It’s been eight years since Lucas Pope’s last full-length game, Return of the Obra Dinn. Now he is still working on new projects, but he has become reluctant to disclose details to the outside world. The reason is straightforward: in the era of generative AI and algorithms, any public description may be sucked into the chatbot’s data quagmire, or used by others to assemble new similar works.
He admitted that he used to love talking about development, but now the situation is different!
Lucas Pope said it very clearly in the podcast “Mike and Rami Are Still Here”: He is originally the kind of character who wants to wrap things up and is used to sharing what he is doing; but now he feels uncomfortable whenever he talks about ongoing content, because what you say may be captured by AI, or directly copied by others, or even become some kind of worse competitor.
Not a hard and fast rule, but his self-protection of his works
He also added that this was not an ironclad rule that was absolutely forbidden, but he no longer had the comfort level that he had before when it was safe to talk about creation. Especially now that there are a large number of works on the market that clearly use generative AI assets to be quickly assembled. When the entire industry becomes easier to mass-produce, authors like him who win by relying on concepts, rhythm, and system details will naturally care more about every idea they throw out.
After making two masterpieces, he is also fighting with his own shadow.
He admitted that he would also think: “I am very satisfied with “Obra Dinn” and “Papers, Please”, but what if the next one cannot reach that level?” He even came up with a very realistic idea, maybe just stop at the high point. Why drag himself down and make a next one that may not be liked by everyone?
But he still gave a little hint: Will the new work be like the first two?
The only clue he dropped was that what was being done wasn’t going to be like Obra Dinn or Papers, Please. He said that he knew that he could still repeat the ability to repeat those narratives, gameplay, and mechanics, but no one knew whether the new game would completely fail; so he didn’t want to bet too much on his luck.