Papers, Please vs Tiny Space Program
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Papers, Please
Step into the shoes of a border inspector in a dystopian communist state. Examine documents, interrogate travelers, and decide who is allowed to enter. Your choices impact your family's survival and the fate of the nation.
- Dystopian border inspector simulation
- Document examination and verification
- Interrogation and decision-making
- Multiple endings based on choices
- Unlockable multitouch support
- Game Center achievements and leaderboards
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A dystopian document thriller. The award-winning, critically-acclaimed border inspector game. ______________________________________ "Congratulations." "The October labor lottery is complete. Your name was pulled." "For immediate placement, report to the Ministry of Admission at Grestin Border Checkpoint." "An apartment will be provided for you and your family in East Grestin. Expect a Class-8 dwelling." "Glory to Arstotzka." ______________________________________ Awards ◉ Best Game of 2013 - The New Yorker ◉ Best Game of 2013 - Wired Magazine ◉ Top Indie Game 2013 - Forbes Magazine ◉ Best Strategy & Simulation Game 2014 - BAFTA ◉ Grand Prize Winner 2014 - Independent Games Festival ◉ Excellence in Design Winner - IGF 2014 ◉ Excellence in Narrative Winner - IGF 2014 ◉ GameCity Prize Winner 2014 - GameCity ◉ Cultural Innovation Award 2013 - SXSW ◉ Best PC Game 2014 - LARA Game Awards ◉ Innovation Award - GDCA 2014 ◉ Most Innovative 2014 - Games For Change ◉ Best Gameplay 2014 - Games For Change ◉ Best Game of 2013 - Ars Technica ◉ Best Game of 2013 - PC World ◉ Best PC Game of 2013 - Destructoid ◉ Best Story of 2013 - Destructoid ... and more ______________________________________ Story The communist state of Arstotzka has just ended a 6-year war with neighboring Kolechia and reclaimed its rightful half of the border town, Grestin. Your job as immigration inspector is to control the flow of people entering the Arstotzkan side of Grestin from Kolechia. Among the throngs of immigrants and visitors looking for work are hidden smugglers, spies, and terrorists. Using only the documents provided by travelers and the Ministry of Admission's primitive inspect, search, and fingerprint systems you must decide who can enter Arstotzka and who will be turned away or arrested. ______________________________________ Features Includes the complete original game with all 31 days and 20 endings. Also adds unlockable multitouch support for faster paperwork, an enhanced inspection mode, Game Center achievements, leaderboards, mid-day resume, and more. ______________________________________ Warning This game contains mature themes, non-photographic nudity, and brief moments of pixelated violence.
Tiny Space Program
Manage your own space agency, from designing and building rockets to launching missions for research, mining, or tourism. Explore planets and moons, establish off-world economies, and advance your technology in this interplanetary simulation.
- Space program management
- Build off-world colonies
- Launch rockets and spaceships
- Research technologies
- Mine resources from celestial bodies
- Astronaut progression
- Simulates orbital mechanics
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Build and run your own space program — like SpaceX, but yours. Launch rockets, manage astronauts, mine planets, and colonize the solar system from the Moon to beyond the Kuiper Belt. WHAT WOULD YOU DO AS A SPACE BILLIONAIRE? Send tourists on a spacewalk? Start a mining operation on Titan? Build a space station around Mars? In Tiny Space Program you manage the early colonization of our solar system — based on real orbital mechanics and ship propulsion. BUILD YOUR SPACE AGENCY - Launch rockets and spaceships into orbit - Build off-world colonies, outposts, and modular space stations - Mine resources on moons, planets, and dwarf planets - Research new technologies and better spacecraft - Level up your astronauts and equip spacesuits - Establish off-world economies and trade A CHILL GAME, NOT A CHORE No forced ads, no daily-streak punishments. Play at your own pace — run an hour-long research expedition, take tourists on a quick tour, then put it down and come back later. Mines keep producing while you're away. MADE BY ONE DEVELOPER Actively updated (space stations, automation, dwarf planets, and vehicles all shipped recently). Join the Discord and help shape what comes next.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Tiny Space Program at Free against Papers, Please's $4.99. Papers, Please's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 14) and ads (none vs shown). On review sentiment, ratings volume and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Tiny Space Program is free to download; Papers, Please costs $4.99 up front. Tiny Space Program sells 14 one-off in-app purchases. Papers, Please asks for nothing beyond the download.
Papers, Please holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1.2K and 1.6K respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 80% of Papers, Please's written reviews are positive against 81% of Tiny Space Program's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Papers, Please ships an update weekly, Tiny Space Program monthly. The most recent releases landed on September 28, 2026 and September 29, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Papers, Please | Tiny Space Program |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.7 (1.2K ratings) — better | 4.5 (1.6K ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 79.6% of reviews | 81.2% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 1.2K | 1.6K — better |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Monthly |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Free with in-app purchases — better |
| Best chart rank | #5 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 — better | 13.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 62 MB | 32 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | 3909 | Jerry Neimann |
Customer experience
Papers, Please
Tiny Space Program
Bugs and requests
Papers, Please
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Tiny Space Program
Reported bugs
4 issues- Buttons not working or unresponsive
- Disappearing ships and resources
- Crashes and freezes after updates
- Quests and missions not tracking properly
Requested features
6 requests- Add more planets and moons to explore
- Improve the economy and resource management
- Implement cloud/online save functionality
- Streamline the UI and make it more intuitive
- Expand the research and upgrade trees
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- Add more animations and visual effects
In-app purchases
Papers, Please
No in-app purchases
Tiny Space Program
- Supporting the game, thank you$1.99
- Helping out, many thanks$4.99
- Crystal Pack 1$4.99
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- Starter Pack$4.99
- Plasma Space Ship Package$8.99
- You are great! Many thanks$9.99
- Crystal Pack 2$9.99
- Colonizer Pack$9.99
- Experimental Dragon Ships$9.99
- Aerospike space ship pack$9.99
- A big pile of credits$19.99
- Crystal Pack 3$19.99
- Biggest box of credits$49.99
- Crystal Pack 4$49.99
Questions
Is Papers, Please free?
Is Tiny Space Program free?
Which has better reviews, Papers, Please or Tiny Space Program?
Do Papers, Please or Tiny Space Program have ads?
Which is updated more often, Papers, Please or Tiny Space Program?
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