Fix Stories: I Built an iPhone Duo Game Without Owning the Phone

Twenty Years of Origami Inspired a Puzzle That Needs a Fold

Developer Adrien Friggeri explains why he built Orisuji for a phone he had never held.

When Apple introduced its folding iPhone Duo, the possibilities were immediate for an origami enthusiast. Rather than treating the hinge as a novelty, Adrien wanted the physical fold to become the heart of the puzzle. Here is his account for Fix Stories, told in his own words.

For another mobile development journey, read our Stelline developer story.

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Official trailer and Dawn 9 folding demonstration (press kit)

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The crease a fold leaves

By Adrien Friggeri

I’ve been really into origami for the better part of the last 20 years. So when Apple announced iPhone Duo, a phone that folds like a book, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I didn’t want to make a game that just happens to run on a folding phone. I wanted one where folding the phone is the move.

It began with a question: what if you could see through the left screen? Unfolded, the Duo is two pages side by side. Put a paper maze on the right page, and on the left a second page with holes in it. Fold the phone and the left page lands on the maze: its paths bridge the holes below, and whoever is underneath is pinned flat. Unfold it and the page lifts away, carrying whoever stood on it. Walk, fold, walk on, unfold. Once I had that, the rest of the game grew out of it, it took me about four weeks to build.

A red paper crane navigates a folded-paper maze toward a gold moon.

Folding origami naturally mirrors the folding of the phone, so it shaped the look of the game too. You play a red paper crane. A folded paper fox chases you, and a black and a gray cat follow the corridors; they are one sheet of two-sided paper folded both ways: one with the black side out, the other with the gray side out, each showing a flash of the other color at the ears and the tail. The exit is a full moon of gold leaf, and each of the six worlds, from Dawn to Dusk, has its own paper.

The name comes from the same place. Orisuji, 折り筋, is the crease a fold leaves in the paper. I went through about 300 names, and it’s the one that stuck.

Three things made developing Orisuji very interesting:

The first is that I designed the whole game for a phone I’ve never held (since I don’t have a Duo yet) and had to rely on Apple‘s simulator. This helped answer many questions: how large the cover screen is, how the maze should continue there once the phone is folded, and what to show while it’s half folded (a peek at what the fold will do). What it can’t tell you is how the fold feels in your hand. I’m looking forward to finding out!

The second is that a fold can’t be undone. Most puzzle games let you take a move back, but when you fold the phone, it stays folded; no button can unfold it for you. So Orisuji has no undo, and that changed the puzzles more than anything else. Every fold is a decision, and nothing on the board moves until you do, so you can look for as long as you like before you commit. Reset is always there when a plan goes wrong. It also fits the name: in paper, a crease stays.

The third is how hard it is to make the fold matter. It’s easy to design a fold that’s just a shortcut, and I didn’t want a gimmick. So I designed a solver that checks every level to find all possible solutions and ensures that all but a handful of tutorial levels require a fold to be solved. The solver also finds the shortest route, which becomes the level’s par. If you can match it you’ll earn a hanko, the red seal that marks a page as done and adds another layer to the game: it’s not just about completing a level, but finding the shortest path to the end.

Another Orisuji maze features a paper fox, crane, and shifting paths.

Orisuji comes out on October 23rd, the day iPhone Duo goes on sale. It’s designed for the Duo, but it plays on every other iPhone and iPad too, where you fold with a tap or a pinch. It’s $4.99, with no ads and no in-app purchases.

Adrien Friggeri, designer of Orisuji

Orisuji

Release: October 23, 2026

Genre: Puzzle / maze

Developer / Publisher: Adrien Friggeri

Platforms: iPhone, iPad — App Store ($4.99 US)

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