"papers, please" was developed by lucas pope, a former developer for naughty dog on the "uncharted" series. pope opted to leave naughty dog around 2010, after "" was released, to move to saitama, japan, along with his wife keiko, a game designer herself. part of this move was to be closer to her family, but pope also had been developing smaller games along with keiko during his time at naughty dog, and wanted to move away from "the definite formula" of the "uncharted" series toward developing more exploratory ideas for his own games. the two worked on a few independent game titles while there, and they briefly relocated to singapore to help another friend with their game. from his travels in asia and some return trips to the united states, he became interested in the work of immigration and passport inspectors: "they have a specific thing they’re doing and they’re just doing it over and over again." he recognized the passport checking experience, which he considered "tense", could be made into a fun game.