Using only a mouse, players examine sets of papers presented by immigrants in search of discrepancies between the documents and the immigration rules set out by the Arstotzkan government. Balancing border security with the needs of the family is uniquely human, creating a juxtaposition that is new and interesting. On a second layer, the player must simultaneously provide for their family using the salary earned from the job, which pays based on how many people have been processed through in a day. Papers, Please is a single-player “Dystopian Document Thriller” in which the player steps into the role of an immigration inspector in the fictional country of Arstotzka in the year 1982. As the player stands on the threshold between two different countries, a unique perspective of immigration and border security springs out of the mundane task of inspecting papers.
