Ever since NO LAW first revealed gameplay footage at last year's TGA, I've been curious about the tip of the iceberg shown in the trailer—the cyberpunk city of Desire Port, blending earthy grit with modern flair. I wanted to know what kind of experience its unique "wasteland and flowers" aesthetic would offer. After watching its latest trailer last month, my curiosity evolved into a new question.
From towering skyscrapers to the damp, shadowy underworld, Desire Port presents a diverse and multi-layered urban landscape. But when players with high degrees of freedom step into this complex, vertically designed city, what roles will they actually assume in their exploration? In other words, how can these atmospheric elements that make Desire Port feel richer and more photogenic be further transformed into catalysts that encourage players to immerse themselves, exploring every nook and cranny from top to bottom?
Fortunately, at this year's Gamescom, we had a valuable opportunity to speak in depth with the NO LAW development team about gameplay design and Desire Port. I believe their answers will resolve the questions raised earlier.
Tor Frick and Arcade Berg – Co-founders and Creative Directors of Neon Giant
Below is the interview transcript:
Q: The "Cyber-noire" positioning is interesting. Can you elaborate on the design philosophy behind Desire Port?
A:Desire Port is an industrial cyber-wasteland city built on cliffs facing the sea, lush with vegetation and filled with distinctive characters and stories. We don't treat the city as mere background; instead, we view it as another protagonist in the game.
Our design philosophy prioritizes density over scale—focusing on density and detail rather than simply making the map bigger. Players can move between rooftops, alleys, and interiors, exploring and interacting with the city in different ways, from covert tactical stealth to intense firefights. Our goal is to make Desire Port a place where players can constantly discover new spaces and possibilities for gameplay.
Q: Protagonist Grey Harker has a compelling backstory—a retired veteran who just wants to grow flowers but is forced back into action. How was his character arc designed?
A:Grey Harker is a battle-hardened veteran familiar with both the battlefield and Desire Port. After suffering a near-fatal injury on his last mission, he left the military behind, hoping to live a quiet life tending to his plants. But on a fateful day, trouble comes knocking at his door, forcing him back into action.
We wanted to start with someone who has seen enough violence and genuinely wants to retire. When Grey is pulled back into that world, how cold he becomes, who he helps, and how he chooses to solve problems—all of this is shaped by the player.
Q: Why choose the classic narrative template of a "retired veteran returning to violence"? How do you plan to innovate within this familiar trope?
A:We felt this premise offered a very human starting point. Grey has seen enough violence and genuinely wants to leave that life behind... but once dragged back in, who he ultimately becomes is up to the player.
We use the familiar revenge narrative as a skeleton, but leave the freedom of who to trust, who to help, and how to solve problems entirely up to the player.
Q: Desire Port is a vertical industrial city built on cliffs by the sea. How does this vertical design impact open-world exploration?
A:Desire Port is designed as a vertically layered city, with rooftops and alleys stacked upon each other. Players can use sci-fi gadgets and vertical mobility to navigate the environment and engage in combat in different ways. Each mission supports multiple solutions, from tactical stealth to going in guns blazing.
Q: The lush greenery in Desire Port is quite unusual for the cyberpunk genre. What is the deeper meaning behind this design choice?
A:We didn't want Desire Port to become just another cyberpunk city filled with "neon, glass, concrete, and night rain." Greenery provides contrast and allows the city to carry richer emotional layers—from sun-drenched, overgrown spaces to truly dark and dangerous industrial alleys. We love the tension created between nature and the grimy machinery, infrastructure, and human clutter: it makes Desire Port feel more alive, harder to decipher at a glance, and helps shape a distinct "Cyber-noire" aesthetic that is uniquely ours.
Q: How exactly does the choice and consequence system work? To what extent will player choices change the world and story direction?
A:Throughout the game, players will encounter various characters and make continuous choices—such as helping a friend in trouble or eliminating an enemy. We want these choices to carry weight beyond just dialogue options. How you complete a mission, who you help or harm, and the methods you use will all impact subsequent developments.
For example, if you kill a shopkeeper, that character won't respawn, and their store will remain permanently closed. This means the consequences of player actions are persistent—not only affecting how characters react to you, but also changing the city itself and the resources available to you.
Multiple playthroughs can unlock different paths, developments, and endings. The game tracks how you play throughout, rather than relying solely on a few major choices near the end to determine Everythinggj.
Q: Can you give us a brief overview of the factions and powers in the city? What are their relationships like?
A:Desire Port sits at the intersection of three competing powers, shaping the city through overlapping interests and authority. The Security Guard is one of the armed forces in the city, but their role is less about restoring law and order and more about maintaining the current balance of power—they may intervene when shootouts erupt, but criminal organizations and other dangerous factions continue to operate throughout the city.
