Nough Studio, the internal Round8 Games team responsible for the 2023 Souls-like Lies of P, has released a documentary called "Games by Gamers" that explores its development philosophy. According to the studio, the name Nough comes from "not enough, but without the e," reflecting a belief that there's always room to improve. Director Choi Jiwon (referred to as Choi Juwon in one interview) said the team approaches development as players first, testing and refining until everyone is satisfied.
The documentary highlights the studio's practice of "Game Days," where the entire development team, including director Choi, plays through the game together to validate its design. Combat director Lee Jeonghyeon explained that this process directly led to the addition of difficulty options. Originally, all developers played through a fixed difficulty level, but while combat designers and skilled players had little trouble, less experienced testers often couldn't get halfway through before time ran out. This prompted the studio to introduce a lower difficulty so everyone could complete a full playthrough, a decision that reportedly drew positive feedback and convinced the team difficulty options would benefit players. These settings arrived with the Lies of P: Overture expansion, a few years after the game's original launch.
The documentary also touches on the pressure facing the team as they work on a sequel to Lies of P, which has been confirmed to be in development for over two years and recently entered the "vertical slice" stage. Narrative director Kwon Byungsoo said that after winning awards for the first game, the team now feels pressure to improve, recalling early days of "building from a blank slate" and now asking how much further they can go. Art lead Cha Byungjun acknowledged the pressure but said the team is trying to return to the mindset that guided the original game's development. Director Choi described a shift from the excitement of making the first title to the team now "seriously thinking about how we can do even better."
Choi teased that Nough's next, still-unannounced project will be "really fun and emotionally moving," adding, "We're giving it everything we have to make it the best it can be. So please, just wait a little longer. You won't be disappointed, we promise. This is the truth, not a lie."
Coverage of the documentary also noted external reception of Lies of P itself. Eurogamer's original three-star review said the game has "strong enough foundations in its edgy tone and tweaked weapons," though it was "highly unlikely" to surpass the originals that inspired it. GamesRadar+ described Lies of P as arguably the best Souls-like made outside FromSoftware, citing an internal ranking exercise among Souls genre fans that placed it at the top of non-FromSoftware entries.