PLEASE NOTE: This article contains several spoilers for the Lies of P experience.Creating a new IP in the gaming industry is incredibly hard. There's so much competition in an industry often propelled by sequels like Spider-Man 2, established popular IP such as Like a Dragon, and remakes like Resident Evil 4. Combine this with extremely high development costs, stiff competition at every turn, and the need to get players' attention, and it's a wonder that new video games and IP ever get made. But sometimes it all starts with an idea, and developer Round8 and publisher Neowiz recently hit on a huge idea: a soulslike game based on dark, corrupted fairy tales. Lies of P launched in September of this year, and it has proven to be a success.
Not launch after launch, Lies of P director Jiwon Choi confirmed DLC was in development. That's not too surprising, but he also confirmed that a Lies of P sequel was being worked on as well. For a new IP to confirm this much content shortly after launch can only speak to its success. Game ZXC recently sat down with Jiwon Choi to discuss the game's success, its community, various elements of its design, and of course, the question on the mind of every Lies of P fan: what's going on with Dorothy? The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Lies of P Dev Explains Benefits of Launching Day One With Xbox Game Pass
In a post-launch interview with Game ZXC, Lies of P director Jiwon Choi details how the team benefited from launching day one on Xbox Game Pass.
Q: What has surprised you the most about the response to the game?
A: We have hidden multiple elements intentionally in Lies of P, and it was surprising how fast players found all the secrets that lie behind them. The most surprising was when players found the secret of the shadow from the Stargazer at Hotel Krat. Players discovered it much earlier than we expected, which amazed us. It reminds us that gamers can really discover things beyond the developer's expectations.
Q: The guard mechanic is so essential to success and a departure from a lot of soulslikes. Was that always part of the design of Lies of P or were there other approaches taken?
A: In Lies of P, we wanted to offer unique combat experiences to players. To do this, we explored various options across all aspects of combat design, not just in attack but dodge and guard as well.
Guard mechanics are one of the crucial parts that make the Lies of P combat experience distinctive. We wanted the guard to be a proactive option for players, allowing them to use it to overwhelm their enemies or weaken them. Guard regain also follows this idea of providing a more proactive combat experience.
Q: How did being on Game Pass benefit the game, if at all?
Lies of P is the first single-player game from Round8 Studio and a completely new IP. Joining Xbox Game Pass was one of the best options for us to get the game into the hands of a large community of players.
The Xbox team ran a wide range of marketing campaigns for Lies of P, and I cannot reveal the exact number here, but a huge number of gamers have played our game through Xbox Game Pass. I believe both parties earned a very good result from this collaboration.
Q: Lies of P is such a beautiful game to look at but many of the environments have a darker theme to them. What were some of the challenges when it comes to designing a game that is impressive visually but also fits a very specific tone?
A dark and chilling atmosphere undoubtedly plays a significant role in the world of the Lies of P. We wanted it to align with the backdrop of the game without hindering gameplay. This requires a meticulous level of setting to achieve, so we created many of them to give the mood or "feel" of darkness, without truly relying on that.
Changes in the weather and time of day for each region are also crucial to achieving this darker and chilling theme, so we have done an extensive number of tests for each case, and we also have to keep our eyes on optimization while testing those cases.
This requires time and a high level of attention to detail to do it right, which made it one of the hardest things in the development of the Lies of P.
Q: What was the most challenging boss to design? Why?
A:King of Puppets is the first to come to mind.
The design concept of King of Puppets is to showcase the opposite concepts as the phase change. He is a single boss, but his look, combat experience, environment, moods, and others must be distinctive overall in each phase. It actually cost us more than creating two separate bosses.
Q: What was the most challenging boss to balance? Why?
A: Laxasia.
Laxasia is the boss who must maintain tension and a comparable level of difficulty even after showcasing a noticeable change in her attack pattern. We invested a lot of time in designing her and it required a huge amount of feedback from testers to achieve it.
