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  • Lucas Pope

    ‘Papers, Please’ creator debuts ‘Return of the Obra Dinn’

    Return of the Obra Dinn, the first-person mystery from Papers, Please creator Lucas Pope, is now available. The game has been in the works for some time, with Pope revealing the project and releasing an early demo back in 2014, and it features a rather distinct aesthetic, due to Pope's use of 1-bit rendering. "I'd like to capture the detailed black and white look of old Mac games in a realtime first-person game," Pope said in 2014. "I plan to push it grittier and less cartoon-like than those old games; the hard part will be keeping everything legible without it becoming an unreadable mess of dithered pixels."

  • 'Not Tonight' makes you a bouncer in post-Brexit Britain

    In exactly 12 months, Britain will leave the European Union. It's a troubling time for the island state as politicians squabble over exit conditions and citizens grapple with a deep divide in their economic, societal and cultural values. For many, the future seems bleak, but it shouldn't compare to the one found in Not Tonight, an upcoming video game by Tiki Taka Soccer developer Panic Barn. In this alternate version of Britain, one ruled by an extreme right-wing government, you're forced to work as a bouncer that gets paid for identifying and turning away European citizens. It's a horrific job, but one that's necessary to pay the bills and keep your British citizenship.

    Nick Summers
    03.29.2018
  • Kinodom

    'Papers, Please' official short film recreates the game's bleak tone

    The official Papers, Please short film has been a long time in coming, but it's finally here... and if you're a fan of the game's grim Soviet Bloc atmosphere, you're in for a treat. The 11-minute production includes plenty of nods to the title's nerve-wracking customs checks, such as the dread you feel when you're not quite sure you should have let someone through. It also touches on the game's underlying theme -- how do you maintain some shred of humanity in a job that's frequently heartless? Be sure to turn subtitles on, by the way, as the dialogue is appropriately Russian.

    Jon Fingas
    02.26.2018
  • Papers, Please

    Here's the first look at the 'Papers, Please' short film

    In 2013, independent game developer Lucas Pope released an indie game called Papers, Please. Set in the 1980s, the game features an immigration inspector based in a communist country who's tasked with sorting through entry documents of those looking to immigrate to the country. As you try to decide who is sincere and who might be a spy or a criminal, the job forces you to work ever faster in order to earn enough money to support your family. If you mess up and let someone bad in, you get punished.

  • Live the luxurious life of a customs agent with 'Papers, Please,' on iPad tomorrow

    There you were, enjoying your iPad for Netflix, perhaps occasionally flinging some relatively upset avians or getting cerebral with Monument Valley. Suddenly, an air raid siren. Someone in the distance shouts, "Glory to Arstotzka!" What is even happening? It's Papers, Please, the post-Soviet Bloc simulation that puts "players" in the position of an unwitting immigrations office, stuck on the border of two dangerous territories, trying to make enough money to feed and care for an ailing family. The critically-lauded game is heading to iPad tomorrow, and we're betting it'll be just as "fun" as the first time around on PC.

    Ben Gilbert
    12.11.2014