Dreadwoods Gatekeeper is a 3D Papers Please-style game where you run a gate in a cursed forest

Raw Take Games has announced Dreadwoods Gatekeeper, a Papers Please-inspired game that puts you in charge of a remote outpost gate in the ominous Dreadwoods region. Unlike most games in the genre, it goes fully 3D rather than sticking to the flat 2D look that Papers Please and most of its imitators use.

As the gatekeeper, you spend your days checking travel permits, spotting forged stamps, and deciding whether to turn travellers away or bend the rules — with consequences either way. The setting leans into something darker than a typical bureaucratic sim: the Dreadwoods is a region where things are clearly not right, and the job description apparently extends beyond paperwork to dealing with whatever unknown horrors show up alongside the regular foot traffic and stray chickens.

Papers Please, the 2013 indie classic from Lucas Pope, essentially created the document-checking sim genre — you play an immigration officer in a fictional Soviet-style state, stamping passports and navigating moral dilemmas under pressure. Dreadwoods Gatekeeper takes that core loop of scrutinising paperwork and gatekeeping access, then transplants it into a lonely, atmospheric 3D outpost with a horror undercurrent. The 3D presentation is a genuine departure for the genre and gives it a distinct visual identity.

No release date has been announced yet, but a gameplay trailer is out now. If you like the idea of bureaucratic dread with actual dread mixed in, this one is worth keeping an eye on.