A text-based prison game that remembers the block.
Five years, a cellmate who runs the laundry, a guard who has decided about you, and one thing hidden where nobody looks. Keep your head down, call in favours, pay debts or skip them. The Game Master writes the prison and everyone in it around what you do, and it keeps track of who you owe, who you crossed and where the letter is.
Or start from a first line, no setup:
Free to play in your browser and on Android. The full memory system is on every plan, including free.
A real session, recorded
This is what the block sounds like
The salt-heavy wind whistles through the narrow, high-set window of your cell, a cruel reminder of the ocean you cannot reach. You are sitting on the thin edge of your bunk, watching the morning light crawl across the floor, when the sharp, rhythmic clack-clack-clack of heavy boots echoes down the concrete corridor. Your cellmate, currently busy organizing a stack of fresh laundry in the corner, freezes as a harsh shout erupts just three doors down: "Shakedown!
> I volunteer for library duty and ask the trustee who runs it whether anyone has checked out the atlas this month.
The heavy steel door screeches open, and a guard with a thick neck and a impatient glare steps inside, baton already in hand. Before you can even finish your request, he slams his palm against the doorframe, the sound echoing off the cramped concrete walls. "Library duty?
> At the end of my shift I open the atlas and check the letter is still sewn into the spine.
The library is quiet, the heavy scent of damp paper and floor wax hanging in the stagnant air. As the clock finally ticks toward the end of your shift, you pull the heavy atlas from the shelf, its spine worn and fraying at the edges. With a quick, practiced glance toward the door to ensure the guard is still distracted by a game of cards at the front desk, you slide your fingers along the seam.
Recorded on 2026-10-16 on the free-tier model: a fresh account, the first line "a text-based prison game: I am three weeks into a five-year sentence in a coastal prison, my cellmate runs the laundry, and I hid the letter that proves who really did it inside the spine of the library's atlas", then the two actions above typed in. The AI named the story "The Cellblock Shakedown". The cellmate, the laundry and the letter in the atlas all come from the first line; the Game Master opened with a shakedown, refused the library request in the moment of it, and two turns later the letter is still sewn into the spine, with the guard playing cards at the front desk. The Game Master's lines are cut to a few sentences each here; the whole exchange, every word, is published as a JSON file.
A text-based prison game is a story you play by typing, turn by turn, with an AI writing the block, the guards, the crews and whoever already wants something from you. You set the situation in a sentence: three weeks into five years with proof you did not do it, a lifer who runs the laundry, a new guard who owes the wrong man. The Game Master writes the prison around you. Then you decide what to do in your own words: "volunteer for library duty," "tell the guard who has the phone," "carry it out for him." The block answers with what it costs.
There is no list of commands to learn and no menu of choices. You can take the deal or refuse it, protect the kid or sell him, keep the letter or burn it. A sentence only feels real if the game remembers who you owe, what you promised and what is hidden where, which is why memory decides whether a text-based prison game is worth playing.
What you can do
How a text-based prison game plays
Work the block
The yard, the laundry, the library, the infirmary, the visiting room. Where you were and who saw you there carry into the next count.
People, not targets
Cellmates, trustees, guards, the chaplain, the man who runs C block. Every one of them is played by the Game Master in their own voice, and every one wants something.
Debts that keep
Auferet keeps characters, places and events in structured libraries, so the favour you took on week one is the favour called in on week forty.
Your kind of inmate
Wrongly convicted, a lifer, a transfer, a guard, a man with six days left. Your first line decides who you are and what you carry.
Any kind of prison
A coastal fortress, a county jail, a penal colony, a camp in the snow. Quiet dread or a riot. The opening sets the tone and the Game Master keeps to it.
Free to start
Play whole months before you pay anything. Auferet's free tier includes the full memory system and 10 free daily credits, in your browser.
Why memory decides it
A sentence means nothing if the AI forgets it
Most AI games feed the model one fixed window of recent text each turn. In a prison story that breaks the game. The guard who searched your cell forgets why, the debt you paid is owed again, the letter you hid is on your bunk. When nothing you did lasts, there is no time to do.
That is measurable, so we measured it. Five facts were planted in the first turns of a story on the free model and asked about at turn 20, 40 and 60: once with only recent conversation to read, the way most AI games work, and once with persistent memory, the way Auferet works.
| Asked at | Recent conversation only | Persistent memory |
|---|---|---|
| Turn 20 | 3 of 5 facts | 5 of 5 facts |
| Turn 40 | 1 of 5 facts | 5 of 5 facts |
| Turn 60 | 1 of 5 facts | 5 of 5 facts |
Run on 2026-08-22 and again on 2026-08-27: both runs fell to 1 of 5 by turn 40 on recent conversation and held 5 of 5 with memory. Every question and raw answer is in the result file; the method is on the benchmark page, and how the memory works explains what it stores.
How it compares
Text-based prison game with an AI vs a choice-based prison story vs a prison browser game vs a character chat
| Text-based prison game with an AI (Auferet) | Choice-based prison story | Prison browser game | AI character chat | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who writes the story | The Game Master, around what you do | Writers, in advance | Nobody; the systems and other players | The AI, as one character |
| What you can do | Anything you can put into words | The choices on the page | What the game allows | Talk |
| The people | Characters with their own motives | Scripted characters | Other players, and scripted NPCs | One character |
| Consequences | Carried across the whole story | The branches the writers planned | Mechanical: stats, timers | Rarely tracked |
| Memory | Persistent across the whole story | Flags the writers set | A database of the world, not of your story | Varies, often a short window |
Rather solve the crime than serve for it? Play the AI murder mystery game. The same engine runs every text-based game and every AI story game.
FAQ
Text-based prison games, answered
Is there a free text-based prison game?
Yes. Auferet is free, with 10 daily credits to claim, and the free tier includes the full memory system. It runs in your browser; unlimited actions start at $10/mo.
How does a text-based prison game work?
You describe your sentence, your block and what you are hiding in a sentence, or pick one above, and the Game Master builds the prison, the guards, the crews and whoever already wants something from you. You decide what to do in your own words, and the story answers with what it costs.
Does the AI keep track of favours, debts and what I hid?
That is what Auferet is built for. It keeps characters, places and events in dedicated libraries and can search the whole story, so the guard you crossed, the cigarettes you owe and the letter in the atlas spine are still there weeks later.
Can I play a guard, a lifer or someone wrongly convicted?
Yes. Your first line sets the game. Three weeks into five years with proof you did not do it, a lifer who runs the laundry, a new guard who owes the wrong people, and the Game Master writes the block around that choice.
Can I play with friends on the same block?
Yes. Auferet has multiplayer: one player hosts, friends join, and everyone plays their own character in the same story, each with their own Game Master.
Can I play online without downloading anything?
Yes. Auferet runs in the browser on desktop and phone, and there is an Android app if you want it on your home screen.
Shakedown on your block. The atlas is on the shelf. What do you do?
Start a text-based prison game free in your browser and see whether the block remembers what you hid.
Start your sentence free