I was thinking about an idea that might make a neat game, which involves playing as the scrounger in a prison or POW camp. I'm thinking like Hendley in The Great Escape, or Morgan Freeman's character in Shawshank Redemption. The game would have an overall objective of escaping, and you'd have various items you have to obtain.

You could talk to the guards and other officers, gradually get to know them and figure out who is safe to talk with. You'd better not try to bribe the wrong person, or the punishment could be severe. You could trade among the other prisoners too. Maybe their personalities could be randomly generated, for replay value. (For instance, each guard could have sliders determining their loyalty, greed, kindness, etc.) Or they could be pre-scripted: you'd have freedom to write more interesting dialogues that way. There could be special events where you have to act quickly to snatch something, or maybe once you get hold of certain tools you can take apart objects in the prison/camp to use for other things.

Depending on which way you wanted to go with this, it could be more like a stealth game, or focused on economics, or be dialogue driven, or be a puzzle/adventure game. The scrounger character is usually presented as a mystery - how on earth did you get one of those?? But I think it would be fun to see where these items actually come from. Obviously it's easier to dream up ideas than to actually build them into a game, though!

Does anyone know of a game out there that does something like this?

there are few games like that.

long time i ago i used to play a bit this: Escape from Colditz

Good call and great game.

I like the idea of it being more of a simulation rather than a campaign. So, if you do bribe the wrong guard it's not game over, you just get a few months in isolation (you could fast forward time but your stats would decrease as strength is sapped when not exercising).

Ultimately, the game ending should either be escape and not get caught or a natural death from old age or an electric chair for crimes within the prison

p.s.. the lamest prison based game chapter was Assassins Creed 3....I would have preferred to keep Connor inside to wither away.

There actually is a halfway good game called "The Great Escape" based on the movie "The Great Escape" and while you get to play some of the characters from the movie I don't think Hendley is one of them.

That's actually a pretty stellar concept for a game and i agree with Wishbone about EfBB - the game had the prison thing but didn't quite expand on it. What OP suggests is expand on the prison concept and base the whole game around it witch could turn out pretty damn fun.

There could be gang sidings, work out challanges and competitions that net you fame, drug smuggling and contraband, riots, drop the soap jokes and all that prison jargon :)

Would something like Axis Game Factory help you realize this? I have no idea, but let me know, I have a code.

I feel compelled at this point to link to Eddie Izzard's treatment of The Great Escape.

I really want to play a game like this now. I love the idea. I can't think of anything like it, though.

I think the closest thing I've played to it would be the mod "Burden of 80 Proof" for Deus Ex, where you have to scrounge money and booze for a weekend party by talking to people, running errands, and sneaking around stealing stuff. A nice little hour-long mod.

Gemini Rue has a bit of that sort of thing for a while, although it's not what the whole game is about.

Well, Prisoner of War does have some of those elements.. I think.

Did you ever play Escape from Colditz (Amiga)?

It doesn't quite tick all the boxes from what you describe but it's the closest game I've personally played, and I think a modern remake could end up being what you're describing.

Edit: saw right after posting that it was already mentioned by iippo, oops. Even used the same video! I am clearly not good at reading threads.

The Great Escape (C64 and Spectrum) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrqIsEtDKyY

It had some of it

Have you tried Hard Time by MDickie? It's not exactly what you described, but it is a prison simulator. A prison simulator shoehorned into a wrestling engine. Everybody but you is randomly generated (you design your own character), wardens and other prisoners will randomly assign you tasks (and/or just randomly insult/compliment you), you can also make friends and enemies, though that mechanic is a bit random and broken at times. It's also free roam to a degree. Did I mention that it's shoehorned into a wrestling engine and that it's random?

It's free to download on MDickie's website. He also released a 2D remake of Hard Time late last year I believe, if it's anything like his 2D wrestling game remix, it might be the better version, however it may have ads.

Thanks for all the pointers! I'll definitely be checking out some of these games (or watching the videos at least, for the old ones that I may never find myself...) It sounds like there are bits and pieces of my concept scattered in various places.

Maybe someday I'll learn how to develop a game and then I can make the one that I really want to play. :)