Return of the Obra Dinn Dev Hesitant to Reveal Games Because of AI

Papers, Please and Return of the Obra Dinn developer Lucas Pope is hesitant to reveal too much about the games he’s working on because he’s concerned his projects could “get slurped up by AI.”

The mind behind some of the most critically acclaimed indie titles of the last 20 years talked about his past, present, and future in game development during a conversation No More Robots co-founder Mike Rose and Vlambeer co-founder Rami Ismail on the Mike & Rami Are Still Here podcast. When speaking about his approach to the business side of his projects, Pope spoke about his desire to be open about his process – and why he may refrain from doing so.

“But I also like to talk about the stuff I’m working on, and I think, just now, the situation just feels different to me,” Pope said, “You don’t really talk about stuff when you’re working on it, because I don’t know that it’s going to get slurped up by AI or people are going to copy it, or something else like that. It’s not a hard rule. It’s just I got a feeling about that. And I just didn’t feel as comfortable talking about the stuff I was working on again. So I hope that sort of breaks, and I can feel comfortable talking about the stuff I’m working on.”

While also describing himself as a “production-focused” developer, who wants “to produce something at the end,” Pope adds that he does have some concerns about delivering additional projects that live up to the quality seen with Papers, Please and Return of the Obra Dinn. The former launched in 2013, and the latter launched in 2018, and both have gone down as two of the best games of the 2010s. Return of the Obra Dinn even managed to land at 74 on IGN’s list of the top 100 games of all time.

Pope went on to release the Playdate exclusive Mars After Midnight in 2024. Although this more bite-sized title went on to earn its own group of dedicated fans, it’s the previously mentioned two hits that he says has him careful to “push my luck too much.”

“There’s also the sense that I was pretty happy with Obra Dinn and Papers, Please, and maybe I can’t do it again?” Pope explained. “Do I really want to maybe just go out on a high note? Why drag myself down with the next thing that people may not like? I feel lucky with those two games. I can do the same things again. I can sort of focus on narrative, and gameplay, and mechanics, and stuff like that, but who knows? It could be a total miss.”

Pope has remained quiet about what’s he’s working on next, and it’s possible the concerns he shared today are behind his silence. While we wait to see what’s next, you can read our 8.7/10 review of Papers, Please, and our 9.2/10 review of Return of the Obra Dinn.

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).