Lucas Pope won't reveal new projects, fears AI will 'slurp up' his creative work

Return of the Obra Dinn developer Lucas Pope doesn't feel comfortable talking about new projects because maybe they'll be "slurped up by AI"

Papers, Please and Return of the Obra Dinn are two of the most celebrated indie games around, even to this day, and Lucas Pope, the developer behind them, isn't stopping any time soon, but he's hesitant about revealing anything too early. This is what he commented on and explained during a conversation on Mike & Rami Are Still Here (hat tip to IGN), the podcast run by No More Robots co-founder Mike Rose and Vlambeer co-founder Rami Ismail. While he was happy to discuss the business, he said being open about his creative plans isn't something he's "comfortable" with, at least not at this stage. "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... 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," he explained, also adding he hopes "that sort of breaks" so he can relax a bit. It's a surprising stance coming from an indie developer, but considering how successful the two aforementioned games have been, I'd guess he's got the freedom to choose to do that. If you haven't been keeping track of his full career, he's also made browser games like The Sea Has No Claim or Unsolicited. More recently, he also released Mars After Midnight for the Playdate console. Additionally, Pope believes he's been "pushing his luck" by finding success with Papers, Please and then Obra Dinn. "Do I really want to maybe just go out on a high note?" He said. "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." At the time of writing, we don't know anything about Pope's next game, and by the sound of things, we might not learn anything until it's close to completion.

Return of the Obra Dinn and Papers, Please Creator Doesn't Share What He's Working on Fearing It Will "Get Slurped Up by AI"

Return of the Obra Dinn and Paper, Please are two incredibly iconic indie games, both critically acclaimed, and both of them come from the same creator, Lucas Pope. He's worked on several other titles since, either in small ways, resulting in a 'Special Thanks' on titles like Twelve Minutes, or his recent work as a designer on a Playdate game, Mars After Midnight. He is currently working on something, but it's doubtful he'll share what it is before it's ready to release because he fears it will "get slurped up by AI" in our new Generative AI (GenAI) world. This comes from Pope's recent appearance on a podcast (via VGC) hosted by fellow indie developers, Mike Rose and Rami Ismail, where the three talk about Pope's games, how he works, and the current state of the video game industry across a number of topics. On the topic of AI/GenAI, Pope first explains why those tools are not for him with an answer that is fairly typical for anyone who has made creating things their bread and butter. "People talk about using AI for programming or art or something like that," Pope begins. "And that's the kind of thing where it would probably make things faster for me, but that's not what I'm interested in. I'm not interested just in the end product. I want to enjoy working on it. And, a lot of times, I don't even know what I would tell someone else to do." "AI is kind of like you had a bunch of people working for you, basically, and I work alone, so I'm already not set up to be telling other people what to do. And a lot of times, I don't even know what I'm doing, and it takes the programming, and the design and the art, and all that stuff kind of mixed together to get me to where I need to be. So if someone else is doing it, I lose all that context. I lose that sort of ingredients in this stew to actually come up with something." Again, it's not surprising and fairly typical to see someone who likes to make things isn't a fan of pressing the 'make something for me' button that is GenAI. It's later on in the podcast that Pope gets into his concerns about the tech, and why he's reluctant, to say the least, about sharing his work online. "I have this kind of curse that I really want to finish things, actually. I'm very production-focused in the sense that I want the production to work. I want it to be efficient, I want to finish it. I want to actually produce something at the end," Pope says. "But I also like to talk about the stuff I'm working on, and I think now the situation just feels different to me that you don't really talk about stuff when you're working on it, because I don't know it's going to get slurped up by AI or people are going to copy it or something else like that. And it's not a hard rule, it's just got the kind of feeling about that and I just didn't feel like I'm as comfortable talking about the stuff I was working on again." Pope also shared that part of his reluctance towards releasing anything new comes from fears that he won't be able to top what he's already accomplished with Return of the Obra Dinn and Papers, Please. He shares how the success of those games has allowed him to live and work in Japan, on his own, just creating things that he wants to create, as he is still "100% obsessed" with making games and spending his time doing that. That's what makes it unfortunate, to say the least, to learn that Pope is uncomfortable sharing his work, but his fears aren't exactly unfounded. It's well-documented that popular GenAI tools and LLMs were trained on data that is essentially just ripped from other people's work online. In GDC's State of the Game Industry 2026 report, on the topic of GenAI, one of the respondents who is made to use these tools at their job made the rock-and-a-hard-place issue quite clear, saying, "AI is theft, I have to use it, otherwise I'll get fired." And while it's easy to see that and say, 'find another job then,' but that's far easier said than done, and not exactly an option for anyone lucky enough to be employed in today's video game industry.

Return of the Obra Dinn Dev Lucas Pope Hesitant to Discuss New Projects Because It Could 'Get Slurped Up by 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.