after a lot of bad starts, Escape the Prison is finally ready for other people to test.

it is a small turn-based prison break game built from my old NetHack route notes. you watch health, energy, and guard heat, then collect the exact tools for the tunnel, wall, or front gate. no giant skill tree and no crafting screen.

the 0.9b route beta gives you four days before transfer. tool finds are reliable now, but greedy runs still push heat up fast.

post the route and day if you get out. also tell me if anything feels unfair instead of merely difficult.

>> PLAY THE DEVELOPER BUILD <<

first run ended at 100 heat because i stole everything in sight. that one was on me.

tunnel route works. cutters, map, flashlight, then rest before the final move.

the gate route is my favorite. the uniform check made me nervous even with the badge.

good notes. i am leaving the daytime restriction in, but the next build will explain it earlier.

clean controls and no useless meters. this feels like something i would have downloaded from a shareware page.

wall clear on day 3 at 23:00. had exactly 12 energy left.

balanced enough that the second run feels smarter instead of luckier. good first release.

ran the gate route twice. if you grab the guard badge during laundry duty and keep your heat under 30, it is the safest route by far.

tunnel route is very tight on energy. you need at least 60 energy going into the vents or you collapse before reaching the perimeter.

is there any secret route through the cafeteria or is it strictly tunnel/wall/gate?

cafeteria is just for scrounging energy snacks and hearing guard rumors. only 3 physical exits.

escaped on day 4 at 02:00 via the wall. wire + rope + cutters. heart was racing on the final roll.

clean ASCII-style state machine. runs without a hitch in Netscape 7 and IE6.

congrats on getting the first project thread live KernelPanic. setting the bar high for the rest of us.