Mars After Midnight, a new game from Papers Please dev Lucas Pope, releases today but there’s a catch

Lucas Pope is the creator and developer of Papers, Please, and Obra Dinn. With these titles, he’s become a much-loved developer in the world of Indie games, but his latest release, Mars After Midnight, comes with a huge catch. 

After the success of Papers, Please and Obra Dinn, you’d expect Pope’s latest title to be available on the same platforms but unfortunately, Mars After Midnight is only available on one platform – the Playdate. 

Mars After Midnight

Mars After Midnight is, according to the official website, “an entry-screening, mess-tidying, session-planning, martian-filled game” that will see you faced with many Martians at an off-colony community support center. 

In his DevLog, Pope has detailed the process which began back in 2021. In the first DevLog, he described the game as “Papers Please -lite, with no border checkpoint, no desk, no paperwork, on Mars”. More recently, Pope revealed that the gameplay would involve planning each day, including what’s on offer for the Martians and which free refreshments will be on offer.

What we do know is that the crank on the side of the Playdate will be used to open a shutter window in order to see who is knocking on the other side, while the d-pad will be used to move the field of vision in the first person viewpoint of the game. 
Mars After Midnight will be available at some point today, purchased through the Playdate catalog. It is priced at $6.