WARDOGS
WARDOGS
Game
Game2021
Prison Tycoon®: Under New Management
Developer Abylight Studios
Build an intricate prison, hire the best staff, and pamper your prisoners to create the perfect rehabilitation facility in Prison Tycoon: Under New Management From the Steam store page
104 reactions from 2 sources (Steam reviews, Mastodon) · newest May 18, 2026 · last updated Oct 8, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
56
Mixed
58 positive · 45 negative
95% range 47–65%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 58 | 45 | 0 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
1 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Mixed
113 of 183 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Summary pending — the reactions are listed below.
Reactions
60 of 104 · most liked firstI like it, but cannot recommend it right now. PROS AND CONS here for you: PROS: - The Atmosphere is comical and light, resembling the personality of Two Point Hospital, with the setting of Prison Architect. - Graphical style is pleasing. We need more 3D versions of games made popular in 2D, as long as they are done well. - The PA System is a very clever feature, and fun to use for those that can - Simplification of resource allotments and collection removes a bit of micromanagement (which…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Even though the game has potential , in the current state the game shouldn't even be out in early access PLENTY of issues and bugs and the DEVS are taking TOO MUCH time to fix not to mention that their replies are actually copy/paste replies across all questions and threads ... I cannot but tell you not to purchase the game for the time being as everything inside the game is broken it's even causing computers to freeze ... it can't even run properly not to mention that there isn't really much…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It is a funny and fresh approach to the Prison Tycoon formula. Instead of punishing, the focus of the game is prisoner rehabilitation. This makes the game feel more fun and entertaining than the older games of the saga, plus, some of the therapies are hilarious! The game is not perfect, but being a game in Early Access I didn't expect it to be perfect. PROS: - The game is hilarious, the objects you can place in the rooms are super funny, and the therapy rooms are fun and different. It…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game resembles more to Two Point Hospital than Prison Architect. For example, when you build a room, it automatically proceeds onto the items you need to place for the room to work, there is prestige level and you drag and drop people to assign them to rooms, etc. POSITIVES - No major bugs. - You can announce things on the PA system. It's fun to yell obscenities at your prisoners lol - It's actually quite challenging compared to TPH. - A lot things to build and explore for an EA…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game has the potential to be a very fun games BUTTT right now the money situation is extremely annoying! You don't get paid enough money to be able to sustain the prison and because of that you are forced to continue to take out loans. At the end of each month they take a HUGE chunk of money out to repay the loan and then I am forced to take out another loan and then the next month they take out an even bigger chunk! I kept losing and eventually stopped playing because its extremely…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The gameplay is more like Two Point Hospital than Prison Architect, but it gives you a lot of freedom to build and do weird stuff. The PA recording for the prisoners to hear and the fact that you can manage the scheduled time for eating, resting, going to therapy, etc. are the things that I'm enjoying the most. I think it's worth it for the amount of hours I see myself playing this. It's on early access so more content is to be expected, anyway I completely recommend it
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →they should really call this REHAB TYCOON has nothing much to do with prison prison has violence, gangs, drugs, bad people that do bad ♥♥♥♥. This has none of that, no mod support to make that either that Ive found. So unless you wanna play REHAB TYCOON I dont recomend. Instead go play prison architect, Now thats a prison tycoon game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It tries to be a prison version of Two Point hospital but failed, badly. Other than some tips popups there was no tutorial. The building mechanics are extremely clunky and frustrating. I lasted 32 mins then shut it down and played Prison Architect for 8 hours before getting a refund. 2/10. Just buy Prison Architect instead.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I would not recommend buying this game in it's current state for value of content. It is a great game but lacks content and updates, as i bought this game 4 months ago and am still awaiting some form of progress. I beat and unlocked everything in 4 hours and after that it just gets repetitive with no progression. I and other customers have given the developers idea's for the game and they do not communicate with their patrons and customers. So i would wish list this game at the most right now…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Prison Tycoon: Under New Management is a building and resource management simulator about creating a prison with a focus on rehabilitation rather than punishment. It is set in the mid-1980s and has a loose and minimal overarching narrative that centres on the prison’s fresh approach and focus on rehabilitating the prisoners. Fans of the genre will be right at home with most of the game’s building and management aspects, with familiar mechanics, controls and UI features. The UI in particular is…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Avoid at all costs. Undeveloped bug-fiesta deluxe at the moment. By the way, it is worth to mention that you do not get any refund from Steam if you play more than 2 hours.