In the early stage of making Laxasia, developers' feedback was also split, so it was quite challenging to reflect and reconcile feedback to balance her to the level we wanted.
What has surprised you the most about the community's interactions with the game? Have you seen some of the challenge runs and speed runs? What do you think of them?
A: Everything from our players is always refreshing and enjoyable to see.
The one that surprised me the most was the playthrough of Lies of P with a quad stick and mouth only. Watching it made me realize that as a director, I need to consider a wide range of factors in game development. I want to take this opportunity to say thank you for playing Lies of P.
I also watched speed runs and challenge runs. I think I have a decent skill in playing Lies of P, but I have to admit that players always go beyond developers.
Q: Many souslike games like to use the multi-phase boss as a type of surprise, but Lies of P uses the concept pretty regularly. How did you come to the decision of making most bosses have a second phase?
A: Bosses are important characters in the game to me. It is a must to showcase the compelling bosses in the soulslike genre. To make them compelling, we tried to show their various look and combat patterns, which led us to create many bosses with multiple phases. I believe it is also due to developers having a tremendous amount of love for bosses they were in charge of making.
Q: Can you talk about the key changes that occur in the game and how those came to be? Specifically, the destruction of Hotel Krat and P's design change.
The game can lose its tension or become tedious if things players regularly experience stay the same throughout the entire game. We meticulously simulated the overall gameplay experience of our players and placed special events and incidents throughout the projected timeline to prevent our players from feeling bored. We introduced the destruction of Hotel Krat and the change of appearance of our protagonist as we followed the mentioned direction.
Q: How did you land on the idea of Geppetto as a bad guy?
A: We decided to portray Geppetto as a villain when we chose 'The Adventures of Pinocchio' for our main story. Our motto was to present a well-known story in a very different way, so we couldn't resist making the beloved Geppetto a bad guy from the beginning of the production of Lies of P. While portraying him as a villain, we aimed to construct his role in such a way that possessed a lot of depth, rather than being too simple.
Q: The Lore is so rich in the game but players might miss a lot of it. Are there any plans to expand the world of Lies of P beyond video games?
A: I cannot stress enough how much we appreciate the love players give to the world and the story of Lies of P. There sure are stories we could not introduce in the game, and I think it makes players wonder if Round8 Studio is willing to unfold those stories in different forms of media. We have received offers from various parties about it already.
It is too early to share any detailed plan for it now. However, I believe we can say that the Studio is exploring options to continue the story of Lies of P in a positive way.
Q: Which of the choices in the ending do you consider canon for future games?
A: It is not quite right to say any particular ending is the canon event. We want players to perceive the game as an open-ended ending.
Q: When did you decide on the Dorothy reveal? Were other classic literary characters considered?
A: We put many characters in discussion besides Dorothy. There are so many it is impossible to name just a few. We discussed almost every famous classic character.
I believe it was the summer of 2022 when we decided to reveal Dorothy in Lies of P.
Q: Is the Dorothy post-credits scene a tease for a future game or DLC? Might we see Dorothy in the recently-announced DLC?
A: This sure is something that many are wondering about, but I think it is too early to talk about it yet. This would be my top question if I were a player, but as a director, I feel bad that I cannot reveal it yet.
Please take my answer as how serious Round8 is on the DLC and sequel, and they are being diligent. For now, I can only say we will reveal more when the time is right. We greatly appreciate your patience with this one!
[END]
Lies of P
Neowiz's Lies of P is a Soulslike based on Carlo Collodi's The Adventures of Pinocchio. Set in Krat, the eponymous puppet finds themselves going up against a range of mechanical enemies that now roam this city's once lively streets. Lies of P has multiple endings, a crafting system, and a wide range of weapon types.
- Platform(s)
- PC , PS5 , PS4 , Xbox Series X , Xbox Series S , Xbox One
- Released
- September 19, 2023
- Developer(s)
- Round8 Studio , Neowiz
- Publisher(s)
- Neowiz
- Genre(s)
- Soulslike
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood, Violence
