2013 was a busy year for the gaming industry. Naughty Dog's The Last of Us exploded onto the scene, gamers experienced the first of many editions of Grand Theft Auto 5, and BioShock Infinite brought fans of the series to a city in the clouds. Not to mention, the eighth generation of consoles launched elevating the age-old "console wars." Hidden among the Triple-A titles, Lucas Pope's indie game, Papers, Please made a name for itself for being more than meets the eye, and after years of being only on PC and PlayStation Vita, the game will be making its mobile debut very soon.Set in the fictional country of Arstotzka in the year 1982, players are put in the role of a border checkpoint clerk. The task is to simply inspect the documents of immigrants looking to enter Arstotzka and, despite the initial "simplicity" of the job, the difficulty gradually ramps up as players are given tools to determine if the immigrants are more than they appear to be. Eventually players are faced with the issue of morality and, with over 20 different endings and an endless mode, it kept gamers hooked for quite some time. There's a lot more than meets the eye in the bizarre role Papers, Please put its players in. Lucas Pope announced on his personal Twitter account that Papers, Please will be heading to mobile on August 5. He jokingly adds that a console port is on track for a 2031 release. Given the game's track record of being on PC since 2013 and the now hard to come by PlayStation Vita since 2017, Pope has a track record for taking his time with the game. Most likely due to his time directing the Paper, Please short film based off of the game.
The announcement of the upcoming mobile port almost coincides with the game's first release back on August 8, 2013 for Windows and Mac. Given the relative simplicity of the controls, a mobile port seems like a perfect situation for the game. Pope spent some time elaborating in the replies that the mobile port will have the same language options as the PC version and that it will be a paid app.
Papers, Please was a monumental success as it eventually went on to grab two awards at the 2014 Game Developers Choice Awards for Innovation and another for Best Downloadable Game. With the mobile port set to arrive in a little under two weeks, a whole new wave of gamers will get to experience one of 2013's best indie titles.
Papers, Please is available now on Mac, PC, and the PlayStation Vita while the Mobile version is set to launch August 5.