{"id":135943,"date":"2024-10-10T15:00:50","date_gmt":"2024-10-10T15:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/developer.apple.com\/news\/?id=jimo1g6z"},"modified":"2024-10-10T15:00:50","modified_gmt":"2024-10-10T15:00:50","slug":"masters-of-puppets-how-round8-studio-carved-out-a-niche-for-lies-of-p","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2024\/10\/10\/masters-of-puppets-how-round8-studio-carved-out-a-niche-for-lies-of-p\/","title":{"rendered":"Masters of puppets: How ROUND8 Studio carved out a niche for Lies of P"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"inline-article-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/masters-of-puppets-how-round8-studio-carved-out-a-niche-for-lies-of-p.jpg\" data-img-dark=\"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/masters-of-puppets-how-round8-studio-carved-out-a-niche-for-lies-of-p.jpg\" data-hires=\"false\" alt=\"In a screenshot from Lies of P, an enormous humanoid robot with glowing red eyes and electrical bolts surrounding its body clutches the character of P and holds him in the air.\"><\/div>\n<p><em>Lies of P<\/em> is closer to its surprising source material than you might think.<\/p>\n<p>Based on Carlo Collodi\u2019s 1883 novel <em>The Adventures of Pinocchio<\/em>, the Apple Design Award-winning game is a macabre reimagining of the story of a puppet who longs to be a real boy. Collodi\u2019s story is still best known as a children\u2019s fable. But it\u2019s also preprogrammed with more than its share of darkness \u2014 which made it an appealing foundation for <em>Lies of P<\/em> director Jiwon Choi.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen we were looking for stories to base the game on, we had a checklist of needs,\u201d says Choi. \u201cWe wanted something dark. We wanted a story that was familiar but not entirely childish. And the deeper we dove into <em>Pinocchio<\/em>, the more we found that it checked off everything we were looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p class=\"sosumi margin-top-small\">ADA FACT SHEET<\/p>\n<div class=\"inline-article-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/masters-of-puppets-how-round8-studio-carved-out-a-niche-for-lies-of-p-1.jpg\" data-img-dark=\"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/masters-of-puppets-how-round8-studio-carved-out-a-niche-for-lies-of-p-1.jpg\" data-hires=\"false\" alt=\"In a screenshot from Lies of P, two characters \u2014 one with a metallic left arm and the other in a demonic white mask \u2014&nbsp;prepare for a swordfight in a dimly lit neighborhood.\"><\/div>\n<h3>Lies of P<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Winner:<\/strong> Visuals and Graphics<\/li>\n<li><strong>Team:<\/strong> ROUND8 Studio (developer), NEOWIZ (publisher)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Available on:<\/strong> Mac<\/li>\n<li><strong>Team size:<\/strong> 100<\/li>\n<li><strong>Previous accolades:<\/strong> App Store 2023 Mac Game of the Year, App&nbsp;Store Editors\u2019 Choice<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr>\n<p>Developed by the South Korea-based ROUND8 Studio and published by its parent company, NEOWIZ, <em>Lies of P<\/em> is a lavishly rendered dark fantasy adventure and a technical showpiece for Mac with Apple silicon. Yes, players control a humanoid puppet created by Geppetto. But instead of a little wooden boy with a penchant for little white lies, the game\u2019s protagonist is a mechanical warrior with an array of massive swords and a mission to battle through the burned-out city of Krat to find his maker \u2014 who isn\u2019t exactly the genial old woodcarver from the fable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe story is well-known, and so are the characters,\u201d says Choi. \u201cWe knew that to create a lasting memory for gamers, we had to add our own twists.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"inline-article-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/masters-of-puppets-how-round8-studio-carved-out-a-niche-for-lies-of-p-2.jpg\" data-img-dark=\"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/masters-of-puppets-how-round8-studio-carved-out-a-niche-for-lies-of-p-2.jpg\" data-hires=\"false\" alt=\"In a screenshot from Lies of P, a glowing bulb in an ornate cage-like container floats above the floor in a large room.\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"typography-caption\">\n<p>In the burned-out world of <em>Lies of P<\/em>, something this warm and beautiful can\u2019t be good news.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Those twists abound. The puppet is accompanied by a digital lamp assistant named Gemini \u2014 pronounced \u201cjim-i-nee,\u201d of course. A major character is a play on the original\u2019s kindly Blue Fairy. A game boss named Mad Donkey is a lot more irritable than the donkeys featured in Collodi\u2019s story. And though nobody\u2019s nose grows in <em>Lies of P<\/em>, characters have opportunities to lie in a way that directly affects the storyline \u2014 and potentially one of the game\u2019s multiple endings.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"article-quote\">\n<p>We knew that to create a lasting memory for gamers, we had to add our own twists.<\/p>\n<p><cite><\/p>\n<p>Jiwon Choi, <em>Lies of P<\/em> director<\/p>\n<p><\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\u201cIf you play without knowing the original story, you might not catch all those twists,\u201d says Choi. \u201cBut it goes the other way, too. We\u2019ve heard from players who became curious about the original story, so they went back and found out about our twists that way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s nothing curious about the game\u2019s success: In addition to winning a 2024 Apple Design Award for Visuals and Graphics, <em>Lies of P<\/em> was named the App&nbsp;Store\u2019s 2023 Mac Game of the Year and has collected a bounty of accolades from the gaming community. Many of those call out the game\u2019s visual beauty, a world of rich textures, detailed lighting, and visual customization options like MetalFX upscaling and volumetric fog effects that let you style the ruined city to your liking. <\/p>\n<div class=\"inline-article-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/masters-of-puppets-how-round8-studio-carved-out-a-niche-for-lies-of-p-3.jpg\" data-img-dark=\"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/masters-of-puppets-how-round8-studio-carved-out-a-niche-for-lies-of-p-3.jpg\" data-hires=\"false\" alt=\"In a screenshot from Lies of P, four terrifying-looking characters in masks and makeshift armor converge around a coffin emblazoned with the word LIAR. \"><\/p>\n<div class=\"typography-caption\">\n<p>Many of Collodi\u2019s original characters have been updated for <em>Lies of P<\/em>, including the Black Rabbit Brotherhood, who appear to be hopping mad.