Neon Giant de-scopes No Law's open world as 24-person team avoids Cyberpunk 2077-scale overhead
Summary
Neon Giant builds No Law's open-world cyberpunk RPG with a core team of 24 people.
Co-creative director Tor Frick says the studio chose scope cuts early to match that headcount.
No Law drops drivable cars and limits enter-able buildings to keep production achievable.
The studio uses verticality and layered systems to simulate greater scale.
01
A deliberately small team takes on an open-world immersive sim
Neon Giant's core production team totals 24 people, Frick says.
Outsourced partners handle QA, art and sound work outside that count.
No Law layers open-world traversal with crafting, drones and adaptive enemy AI.
"We picked a really, really difficult game to make, and we know that."
02
Early scope cuts remove systems that would have multiplied cost
Drivable cars appear parked on streets but were cut from gameplay early.
Not every building can be entered, only locations the team judged essential to missions.
Port Desire's map is deliberately smaller than Cyberpunk 2077's Night City footprint.
"This is a city that is built to be navigated on foot."
03
Verticality substitutes for footprint, raising its own technical bar
Neon Giant uses verticality in tower blocks and hills to amplify a small map.
No Law runs with no loading screens, so Frick says interiors must match building exteriors.
"It's not like going into a loading screen and the building is much bigger on the inside."
That rule removes a shortcut studios use to fake larger spaces, adding engineering work elsewhere.
04
Systemic depth replaces physical scale as the game's selling point
Time and weather alter district populations, Frick says, changing mission difficulty by time of day.
Smoggy weather empties streets, while rain barely affects the nightlife district population.
A no-invisible-walls rule bordered the city with sea and a wall.
That production constraint became the narrative setting: a lawless city between three countries.
What this means
For Investors & VC: Add outsourced headcount to diligence when small studios claim AAA-scale scope.
For Service Vendors: Pitch QA, art and audio packages to lean open-world studios before vertical-slice milestones.
For Publishers & Developers: Lock cut lists for vehicles and interiors at greenlight, before scoping streaming tech.
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