As part of Epic Games’ recent State of Unreal showcase, developer Neon Giant showed off its open-world shooter No Law, focusing on how a small team has been able to take on the challenge of developing such an ambitious title. A big part of the showcase was the game’s setting of Port Desire, which was developed by Neon Giant with its own proprietary tools used alongside Unreal Engine 5 technologies.
The showcase, hosted by creative director Tor Frick, primarily focused on the design principle of “density over scale”. This means that, rather than going for a massive open world, the studio has instead decided to focus on making sure that the in-game world is dense enough for players to enjoy.
Features from Unreal Engine 5, like Nanite, give the development team the ability to focus on “extreme visual density” that worked hand-in-hand with the game’s handcrafted environments to ensure that Port Desire could be explored without players facing performance issues. Lumen and MegaLights similarly played a role by giving the team access to dynamic lighting and weather systems. Even the NPCs of Port Desire made use of Unreal Engine 5 technologies, like MetaHuman and Mass Framework.
“By leveraging UE5’s latest tech to bypass traditional development bottlenecks, we’ve finally been able to build the uncompromised version of the world we’ve wanted to create for years,” said Frick during the showcase. “We look forward to the day players can experience Port Desire for themselves.”
This showcase came just a few days after Neon Giant had released a developer diary video where it discussed Port Desire and the role it will play in the story of No Law. The city has been described as being of major importance to various factions, which opens up the door for plenty of narrative opportunities for players to engage in. Among these factions are the Peacekeepers, who focus on maintaining peace and order throughout the city.
Interestingly, Frick and co-creative director Arcade Berg have previously spoken about how No Law was bound to draw comparisons with CD Projekt RED’s Cyberpunk 2077. In an interview from back in December, the two spoke about how the two titles share similarities, like the cyberpunk genre and first-person perspective.
“A lot of it is, it’s just the mood and the tone. Cyberpunk [2077] is a big, sprawling experience. It’s a mega city,” said Frick. “And our game is a lot more intimate both when it comes to the gameplay mechanics but also the world. I think as people see more of the game, that will be more apparent. It’s hard to do in a short trailer like that. I think you need to see and feel the game more. It is more of an intimate experience, like the world is deep but not so grand. And the same thing with mechanics and the same thing with the story. It is very, very personal and very, very reactive around you as a player, rather than being set in this grand backdrop.”
No Law is being developed for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, and doesn’t yet have a release date.