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Thought it would be fun, but for now it's just a torture simulator. Don't get me wrong, this game has so much potential, and I'm sure if some things are changed that I will have to rewrite this review. Some things that need to change to make it better: -Cleaning is bugged. Things get dirty so fast and some objects can't even be cleaned. -Building templates need to be a part of the game. Making the same cell over and over is maddening. -Resources are sort of out of whack. No option to decide…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game has great potential. The pros: * It is not too serious, with things like sensory deprivation therapy and a romantic visitor center * You can record your own P.A. messages! * You can put your prisoners in isolation for as long as you wish The cons: * Small inconsistencies between the buy menu and the object properties boxes * It's early access, so there are bugs. * Building is a bit too restricted All in all, I'm recommending Prison Tycoon. Update 18-8-2022: some earlier bugs…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Addicting, with a lot of options to manage your prison and staff. I enjoyed this early access so much. A few things that might help is the option to select several rooms/characters/objects to clean them together. It's perfectly understandable that this is an early version and some improvements will come; I hope they addressed them :)
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →not really a lot to adjust and no more updates. Which is very unfortunate!
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →At first this game was great, but after playing for a while it gets a bit boring. All the maps and grants are the same (but there is only sandbox mode, so I kinda expected that) it's only the weather conditions that change, so when you find a layout you built that works you can use that idea across all maps and add a heater or fan (depending on the weather) and it will work. There are a few annoying bugs in the game too, the main one that is really frustrating is people get stuck in the doorway…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I like these sort of games but there is little point to this one. Sandbox is just build all rooms and fill them with whatever is available - done, with campaign there is never enough money so you go bust - gameover. It could be a great game but much more work is needed, more control, more substance, more income and need to fix the characters getting stuck. Suggest sticking to Two Point Hospital or Prison Architect.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Prison building mgmt + lots of options + prison fights = Become a pro warden in this prison theme Two Point Hospital. Hire, manage, secure and rehab prisoners. UI/optimization can be improved. [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/35180752-3-point-play/] Follow our curator for similar games
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I saw this game a while ago and kept it on my wishlist until it was out of Beta/early access as I saw it had issues. Silly me thought it would be sorted or at the very least stable by alpha stage. How wrong was I. This has to be one of the single most bug filled, unstable games I have ever had the displeasure of having on a computer. It crashes constantly. It clinches all the time (common one is prisioners getting stuck in a doorway and then you get fined for not caring for them). If you…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is really similar to Two Point Hospital, if you enjoyed being able to build and manage your own hospital, you'll most likely have a great time running your own prison and rehabilitating your inmates in this game. The building system is very satisfying, and I really like that there are a lot of customisation options available for each room. Although the game was released with some bugs and lacking polishment, after a few updates many of those bugs have been fixed and the game is very…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →After playing for a couple hours and maxing out the promotions/research, the game gets very boring. And you constantly have to manually request new prisoners, only two at a time, to replenish those that get released. Overall, very disapointed.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I cannot recommend this game in any state, to anyone. Its very boring, the tutorial gets you more confused than before trying it, and it lacks dept. Avoid it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not a lot of game play depth here folks. I get the feeling some people were expecting some kind of super prison simulator. Its casual..to say the lest. Its a bit pricey for a phone type tycoon game. But, with this said, I have had fun designing a nice looking, functioning (as some aspects are still not in the game.) prison. Im giving it a thumbs up, because the devs are already engaging in topics, and seem very interested in improving on what they have. I fully support EA games like this, as I…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not since Porridge has prison been so fun!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Needs a lot of love. AT this time i cannot in good conscience recommend even if on sale. Tutorial sucks, building is just plain bad i dont know what they were thinking on this one.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Has a long way to go before this is a working game. Probably next year.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →After some hours playing, I saw good things and really BAD things, how I can say now: GOOD: - The game is beautiful and really fun, considerating the EA. - The mechanics are easy and soft, its not hard to play. - The game is very optimized for a EA version. I think its almost in full version. - The price is ok. - Maps are very interestings and the design is very good. - The models in 3D are nice. ****BAD: - NO FREEDOM OF CONSTRUCTION. We just can build square or rectangular, and we cant put…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Need to update immediately! Rooms became dirty too soon! Very unreal! After 1 year (1986 jan) all the toilets got dirty. Maintenance cannot solve it. Assign to cleaning, but nothing is happening... Many bugs in save games. Sometimes became slower. Please help with updates!!! After more than 2 weeks still no update... Annoying...
