If you wish there are more games that centers around the mundane-yet-fascinating gameplay of being a government officer working at the frontdesk, say no more.
There’s more than just Papers, Please to please you who specifically want to play paperwork. We have Papers, Please at home. And it looks fantastic.
Revealed during the Toge Productions 16th Anniversary Direct, Compensation Not Guaranteed is a “document-checking” game developed by Singapore-based Team Project Lunch. Set in a fictional world where all kinds of anthropomorphic characters live, you’ll be working on the desk, checking documents so that you can meet your quota, and do your part for the greater nation.
Specifically, under the Ministry of Urban Development, you have to convince people to give up their land to the government so they can use them for further development of this growing nation. And that’s where the title comes from: compensation for giving up your land rights is not guaranteed. That’s in your hands to decide.
If Papers, Please gives off the oppressing vibe of a fictional Eastern European nation, Compensation Not Included is unapologetically brings a 1970s Singapore vibe: the early days where the island state was recently separated from a bigger nation only to rapidly develop and eclipses said bigger nation in many fronts. From the jingoistic presentation of the trailer that evoke the movies of the time to that very recognisable English accent the narrator has. As in, it has that unmistakably Southeast Asian sound to it.
And the animal citizens have familiar naming schemes and are dressed in very familiar outfits from the many cultures that makes up Singapore’s demographic, which in many ways should be familiar to folks in Malaysia as well. Shout out to Uncle Khillal rocking that songkok and Baju Melayu at a government’s office.
The document-checking gameplay does have familiar mechanics, so you’ll have to get the lay of the land of not-Singapore’s land laws and the many bureaucracy that entails if you want to do a good job.
Toge Productions will be publishing Compensation Not Guaranteed. The game has no release date yet, but it’s coming to PC (Steam).