Piposh (2021 video game)

Piposh is a 2020 episodic adventure video game that reboots the franchise originally created by Israeli studio Guillotine between 1999 and 2003. This point-and-click title centers on Hezi Piposh, a failed actor, and has players exploring environments, gathering objects, and talking to characters to move the story forward. The game was initially conceived as a "four-part trilogy" with its first episode due in September 2019, but the plan shifted to a single complete release, which came out on April 1, 2020.

Development began when brothers Renan and Roy Gluzman, the original creators, decided to reunite after 20 years apart. A grassroots fan movement had long pushed for a new Piposh, with loyal followers running two popular Facebook pages, holding conventions, and building excitement. Renan had resisted revisiting the series earlier, citing the trauma of making the original game and recalling a fan project from 2008 that was abandoned early. The brothers met in 2018 after not seeing each other since the 1999 original, and Piposh was the first thing they discussed. What started as a casual idea became real when Elad Tabakov, a longtime fan who learned of their conversation, joined the effort.

Unlike the original, which was made by just the Gluzmans, the new game has a team of seven. The brothers wrote the script, while Gal Pasternak and Gal Hajaj handled technical work, Tabakov managed the project, Roy Gluzman created characters and concept art, Nir Sachrur did animation, and Amir Dwek designed environments. The team consists largely of people who grew up on the series and genuinely wanted it back. The Gluzmans admitted there has never been a logical business strategy behind Piposh, and Roy noted they are "working out of the joy of creation" since the game cannot be justified financially—they closed Guillotine in 2003 due to poor sales.

The developers aimed to make the game accessible to a mass market, unlike the original’s niche audience of computer-savvy players. They made it compatible with mobile devices and, inspired by Telltale Games titles like *The Walking Dead*, originally planned to release it in short chapters of three to four hours each, with choices affecting the story. This was meant to shorten development time and allow the first chapter within a year, but they later decided to release the full game in early 2020. The game uses two-dimensional