Papers, Please

The Papers, Please short film is out now on YouTube (and Steam shortly). Have a gander at the 10-minute flick below.

Over four years after it came out on PC, superb dystopian document thriller Papers, Please launches on, wait for it... the Vita.

Lucas Pope turned down Uncharted 3. He found a seat at Naughty Dog during the development of the first Uncharted and stuck around for Uncharted 2, but when Drake's third outing rocked up, he left the studio because he wanted to experiment with smaller, weirder games. Those experiments would eventually lead to Papers, Please, one of the finest games of 2013 and, to most people, Pope's first name. His last name is guy.

Back in August I reported on the teaser trailer for the promising-looking short film based on Papers, Please. Now, the people behind the project have released its first full trailer, and it looks awesome.

The short film is directed by up-and-coming Russian movie maker Nikita Ordynskiy, who told Eurogamer the Papers, Please project is a totally independent film, with no support from a studio. "This is a indie film based on a indie game," Ordynskiy said.

The Papers, Please short film does, however, have the full support of the game's creator, Lucas Pope, who Ordynskiy said has been involved with everything from the script to production.

Read more

Papers, Please was one of my favourite games of 2013, so I was intrigued to hear news of an official short film based on it. After watching the teaser, I'm pumped!

I was halfway through a piece on poetic game mechanics as allegory, but then Trump won the US election, and I just didn't have the heart. So you're excused that until next month, at which point I'll probably do, like, a Christmas Pumpkin Spice column anyway.

Eurogamer owner Gamer Network has launched crowdfunded collector's editions of cult video games.

Gamer's Editions are premium collector's editions of previously digital releases, produced with their developers and special edition specialist Idea Planet.

Two Gamer's Editions have been announced: one for a Hotline Miami and Hotline Miami 2 double-pack, and another for Lucas Pope's dystopian document game Papers, Please. They will be made to order in one-off production runs fuelled by a crowdfunded pre-order system. Production begins only when there are enough orders to cover manufacturing costs.

Read more

Video games are powerful things, capable of making us feel a whole range of emotions. Happy is one such emotion, as is all-consuming self-loathing. That's a good one too.

UPDATE 12/12/2014 10.06pm: Apple has claimed its rejection of Papers, Please's lo-fi nudity on the grounds of it being "pornographic content" was an error, and the original uncensored version will be reinstated.

Excellent indie game Papers, Please will be released for iPad on 12th December, creator Lucas Pope revealed via Twitter today.

[Editor's Note: We originally reported that Papers, Please was coming to PS4 in addition to Vita. The game's developer, Lucas Pope, since clarified on Twitter that this isn't the case and that "Sony's announcement was a little confusing." We apologise for the error.]

BAFTA game nominees and winners are discounted on Steam at the moment.

It's that time of year again: The British Academy Games Awards (BAFTA) nominees have been announced. The biggest surprise is that BioShock Infinite - its triumphant arrival being one of the gaming events of the year, if not the generation - is not nominated for Best Game. Fighting it out for that honour are Tearaway, Assassin's Creed 4, Grand Theft Auto 5, The Last of Us, Super Mario 3D World and Papers, Please.

They're not the only indie games you should care about but they're some of the best: finalists for this year's Independent Games Festival - the Oscars of the indie world - have been announced.

The main event, the Seumas McNally Grand Prize, will be contested by The Stanley Parable (Galactic Cafe); Papers, Please (Lucas Pope); Don't Starve (Klei); Device 6 (Simogo); Jazzpunk (Necrophone); and Dominique Pamplemousse in "It's All Over Once the Fat Lady Sings!" (Deirdra Kiai Productions).

The Stanley Parable and Papers, Please finished as two of Eurogamer's Games of 2013.

Read more

Steam has launched its winter sale - and there are some eye-catching bargains to be had.

Even if Lucas Pope had had one million dollars to develop Papers, Please, even if he'd had an army of engineers, animators and producers at his disposal, even if he'd had all the time in the world, he wouldn't have produced a better Papers, Please than the one he did all by himself.

Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow hasn't played a video game before. That much is clear.

You might have read Dan's Papers, Please review and be curious, or you may just want to end your week on a bleak note - either way, we've got you covered.

"Fun" is a weird and troublesome thing. Almost impossible to define, it's a lightweight term that lacks any real heft, yet it's come to be one of the most commonly used criteria for deciding if a game is any good. Is it interesting? Thought-provoking? Never mind all that: is it fun?

You couldn't really describe Papers, Please, a "dystopian document thriller" from indie developer Lucas Pope, as fun. It's compelling, challenging and genuinely unnerving. It's a game that leaves a scar, forcing you to confront your own capacity for evil, without the comforting framing device of role-play and morality meters. It's not a game you'll fire up for a 10-minute distraction, but it is a game you should play if you have any interest in how games can explore more than just bombastic wish fulfilment.

What we have here is the literal opposite of the usual power fantasy. You don't play as anyone special, just a downtrodden citizen of the ominous Soviet-styled nation of Arstotzka in the dying months of 1982. Assigned by a labour lottery to work for the Ministry of Admission, you spend your day stuck in a dank booth at a border checkpoint, responsible for deciding who gets to enter the country and who gets turned away - or worse.

Read more

Papers, Please, a dystopian adventure game/survival sim about immigration, is due for release next week on PC and Mac on Steam, GoG, and the Humble Store for £6.99 / $10.

The game casts you as an immigration agent in charge of checking people's passports and examining them for flaws. You're under pressure to pass judgment on as many civilians as possible within a time limit before your shift ends. At this point it will say how much money you made, how much of it went to your rent and family for living expenses, and the condition of each family member. After only a couple of days in-game with the beta, my family was all cold and hungry, except for my son who was cold, hungry and sick.

The full game will be set over the course of 31 days with 20 different endings. There will also be three variants of Endless Mode: Timed, Endurance and Perfection. Developer Lucas Pope noted that he'd like to make a Linux version and might bring the game to tablets, but nothing's been confirmed there.

Read more