Sounds and music

Papers, Please has a total of 84 sound effects that comprise of sounds made by different items in the booth as well as ambient noise and characters’ speech. The game's soundtrack consists of three songs, The Arstotzkan anthem, the victory theme, and the death theme.

Music

Arstotzkan anthem

Papers, Please - Main Theme

Featured in the main menu and the official trailer, the Arstotzkan anthem was made on a Yamaha MOX6 synthesizer and was published on YouTube on January 14, 2013. The sheet music was published by Lucas Pope on Twitter. (See renderings of the published pages: 1, 2, 3, and 4). In the official Spotify release of the song, it is simply named "Glory to Arstotzka."

The song starts with a slow march rhythm made by bass saxhorns to represent the really slow flow of entrants in line and how they are tired and depressed because of the last 6 years of war. The anthem goes faster and faster with keyboards, pizzicato strings, and synth metallic voice that says "Where Am I?" from a Yamaha MOX. In the end, we have an explosion of all the instruments with the addition of military band ones, such as drums and trumpets to transmit the feelings of tension, the terrorist attacks and the apparent calm that turns into an uncontrollable rage against Arstotzka.

Victory theme

Papers Please - Victory Theme

The victory theme is a light-hearted song that plays during the cutscenes of endings 18 to 20. As the good endings are rare and difficult to earn, unlike the Death theme, there is no semblance of any darker undertones in the track, as the Inspector has brought peace in the uncommon, good endings. In the official Spotify release of the song, it is named "Under a Fresh Flag," likely in reference to endings 18 and 19.

Death theme

Papers Please - Death Theme

The death theme that plays during the cutscenes of endings 1 to 17. It starts out getting louder, like a song on a radio. The song is surprisingly upbeat at first but still sounds like a song that would be played on state broadcast radio. It then gets lower to emphasize the sad fate of the inspector. The song then returns to its upbeat form before the end. Despite its rather energetic nature, the track maintains the eerie feeling of a grave mistake throughout. In the official Spotify release of the song, it is named "Goodbye, Inspector."

Location

All music can be found as .ogg files in the game directory. In the Steam version, default paths are:

• Windows: Program Files (x86)/Steam/Steamapps/Common/Papersplease/assets/music
• MacOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Steam/SteamApps/common/PapersPlease.app/Contents/Resources/assets/music
• Linux: ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/PapersPlease/assets/music

Sound effects

Most of the effects are based on open-source sounds from freesound.org and soundsnap.com. All sound effects can be found as .wav files in the game directory. In the Steam version, default paths are:

• Windows: Program Files (x86)/Steam/Steamapps/Common/Papersplease/assets/sounds
• MacOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Steam/SteamApps/common/PapersPlease.app/Contents/Resources/assets/sound
• Linux: ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/PapersPlease/assets/sound

Speech

Entrants' voice reproduced using the command say in Terminal on OS X 10.9 Mavericks.

The voices for characters were done with the OS X (now macOS) command line tool say, a built-in speech synthesis manager that converts text to audible speech. The resulting voices were then edited in Audacity and GarageBand.

The strings listed below were used. Before macOS Sierra, all sounds could be reproduced on OS X by typing commands listed under each entry into Terminal:

• inspector: ehua?
  say [[pbas 45]]ehua?[[slnc 500]]
• entrant: ihe
  say [[rate 200]][[pbas 50]]ihe[[slnc 500]]
• guards: gish-tot
  say [[pbas 40]]gish[[rate 300]][[pbas 50]]tot[[slnc 1000]]
• suicide bomber: lekrafezuh!
  say [[pbas 70]]lekrafezuh! [[slnc 1000]]

Booth effects

• Typewriter sound when text appears – there are four effects for this, all from the same source
• Entrants enter and exit – both effects are edited from the same source
• Entrant breathes in and out – both effects are edited from the same source
• A fog horn signaling that the day is done – source
• Clock reaching the end of the day (usually 6pm) – edited from two sound clips: source 1, source 2
• Arriving to the booth at the beginning of the day – edited from two sound clips: source 1, source 2
• Poison is applied – source

Buttons and stamps

• A button (fingerprint, detain, etc.) becomes available – source
• Pushing and releasing a button – source
• Opening and closing the shutter – source
• Opening and closing the stamp bar – edited from two sound clips: source 1, source 2
• Pushing down and releasing a stamp – source
• After the detain button has been pushed – edited from two sound clips: source 1, source 2

Document handling

• Dragging a document – there are three effects for this, all edited from two sound clips: source 1, source 2
• Releasing a document – there are three effects for this, all edited from two sound clips: source 1 (same as source 2 above), source 2
• Turning a page – there are three effects for this, all edited from the same source
• Turning a page (metallic effect) – source
• Dragging, dropping, and releasing a metallic item (keys, tokens) – there are seven effects for these, all edited from the same source
• Paper being stamped – edited from three sound clips: source 1, source 2, source 3

Printer sounds (fingerprints, citations)

• Printer taking in a paper – source
• Paper printing out – source
• Page torn from the printer – source
• Photo printing out – source

Inspection mode

• Inspection mode is activated – edited from three sound clips: source 1, source 2, source 3
• Inspection mode is deactivated – edited from two sound clips: source 1, source 2
• Highlighting an item – source
• Unhighlighting an item – source
• The inspection mode looks for (and finds) a match – both effects are edited from three sound clips: source 1, source 2, source 3

Search

• Clothes shuffling – source
• Curtain – source
• Camera flashing – source (YouTube)

Confiscation

• Confiscation drawer opens and closes – both effects are edited from the same source

Terrorism

• Explosion – edited from four sound clips: source 1, source 2, source 3, source 4 (ringing ears after an explosion)
• Grenade – edited from two sound clips: source 1, source 2
• Alarm sounds when a scripted attack is underway – source
• People panic during an incident – source

Weapons

• NPCs fire weapons – there are three different shot sounds, all sourced from the same sound clip
• The inspector inserts a key and unlocks a weapon – both sounds edited from the same source
• The inspector cocks a weapon – source
• The inspector fires the sniper rifle – source
• The inspector fires the tranquilizer rifle – edited from two sound clips: source 1, source 2

• An entrant is hit – edited from six different sound clips: source 1, source 2, source 3, source 4, source 5, source 6

The bomb on day 15

• Cutting the wires – source
• The bomb beeping – source
• Dragging and releasing the bomb – source 1, source 2

Vehicles

• A car driving by – source
• Car horn when the M.O.A. regional authority pays a visit – source
• The EZIC truck arriving on day 31 – edited from five sound clips: source 1, source 2, source 3, source 4, source 5
• Motorbike revving – source

Ambience

• General checkpoint ambience when walking to work – edited from three sound clips: source 1, source 2, source 3

• General booth ambience – source