Dev Game Club

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on indie games, by looking at Papers, Please. We talk a bit about Lucas Pope, its creator, and then turn to the game's mechanics and themes. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: One or two playthroughs Issues covered: tactile job simulation games, empathy and commentary, tactility and user interfaces, how it plays, the mechanics post-day, plate-spinning, all the various things you have to check, a nerve-wracking experience, stamping passports, turning the screws, paying vs not paying for things, stereotypical regimes, indie games coming up with new interesting mechanics and AAA borrowing them, justifying denial of entry, having your options limited by bureaucracy, ways that days can end, the timer pressure, dehumanizing the process, describing the board game Train, opportunities for subversion, coins, being recruited for espionage, a precedent for weapon p