Billed as “passport control in your pocket,” LCD, Please is Lucas and Keiko Pope’s 10th anniversary demake of the indie classic, Papers, Please.
Papers, Please celebrated its 10th anniversary on 8 August, and the game’s developer Lucas Pope and his wife Keiko have marked the occasion with an ingenious demake (thanks, Rock Paper Shotgun).
Modelled after Nintendo’s 1980s Game & Watch handhelds, LCD, Please distils Pope’s dystopian border control simulator down to its raw essentials. Potential entrants to your fictional country trudge up to your booth, stating their name and nationality. It’s then up to you to inspect their passport, determine whether their face and info matches what’s in that document, and approve or deny their entry accordingly.
You’ll score a point for accurately spotting entrants with dodgy documentation, but will also get slapped with a penalty if you make a mistake. A hard mode adds to the tension, with banned countries and wanted posters to consider.
It’s a neat little experience, and full of authentic touches, like the marbled effect on the cheap faux LCD screen and the faces made from a matrix of pre-drawn liquid crystal elements. It’s an unexpected yet welcome tribute to Pope’s 2013 gem, which captures the dehumanising effect of bureaucracy in timeless (and award-winning) fashion.
Earlier this week, Alan Wen wrote about the game’s lasting impact, and also the part it played in setting him on the course to becoming a games journalist.
If you haven’t played Papers, Please yet for some reason, Steam currently has it on sale with 80 percent off the usual price, meaning you can get your hands on one of the most thought-provoking indie games ever made for a criminally cheap £1.39.
Meanwhile, LCD, Please is available to play in your browser for free over on itch.io.
Read more: Papers, Please at 10, and how it inspired one writer to get back into gaming
