LONDON, March 15 — Oddball border control simulation “Papers, Please” has passed half a million sales, adding to its March 12 win at the British Academy Video Game awards.
Developed by Lucas Pope, once a programmer at “Uncharted” studio Naughty Dog, the US$10 (RM32.80) game tasks players with staffing a newly erected passport admissions post in an unstable, fictional republic.
“You play a border inspector at a contentious check-point,” Pope told the BBC prior to the Bafta ceremony.
“People are coming into your booth, and they want to get from one side to the other. You've got to check their documents and make sure everything's in order before you let them through.”
Channelling visual and musical motifs from 80s and 90s era communist bloc countries, the genius of “Papers, Please” allows players to reflect on the sort of impossible decisions that have their roots in everyday life the world over.
“I had no idea it would get as popular as it did. It wasn't a game that I was making in order for it to be popular.”
British satirist Charlie Brooker even managed to convince Channel 4 news anchor Jon Snow that it was the video game for people who didn't like games.
“The interesting thing about the game is that you don't start out as a corrupt Eastern European border official,” said Brooker at the time. “You have a family to feed... you become corrupted, you end up having to cut corners. That's an experience that a game can communicate that many other mediums can't.”
Wednesday's Bafta award ceremony saw “Papers, Please” awarded Best in Strategy & Simulation. The indie title then rubbed shoulders with several multi-million dollar productions in the Best Game category, eventually won by Naughty Dog's PlayStation 3 hit “The Last of Us.”
Available as a download for Windows, Mac, and Linux PCs, the game is also in the running for the Nuovo Award for innovation and the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at the prestigious Independent Games Festival ceremony on March 19th. — AFP-Relaxnews
