u/Affro_riffo

I’m about to start developing an indie game very soon, and I quickly realized that to ensure the launch, I need to start talking about my game early on and try to build a community, even if it’s small.

I have a pretty clear idea of my development plan, but the whole communication/marketing aspect is a bit of a mystery to me.

In your opinion, what’s the bare minimum needed to start promoting your game, and through which channels? Should I already create a discord, Reddit or instagram page knowing that currently I only have some GD elements or very rough elements to share?

What do you think?

Papers, Please is now 13 years old. Many games have imitated it, but few have matched its quality. Can this formula really be reinvented without falling short in comparison? Which games have given you the same experience while still maintaining their own unique character?

Papers, Please is now 13 years old. Many games have imitated it, but few have matched its quality. Can this formula really be reinvented without falling short in comparison? Which games have given you the same experience while still maintaining their own unique character?

Papers Please is 13 years old now. A lot of games have tried to do something similar, and most of them suffer from the comparison. I've been thinking about why that is, because I want to make a game in this style myself and I keep running into the same challenge: is there actually room to do something new here, or will anything I make just feel like a worse version of the original?

What makes it so hard to replicate, I think, is that the mechanic and the message are completely fused. The repetition isn't padding, it's the point. Most games that copied the formula took the document-checking loop but lost that underlying tension, and without it the whole thing just feels like busywork.

That said, I don't think the formula is exhausted. I think it's barely been explored. One thing I'd like to see someone try is messing with the power dynamic. In Papers Please you're almost powerless: you can ruin individual lives but you can't change anything. What happens when the player has real leverage over the system instead of just executing it?

Anyway, that's what I'm trying to figure out before I start building anything. I'd rather spend more time on the concept than make something that's obviously derivative.

Curious if anyone else has thought about this or played something that felt like it actually moved the genre forward. Do you have any recommendations for games like this?

Papers Please is now 13 years old. Many games have imitated it, but few have ever matched its quality. Can this formula really be renewed without suffering from the comparison? Which games have made you experience the same feeling while still having their own uniqueness?