Recently on Steam forums for Croteam’s puzzle game, The Talos Principle, a number of players have been posting about a strange glitch they’ve been experiencing in the game. It seems that a number of them get to a certain point with an elevator, only the elevator won’t let them out once they’re in and they find themselves unable to progress.

However, this isn’t an ordinary bug. In fact, it’s an intentional one; programmed into the game by the developers and only occurs if you pirate the game instead of buying it. So once again, we have an example of developers tricking the pirates into revealing themselves. Oops.

The bug itself takes place during a key progression point in the game. You need to ride the elevator down to be able to continue, but pirates will find the elevator grinds to a halt halfway up and won’t open its doors to let you out. At least health and safety is still being observed I guess. The developers even stuck in QR code at the base of the elevator to foreshadow it.