Confined on the cover of this month's issue, a crim with a dark past, a cold-eyed con, an orange outlaw with a rebellious streak that can't be tamed - it's Prison Architect! This month's issue is devoted to celebrating the wit and inventiveness of indie development in all its many and varied forms. We go inside Introversion to uncover the story behind their prison-building sim, round up the most exciting upcoming indie games, cover 50 fantastic free games that you can play right now and still find space to review the latest releases, go on more adventures in Now Playing, and cover the hottest hardware.

What's more, this month you'll get Introversion's entire back catalogue for free . That's four games worth £12 in total including Uplink , Defcon , Darwinia and Multiwinia . The issue should be with subscribers now, but will hit corporeal and digital shelves on Thursday, where you'll be able to buy it via the App Store , Google Play or Zinio . If you prefer, you can subscribe to get each issue delivered to your door. Read on to discover what else we've trapped within the pages of issue 256.

this month we...