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>For that city, the ROUND8 team added another twist by moving the story from its original Italian locale to the Belle \u00c8poque era of pre-WWI France. \u201cEveryone expected Italy, and everyone expected steampunk,\u201d says Choi, \u201cbut we wanted something that wasn\u2019t quite as common in the gaming industry. We considered a few other locations, like the wild west, but the Belle \u00c8poque was the right mix of beauty and prosperity. We just made it darker and gloomier.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"article-quote\">\n<p>We considered a few other locations, like the wild west, but the Belle \u00c8poque was the right mix of beauty and prosperity. We just made it darker and gloomier.<\/p>\n<p><cite><\/p>\n<p>Jiwon Choi, <em>Lies of P<\/em> director<\/p>\n<p><\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>To create the game\u2019s fierce (and oily) combat, Choi and the team took existing Soulslike elements and added their own touches, like customizable weapons that can be assembled from items lying around Krat. \u201cWe found that players will often find a weapon they like and use it until the ending,\u201d says Choi. \u201cWe found that inefficient. But we also know that everyone has a different taste for weapons.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The system, he says, gives players the freedom to choose their own combinations instead of pursuing a \u201cbest\u201d pre-ordained weapon. And the strategy worked: Choi says players are often found online discussing the best combinations rather than the best weapons. \u201cThat was our intention when creating the system,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<div class=\"inline-article-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/masters-of-puppets-how-round8-studio-carved-out-a-niche-for-lies-of-p-4.jpg\" data-img-dark=\"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/masters-of-puppets-how-round8-studio-carved-out-a-niche-for-lies-of-p-4.jpg\" data-hires=\"false\" alt=\"A character stands in front of a giant marble statue and an enormous picture window in a large dimly lit room.\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"typography-caption\">\n<p>The game is set in the Belle \u00c8poque, an era known for its beauty and prosperity. \u201cWe just made it darker and gloomier,\u201d says Choi.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Also intentional: The game\u2019s approach to lying, another twist on the source material. \u201cLying in the game isn\u2019t just about deceiving a counterpart,\u201d says Choi. \u201cHumans are the only species who can lie to one another, so lying is about exploring the core of this character.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s also about the murky ethics of lying: <em>Lies of P<\/em> suggests that, at times, nothing is as human \u2014 or humane \u2014 as a well-intentioned falsehood.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe puppet of Geppetto is not human,\u201d says Choi. \u201cBut at the same time, the puppet acts like a human and occasionally exhibits human behavior, like getting emotional listening to music. The idea was: Lying is something a human might do. That\u2019s why it\u2019s part of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"inline-article-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/masters-of-puppets-how-round8-studio-carved-out-a-niche-for-lies-of-p-5.jpg\" data-img-dark=\"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/masters-of-puppets-how-round8-studio-carved-out-a-niche-for-lies-of-p-5.jpg\" data-hires=\"false\" alt=\"In a screenshot from Lies of P, a sign reading \u201cKrat Festival\u201d sits over a burned-out stage desolate scene.\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"typography-caption\">\n<p>Every environment in <em>Lies of P<\/em> \u2014 including the Krat Festival, which has seen better days \u2014&nbsp;is rich with desolate detail.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The <em>Lies of P<\/em> story might not be done just yet. Choi and team are working on downloadable content and a potential sequel \u2014 possibly starring another iconic character who\u2019s briefly teased in the game\u2019s ending. But in the meantime, the team is taking a moment to enjoy the fruits of their success. \u201cAt the beginning of development, I honestly doubted that we could even pull this off,\u201d says Choi. \u201cFor me, the most surprising thing is that we achieved this. And that makes us think, \u2018Well, maybe we could do better next time.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/developer.apple.com\/design\/awards\/\" class=\"icon icon-after icon-chevronright\">Meet the 2024 Apple Design Award winners<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"sosumi margin-top-small\"><em>Behind the Design is a series that explores design practices and philosophies from finalists and winners of the Apple Design Awards. In each story, we go behind the screens with the developers and designers of these award-winning apps and games to discover how they brought their remarkable creations to life.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lies of P is closer to its surprising source material than you might think. Based on Carlo Collodi\u2019s 1883 novel The Adventures of Pinocchio, the Apple Design Award-winning game is a macabre reimagining of the story of a puppet who longs to be a real boy. Collodi\u2019s story is still best known as a children\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135944,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-apple-developer-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}