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The idea of the game is nice, but boredom sets in very quickly. Too few possibilities for customization, little variety, after the initial phase where you have to manage the problem of the supply of electricity, medicines and water, the game becomes a simple copy and paste of rooms to completely saturate the available space. at that point, the prisoners enter a monotonous and scarcely varied assembly line: entering the prison, rehabilitation in the dedicated rooms, waiting for release. in…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I love these kind of games but there could be improvements such as: 1. It would be good to have workshops that prisoners can learn new skills that will help them get a job after they leave prison. There are therapies available that treat their disorders but Workshops are different and is there so they can learn new things in order to adjust to the society once they go back. Such as cooking classes, learning a new musical instrument, learning foundations of business and finance 101. Then you…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →For now I would recommend this game. However, it does need to change a few things for me to keep playing it in the long run. For now there is no unlimited mode. This is the mode that I love the most while building. The other thing that bugs me the most is that at a certain point I am only busy with telling the maintenance what to clean. If you say they have to clean a room, you still need to also click on every single item in the room to have it cleaned. They do not do this automatically.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Nice game. It freezes non stop though. A waste of $30. Steam is refusing to refund my purchase. The one they sell keeps freezing and does not function even close to properly. Nice concept though. Solid effort.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great Game. Very much in the style of Two Point Hospital. Cant wait for updates
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Do you remember the good old prison tycoons ? If yes , well stray far away from this game, buy something else. If not, you have never had fun and you are just... no idea what reasons you might have to get this game, but there is ,,a game" it is a ,,management" game and it is somewhat very distantly related to a tycoon. The prison aspect of this game is not existent, it is good that the devs have not introduced grape and fraun feathers so that the prisoners can live up the full harsh reality of…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is really cute. Id like to spend more time watching prisoners but time management spent cleaning objects or replacing objects due to decay takes up most of my time. Cleaning needs a major update! I find that my game struggles with people standing still for periods of time, having to save and reboot often, major lag issues as the prison grows. Its becoming to a point where I want to stop playing till there is an update.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →great game has alot of potential am enjoying it so far the one thing i hate is the fact things get dirty really really really quick needs to be toned down alot but other than that im impressed
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Im enjoying this game but i must suck cause i fail after an hour or so of playing it haha! I run out of resources a lot!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I like the game but it needs work. I don't feel like I have a whole lot of freedom to design the prison the way that I want to. I would like to play a more adult themed version of this. Modding support would be cool.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I got the hang of it now lol, the game keeps my interest and is challenging and fun. I love all the new changes. Especially that it saves my data automatically. This game does crash/freeze, only downer. Automatic data save is awesome. I get to pick up where I left off without any issues.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is not a very good game. Very easy and no real challenge, if the the game does not crash. the optimization is terrible, even for an EA game and the AI of all characters is so bad that they should not even be a part of the game . I was going to refund, but I paused to answer the door {package} and was distracted by that and forgot about the game and passed the 2 hour mark. Don't buy this.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I enjoy playing the game but i find moving around is very slow and the shaded bits are quite anoying. but otherwise i find it to be a good game so far,
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Really love the concept and the art style, not to difficult to get into and learn. However, the game is still plagued by some bugs. When I build my prison too big, the prisoners and staff no longer move & new prisoners no longer walk through the front gate. I hope this game gets the support it deserves and am already looking forward to a patch.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →love the game!!played for many hours but the maintance staff must be improved cleaning is under the ice and the therapy room virutal they dont clean the 3d hologram!!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Since update i have noticed many bugs, prisoners stuck by toilet and shower, [plants not getting watered, equipment not getting maintained despite plenty of maintenance staff. And NO way to make any money ever, You will be bankrupt every single day no matter what you do. Parole system is totally flawed also. I still look forward to playing the polished version as it will be a good game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Bought this when it was on special. Special being $28. Still not worth it. It looked cute and stress free to just play and relax but it was extremely boring and easy to do. This is just how I found the game. Sorry but this is a terrible price for a game like this. I would pay $10 at most for it. Wasted my money...