We're not ready to reveal all the factions and their relationships just yet. Who truly holds power, and how these groups relate to one another—is itself part of the exploration of Desire Port.
Q: How do stealth and aggressive playstyles differ in terms of resources, difficulty, and rewards?
A:We don't want either playstyle to become the "one right answer." Stealth requires patience and caution, reading the environment and using tools wisely; while aggressive combat lets you fully utilize Grey's fighting prowess, weapons, and more destructive options. We're still tuning resources and rewards, so we don't want to pin down exact differences just yet. But both styles are designed as valid ways to experience the full game. Based on our estimates, most players will likely mix and match both depending on the situation.
Q: How much freedom does the weapon modification system offer?
A:We believe Grey's weapons should be part of your playstyle, not just consumables swapped based on higher stats. We're not ready to break down every detail of the weapon customization system, but players can customize weapons and combine them with different tech and upgrades to support their desired approach. Whether you want to build around quiet, cautious encounters or prefer a louder, explosive style, we want your loadout to feel uniquely yours.
Q: What exactly do you mean by sci-fi gadgets and vertical mobility capabilities? How do they enrich tactical options?
A:We're not ready to reveal the full "toolbox" just yet, but Grey can use custom weapons, military augmentations, sci-fi gadgets, and special abilities to traverse the city in ways ordinary people can't. These tools are meant to provide options—scouting an area, manipulating the environment, reaching otherwise inaccessible locations, or gaining an advantage before combat even begins. We want players facing an encounter to think, "How do I solve this?" rather than just comparing gun stats.
Q: As an FPS RPG, what does the character progression system look like? Are there skill trees or attribute allocation?
A:We won't go into full detail on the progression system just yet, but the game features skills, abilities, weapons, tech, and military augmentations, allowing you to customize Grey to suit your preferred playstyle. Our philosophy isn't about infinite stat inflation, but rather providing new choices that help you master these systems.
Q: Neon Giant showcased excellent art direction in The Ascent. What visual legacies and breakthroughs does NO LAW bring?
A:Building on the world-building, system design, and narrative foundations laid in The Ascent, we're moving forward and applying those lessons to a completely different experience. With NO LAW, we aim to create a larger world—one that reacts more to player actions and offers a more personal experience.
Q: You shared techniques for creating high-fidelity cities at Unreal Fest 2026. What were the biggest technical highlights?
A:Desire Port combines Neon Giant's proprietary development tools with a suite of Unreal Engine 5 technologies. Nanite helps us achieve a seamless, visually dense city rich in detail; Lumen and MegaLights support a fully dynamic lighting and weather system capable of handling hundreds of light sources simultaneously, which also affects enemy AI and player-environment interactions. Additionally, the Mass Entity Framework allows us to simulate 3,000 NPCs simultaneously at any given moment.
Q: How is the Cyber-noire atmosphere of Desire Port created through lighting, color grading, and sound design?
A:It largely relies on "contrast." Desire Port can be warm, lush, and even charming during the day; but once night falls and the neon lights up, the city transforms completely, with some alleys becoming truly unsettling and dangerous. We use dynamic lighting, weather, vegetation, signage, and abundant environmental clutter to give each area its own mood. Audio plays a similar role, and we're thrilled to announce we're partnering with Sweet Justice again to craft the soundscape of Desire Port. The hum of machinery, crowds, music, and the unique ambient noise of a working port combine to make the city feel like a real place, not just a cyberpunk backdrop.
Q: Since joining the KRAFTON family, how have the studio's development resources and vision changed?
A:The biggest change is that we don't need to inflate into a large studio to gain greater stability. We actively maintain our small, focused size, but KRAFTON's support allows us to add staff where truly needed, invest more in tools and technology, and spend time polishing what players can actually see and feel. It gives us a safety net to be more ambitious while sticking to the workflow that made Neon Giant what it is.
Q: Moving from top-down shooter to first-person open world is no small leap—how did the team handle this transition?
A:On the surface, this might seem like a massive shift. But in reality, FPS is where many of us started. The Ascent taught us countless lessons—how to build dense worlds, environmental storytelling, and atmosphere—and NO LAW brings that experience into first-person. The biggest adjustment is that Everythinggj now must operate on a believable, human scale. Streets, interiors, combat spaces, sightlines, and every little detail are presented directly before your eyes. In this sense, The Ascent was almost like a "pre-production" for world-building, while NO LAW is us finally stepping into that world.
Q: What does the upcoming development roadmap for NO LAW look like?
A:The answer is simple: keep making the game. Now that more of NO LAW has been revealed, our focus is on fleshing out Desire Port, ensuring all systems interlock, tuning the player experience, and continuing polish and performance optimization.
The game is scheduled for release in 2027, but we can't disclose specific dates or milestones just yet. Our immediate priority is ensuring the final product delivers on the density, player agency, and quality we've been showcasing.