Papers, Please Creator Says AI Makes Him Nervous to Announce New Projects
It’s been a while since we heard anything major from Papers, Please and Return of the Obra Dinn creator Lucas Pope, and there could be a good reason for that: fear of generative AI and its tendency to steal ideas.
In a new episode of podcast Mike & Rami Are Still Here, hosted by indie veterans Mike Rose (of No More Robots) and Rami Ismail (formerly of Vlambeer), Pope says that while he enjoys discussing projects he’s working on, “the situation just feels different” in the modern industry.
Pope goes on to say that he feels uncomfortable announcing or talking about his upcoming games because ideas and concepts are “getting slurped up by AI or people are gonna copy it, or something else like that”.
Papers, Please creator Lucas Pope is concerned his ideas will be stolen by AI.
According to Pope, reticence to discuss his projects in the light of generative AI’s tendency to borrow what it hears or sees is “not a hard rule”, and he hopes he’ll be able to do so again soon. For the near future, though, it sounds like Pope will be playing his cards close to his chest.
Generative AI isn’t the only reason Pope is reluctant to reveal his next projects. He also says that he was “pretty happy with Obra Dinn and Papers, Please“, and that he sometimes thinks he just wants to “go out on a high note”. He acknowledges that his next project could be a “total miss” and says he doesn’t want to “push [his] luck too much”.
I can only speak for myself, but I hope Lucas Pope manages to find a way to continue working on games and discussing them in the public eye. I’m a huge Papers, Please and Obra Dinn fan, and I don’t think it’s fair for Pope to hold himself to those standards constantly, let alone others.
In any case, here’s hoping that Lucas Pope’s next project (other than his admittedly fun but somewhat insubstantial browser-based diversions) gets an announcement soon. In the meantime, maybe take this time to catch up on Papers, Please and Return of the Obra Dinn if you haven’t already.
