Lucas Pope, the indie developer behind Papers, Please and Return of the Obra Dinn, has gone quiet on work-in-progress updates. His reason? Fears that shared content will be 'slurped up by AI' or outright copied. In a recent podcast appearance, Pope explained: '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.' This shift marks a departure from his past practice of detailed devlogs that built anticipation for his releases.

Pope's caution extends to his current project—a successor to Obra Dinn—kept under strict wraps. He prioritizes 'production-focused' work to ensure completion, avoiding the public eye until ready. Past successes like Papers, Please, which chronicled its development openly from 2012 to 2014, contrast sharply with today's silence. The interview with Mike Rose and Rami Ismail on their podcast underscores a broader indie unease: high expectations after hits make follow-ups risky, compounded by AI's data hunger.

X and Reddit light up with agreement. Posts from @IGN and @Knoebelbroet echo the story, while r/pcgaming and r/Games threads lament the loss of devlog culture. Users note it stifles pre-launch hype and surprise reveals, with one calling it a 'sad reality for game creators.' Pope hopes the 'feeling' passes, but for now, the receipts confirm AI's chilling effect on transparency.

Indie devs once thrived on community feedback loops; now, those loops risk exploitation. Pope's retreat isn't paranoia—it's rational self-preservation in an ecosystem where creativity feeds the machines.