Stonewall Penitentiary demo set free

Written by Jack Allin — October 15, 2008 at 12:44

It's been a long time since we've heard much from Unimatrix Productions about Stonewall Penitentiary (originally known as Awaken). And sure enough, production on the latest adventure from the creator of Lifestream and Shady Brook has run into a bit of a stone wall itself. The good news, however, is that a playable demo has recently been released to help tide players over.

In Stonewall Penitentiary, players assume the role of middle-aged William Thane. Already down on his luck, William's luck gets a whole lot worse when he suddenly finds himself trapped in a prison with six other strangers with no memory of how he got there. The group is "held captive by a psychotic killer obsessed with justice", and so you must find a way out before everyone is killed. The problem is, the killer is among you, so you can't trust anyone.

According to the game's designer, Chris Brendel, the demo is not representative of the completed product, but is more a "bare-bones in-progress look at the game's engine". Still, it's fully playable and self-contained, and challenges players to find a way out of a small cell and then finding clothes for William and his neighbouring female prisoner. Control instructions for the fully 3D, free-movement adventure are included at the start of the demo.

The Stonewall Penitentiary download is large for the short length of the demo at over 400 MB, and can be found at standard download sites like FileFront or GamersHell. Note that the demo includes partial nudity, but given the subject matter, it stands to reason that this game isn't one for the kids.

With the unexpected delays in the production schedule, there is no longer any firm release target for Stonewall Penitentiary, as Brendel now prefers the ever-familiar "when it's done" timeframe. For more information about the game, be sure to check out the official website.