Papers, Please Preview

The year is 1982 and the isolated communist nation of Arstotzka is finally allowing visitors following a long war with neighbouring Kolechia. Obviously, they won't just be letting anyone into the country; this is where you come in. Welcome to the glamourous world of border control. Glory to Arstotzka!

Sparse, pixelated graphics evoke the era in question, as the queue of detail-less silhouettes file one by one into your booth and present their documents. Dragging the documents into your workspace allows you to inspect travellers paperwork to ensure that it is legitimate and meets the government's requirements.

As your career progresses, additional aspects of your booth are made available to you. During your first day on the job, the Ministry of Admission has declared that only Arstotzkan citizens are allowed through the border; if the passport says Arstotzka, it gets an Allow stamp, otherwise Deny and send them back out into the cold.

Once the MoA decide that foreigners are to be allowed into the country, you gain the ability to flag any discrepancies, before questioning and potentially detaining any undesirable visitors. Fingerprints can be taken and body scans conducted to verify identities and check for contraband (and in some cases, genitals, when the gender on the passport doesn't appear correct).

Your payment for the day's work depends on the number of correctly processed entrants, but must be used to pay rent, whilst ensuring your family is fed and warm. It is unclear what will become of your family should they find themselves starved or ill; despite them not actually appearing in-game, we couldn't bring it upon ourselves to deliberately fail them.

Although the game is limited to your booth and the area immediately surrounding the checkpoint, the politics of the world continue to develop around you. Kolechian terrorists will attempt to use your crossing point to infiltrate the country and create trouble - some of them will be successful - whilst other unsavoury characters will also pass by your way. Pay attention to the news and what other travellers tell you; could you defy the entry restrictions to allow a wife to join her husband? Will you deny access to a gentleman with valid documents, based on the rumours of someone ahead of him in the queue?

Papers, Please has just been successfully added to Steam through the Greenlight program, so we hope to see the full game released in the near future. In the meantime, check out the demo based on a beta build on the game's official website. Cause no trouble!