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is AWESOME, I really love this type. So good!!!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →In its current form, I wouldn't get this game. There appears lots of bugs in this game which makes the gameplay very frustrating, with the bugs people get stuck, events seem completely random and you seem to have no control over anything, which takes out all the fun in the gameplay. In addition to that, the 'tutorial' is pointless, with little other aids to help you, meaning you are trying to work out the game completely blind. There are other issues which other people have mentioned before,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →game is fun and addictive but super buggy at some points, seems at some point once you have so much things going on game just freaks out and get super laggy. other than that i enjout it. hope to see the bugs worked out
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's pretty good so far. They seem to be working out the kinks. No game will ever be perfect.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Very Nice Tycoon Game ! ... like old days
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Playing through this game is kind of fun. It's clearly inspired by two point. It needs more work and be forgiving, it's early access after all. That being said, the control system is one of the most clunky and obstructive i've come across! It's almost like the devs are trying to make it difficult to do what you want!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Good thinks first: - 2 point hospital style is great for this, UI and control is great - Actually difficult eco, it is not easy to balance thinks... Thinks which must be updated: - Nobody cares about building cells. Allow copy/paste of buildings (just like 2PH have room classes across games. This is must have). To build one, two is fine, to build 40 is just a waste of time. - Cleaning of the rooms is broken. Sometimes items in the room cannot be cleaned for what ever reason (fckng toilet…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →v 0.9.2.0 Early access This is a fun little game, I love Two Point Hospital and Prison Architect and this is a cool little mix of the two games. Being early access, I am perfectly fine with encountering bugs, even crashes (haven't had one) - but I'll list my findings here so that you can make up your mind if that's something you can live with. As soon as I understood how to make money and run a smooth prison, it seemed somewhat easy, but I haven't gotten to build a super-prison yet, I'll…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've played for almost 10 hrs now. the game itself is amazing and ill keep playing it as it is enjoyable enough to keep you going, but my BIGGEST issue with this game so far is the fact that when i try to exit the game... it simply just... doesn't shut off... i have to actually manually turn my computer off and back on again to go back to my desktop... that's not good. but the game itself shows a lot of potential and i hope to see it evolve... also please please add some sort of room…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Generally not into city building or tycoon type games, but this one is the exception. I love this game. Never a dull moment.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I think there should be an automatic thing to where the maintance people have to clean until there tired. We should'nt have to keep manually cleaning everything. My boyfriend quit playing because of that reason.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I refunded this game after 19 minutes of play. First of all the loading screen took far too long for me. Sat for near enough 2 minutes watching the bar fill up. Got into the game, had to turn the graphics settings down to medium. Bearing in mind Two Point Hospital runs perfectly on my laptop. Found the controls to be quite clunky and the interface not good. The various buttons to press to build, hire staff etc are quite small and difficult to find initially as a new player. After my first two…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I just got this game today and it is fun. Keep in mind it is still early access so there's a lot of work to be done. It could benefit from a few updates: -Sometimes staff will become frozen in place and not do their jobs. -Maintenance stuff will usually take a long time to do a task resulting in a lot of garbage building up and buildings/objects needing maintainance -It says you can Assign a staff to work in this area but they usually don't and it doesn't tell you if that worked -You build a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fun, and addicting, once you get the hang of it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Very funny!! I love the PA System (:
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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