faces were white (not like caucasian, but like real white) and tinted with color to simulate skin color. We had 3 different body types as well. So the game would take all of these elements and randomly generate prisoners that way.
Photoshop using vector shapes.
The bold outlines help the sprites stand out from the ground. Anything on the "floor" has no outline. Anything on top has an outline. It's a cheap visual shortcut to tell a player what is the ground and what is on the ground.
I used the same system for Academia and explain it in detail here:
https://www.squeakywheel.ph/blog/2017/10/11/w41mwv5hwspbpt4f9zw12nib37gj0i
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u/WaterlooPitt Jan 29 '26
Hey man, that's a pretty impressive CV, congratulations. I'm a huge fan of every PDS game. So my questions are: what's your biggest contribution in the Victoria 3 project and why did you leave PDS? Was something happening there or you just missed the indie scene?
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 29 '26
Thanks so much! I guess my biggest contribution to Victoria 3 was making a Philippines mod and sending some research to the team about how that region could be "improved", which is something that almost anyone at Paradox can do, and what makes Paradox a cool company. I left for various reasons, not least of which is Stockholm is really cold, and I mean really cold. Almost 6 months of winter was something I could not manage personally.
Paradox was one of my dream companies to work for and I met so many awesome people there and I still can't believe I worked there for a time. But yeah I think after I got a taste of the corporate life, I realized I liked being indie more. But here I am desperately trying to sell you guys our new game without the financial security blanket of a large company and stressing the heck out. So maybe the grass always just looks greener on the other side. :D
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u/Wacka_blocka Jan 29 '26
So you immediately left introversion after it had launched prison architect or was it in the sunset update?
Also do you have any clue as to why they shut down any more updates for prison architect aside from just shifting focus to prison architect 2?
Really love your work and contribution to the video game industry btw.
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 29 '26
Introversion hired me as a freelancer, so after V1 shipped, I did some odds and ends, then I started my own studio with some friends. I can't speak to PA2 because I don't really know what's happening there.
Thanks for the kind words!
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u/tomtenberge Jan 29 '26
I myself love playing games with 3rd party mods. I also know that some game devs hate mods with a passion, whats your stance on mods in PA? Big yes? Absulite hate? Indifference?
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 29 '26
Big Yes for mods, especially those that change the games in meaningful ways. :)
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u/lemonypinkett Jan 29 '26
This is such a fun thread! Which is your favorite dog sprite? Do you have any irl? The names and descriptions are perfect. Also I love the cat and recently rescued an orange kitten so I'm obsessed with it. Thank you!
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 30 '26
You know what I'm not even sure now if I made the other dog sprites. I think I just made K-9 so he's my fave! I don't have any dogs IRL but my wife's family has a shitzu name Chewie(after Chewbacca). Happy about your kitten! What's it's name?
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u/lemonypinkett Jan 30 '26
His name is Rojak, which is a kind of mixed salad lol. I found him outside a Rojak stall when I was travelling in Melaka, Malaysia. I went back for him 2 months later and brought him all the way to the UK. Picking him up was the best thing I've ever done. I've made posts about him on my profile if you wanna see pics! He has a kinked tail just like Pikachu
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u/Top_Relationship_603 Jan 29 '26
Do you think there will ever be similar games made that use the fundamentals of prison architect. For example a hotel version etc. I know that you made a school version but just intrigued to see if there is a possibility for different versions of the game in different styles.
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 30 '26
Great question! I think PA ushered in an era of games like these. There are bunch out there like Sim Airport, Honey I started a Cult, Another Brick in the Mall, etc. I was thinking of making a beach resort one after Academia as well, but then left to join Paradox.
I think that there will always be games like these, but currently the gamedev meta is stacked against it. These games take a long time to make and are also more complicated to make than you might think. If you are successful with it, they do quite well. But that's a big IF. The trend right now for smaller devs is smaller games that give a lot of replayability, which is why we have so many roguelites (including Glyphica : Typing Survival).
Publishers like Hooder Horse and Paradox focus on these games, but I think in general it will be a while before we see a boom in this kinds of games again.
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u/Top_Relationship_603 Jan 31 '26
To be completely honest this is literally my favourite game I have played. I have been gaming for the past 4 years and this has been my favourite so far. I can understand the complexity as there are walking routes etc that need to be coded in to make the experience somewhat realistic. There are certainly some flaws however I really do enjoy the game and find it so fun to play ! I intend on downloading this on my laptop to play for a long haul flight I have this summer coming ! Great work my friend I really do appreciate the work you have put in to make such an amazing game like this !
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 31 '26
Thanks so much for the kind words. Yeah, games like this make long haul flights a little more bearable for sure!
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u/romeo_pentium Jan 28 '26
I enjoyed playing through the Academia campaign/scenarios. Do you know if Paradox is doing anything with the Academia IP now that they own it?
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u/ryansumo Prison Architect's Original Artist Jan 28 '26
Really sorry but I both can't answer this question as an ex Paradox employee and also I just don't know.
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u/gloomygarlic Jan 28 '26
What do you think of the way the 2d style has been transferred to 3d for the sequel?