The Escapists

In The Escapists, the player, who assumes the role of a prisoner, must escape from six primary prisons that progress in difficulty. Each time a prison is escaped the next prison is unlocked. There are additional prisons released as downloadable content (DLC) which can be played in any order regardless of the player's progress. Outside of the main game, there is also the "Prison Editor" mode, which allows players to create their own prisons out of in-game assets that they can choose to publish online for other players to download.

In the beginning, the player selects their name and can choose the names of prisoners and guards if desired. Once the names are selected the game starts from day 1 waking up in the player character's cell. From here, the player is expected to attend daily routines, such as meals, work, exercise and showers, as to prevent guards from becoming suspicious. Skipping routines comes with manageable consequences, but all roll calls are mandatory and lockdowns will occur if the player character does not attend.

The Escapists is the second game by Chris Davis' one man studio. Davis raised £7,131 for the game through Kickstarter in November 2013, this allowed him to commit full-time to game development for the first time in his career. Unlike his first title, Spud's Quest, Davis signed a publishing deal with Team17 to better market the game. Team17 contributed the tutorial and ported the game to Unity for Xbox One support.

The game was inspired by the 1984 video game Skool Daze, one of Davis's favourite titles. Davis limited the hint system and the tutorial to encourage experimentation by the players. He hoped that by allowing players to discover the solution themselves, they would feel a greater sense of achievement. For inspiration, Davis watched prison films and researched prison escapes.

The Escapists received generally positive reviews, with Windows and Xbox versions holding scores of 71 out of 100 and 74 out of 100 respectively on review aggregator website Metacritic.

Reviews highlighted the freedom in approach that the game allowed, and reviewers told stories of their break outs. GameSpot writer Cameron Woolsey described tunnelling his way out, Official Xbox Magazine (OXM) writer Andy Kelly, described hiding his ventilation system escape by crafting a fake papier-mâché vent cover, while X-One's Dom Peppiatt straightforwardly shivved a guard and stole his keys.

The Escapists: The Walking Dead, also known as The Escapists: The Walking Dead Edition, is a standalone spin-off developed by Team17 released 2015–2016 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. It merges the core gameplay of The Escapists with the characters, locations and theme of The Walking Dead comic books.

Another spin-off, The Survivalists, where the player has to survive on an abandoned island, was announced on 10 December 2019, as part of a Nintendo Indie World showcase and was released on October 9, 2020, for PC, Mac, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and iOS through Apple Arcade.