Darwinia maker Introversion's Prison Architect is a fascinating one, a prison management simulator described by the developer as "inspired by Dungeon Keeper, Theme Hospital, and Dwarf Fortress." If you too are intrigued, you can start playing it this very day, as Introversion has opened pre-orders and offers a playable alpha as a perk.

You can pre-order from Introversion on PC, Mac, and Linux for $30, which'll get you a Steam key should it ever hit the platform. Or, if you're feeling fancy, there are another seven pre-order options, as commonly seen in Kickstarters. These include a big bundle of Introversion games, physical copies and getting your face into the game.

"Since we started the company in 2001, Introversion has remained resolutely independent. We are not funded by publishers or platform holders, and we never will be. It is the most important thing for us to retain total creative control over what we do, which means the proceeds from each one of our games goes directly into funding the next," designer Chris Delay said in the announcement.

"This is how we have always operated, and while it does enable us to work on some often highly experimental concepts, it does sometimes cause us problems... By pledging more than the base asking price you will help us to retain that independence, to keep working on Prison Architect until it's the best game we've ever made, and to continue making original video games for you to enjoy for years to come."

Here's Introversion to explain the game a little, and tease some of the weird and wonderful bugs that can happen in an alpha version of software simulating complex things.