Lucas Pope, the independent developer responsible for Papers, Please and Return of the Obra Dinn, has adopted a policy of total silence on his current projects. Speaking on the Mike & Rami Are Still Here podcast, he explained his caution stems from fears of intellectual property theft in an era of unchecked AI data scraping.

"You don't really talk about stuff when you're working on it, because I don't know that it's going to get slurped up by AI or people are going to copy it, or something else like that," Pope stated plainly. It's a departure from his past openness, such as detailed devlogs during Obra Dinn's creation, and reflects a broader chill on indie creators who once shared freely online.

Pope, fresh off Mars After Midnight for the Playdate console, even weighs retiring: "Do I really want to maybe just go out on a high note?" His concerns highlight the lack of safeguards against AI firms treating public dev talk as a free training buffet.

The story spread rapidly, with IGN and VGC posts on X drawing significant engagement from the gaming community. A r/pcgaming thread echoes player support for Pope's stance amid rising AI anxieties. Without legal protections, expect more talents to vanish into the workshop shadows.