Papers, Please creator Lucas Pope says 'it's a tragedy' his 2013 immigration sim now feels so on-the-nose: 'You want your work to be relevant, but at the same time, wow, I really wish it was not that f***ing relevant'

Papers, Please, first released in 2013, was among the vanguard of indie games that felt like they had something to say, turning the simple act of processing paperwork into a pointed commentary on the political brutality of immigration. It was set in a fictional Soviet-esque country in 1982, which creator Lucas Pope used to amplify the painful decisionmaking of who to allow across the border—defy your authoritarian leaders and your family would go hungry; enforce the letter of the law, and you were turning away refugees who were pinning their hopes on a new life on your understanding and grace.

Papers, Please may have represented a specific point in time, but it is the game on my mind at this moment in time, as the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has held a Canadian traveler in a cement cell for days and "violently interrogated" a German man who has his American green card, while also deporting people en masse without due process.

"That's the wildest thing: When I made it, I felt like 'the relevancy of this is dropping. It was an issue, but things are going to get better from here,'" Pope said in an interview with PC Gamer at the Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco on Wednesday. "It blows my mind that it's only becoming more and more relevant over time. Honestly, it's a tragedy."

Even outside the current political environment in the United States, Papers, Please has seemingly grown only more prescient in recent years, as a backlash against migrants in Europe and elsewhere in the world has informed much of the last decade.

"You want your work to be relevant, but at the same time, wow, I really wish it was not that fucking relevant," Pope said. In 2023, he released a 10th anniversary update for Papers, Please while also donating $100,000 to the International Rescue Committee to "help those affected by conflict and disaster." Two years later, the game is still on its unfortunate upwards trajectory in terms of in-the-moment relevancy.

"How can it be so on the nose when it's the 10-year anniversary? But that's how it is," Pope said. At GDC, he was the recipient of this year's Pioneer Award for "experimenting with the interactions of mechanics, narrative, and art."