Hey everybody! Programancer (the dev) here!
Firstly- I'd like to thank everybody who's played Prison City since its launch in 2023. It was a lot of fun to make, and I'm glad it's resonated with people and has invoked a lot of the same feelings I have for these sorts of games!
Secondly- It was announced earlier this year that Prison City is receiving a physical version for consoles, and honestly that seemed like the perfect time to make a final update!
Version 1.0.4.0 is available in the beta branch! You can access this by right clicking Prison City in your Steam library, selecting "Properties", navigating down to "Betas", and selecting "1-0-4-0_beta". Please be aware that this update is still in the process of being tested and may have some oddities, but don't hesitate to reply to this post or reach out to me on socials (@Programancer on Twitter, @Programancer.com on Bsky) if something goes horribly wrong! In fact, I would greatly appreciate it if you did.
There are a lot of updates and improvements in this build, and I encourage you to check the changelog file included in the game's install folder! I'll list some of the more important ones here though:
Input switching is now done on any press of a desired input. Meaning- at any time, if you want keyboard, use the keyboard. If you want a controller, use the controller. No need to go into a menu to change it or reconnect. Before this change was implemented, people with bluetooth controllers that timeout/unstable connections had a reasonably annoying time keeping their controllers connected.
DCP Headquarters (DCP2) now has 2 variants- COMPACT and SPRAWLING. Sprawling is the original, drawn out version. Compact is a more condensed experience. On Easy and Modern, COMPACT is the default, but on Classic SPRAWLING is default. Holding UP when you're entering the 2nd DCP level (before the screen transitions), you will go to the COMPACT route. Holding DOWN will take you to the SPRAWLING route, regardless of difficulty. Custom difficulty has an option to choose which one is default. If you're replaying DCP2 from the level select, you can select which one you're entering. This is to address the issue of the penultimate level being very, very large and overwhelming. That was the original intention, however having the option between versions feels pretty good.
Sliding has been improved, allowing you to jump out of a slide at any time and attack while sliding. This provides more kinetic gameplay.
Cold Storage now has progress ladders in case you fall down the level. If you reach a certain point in the level, a ladder activates, and it will stay activated even if you die.
Fixed an issue where you can't ride a dolphin during the boss fight for the Freeway in Bomber Mode. You should be allowed to ride a dolphin in a free country during a boss fight.
The "Official Pirate Version" is accessible through launch commands and via included .bat in the install folder. This is a version of the game that was intended to be quietly released on torrent sites that progressively gets harder and harder to play and more and more unstable. If the .bat doesn't work, you can add the launch option of "-PirateMode" (without quotes) in Steam by right clicking Prison City in your library, going to Properties, and filling out the Launch Options textbox.
Lots of bug fixes were done; some introduced from updating my development environment to the most recent version, but some that may have existed originally- for example, I've fixed a bug where beating a level with a minigame as the final from the level select before the middle opens up and then exiting the minigame would play the intro codec and send you to the Train level.
A bunch more things!
On top of all of that, we're also working on community items for Prison City as well- backgrounds, emotes, maybe a Steam Deck startup video.
Again, thank you to everybody who's played Prison City- seeing how people respond to it has absolutely made it worth every second I've worked on it! It's something I'm proud of, and while it's not everybody's cup o' tea, it's heartwarming to see it resonate with people!
