Neon Giant Discusses Advantages of Having a Smaller Team…

Swedish developer Neon Giant is hard at work developing its new title, a first-person game with the working codename Project Impact. Its maiden title, The Ascent, was released in 2021 and proved to be a popular isometric twin-stick ARPG. That game's success, along with the studio being acquired by Krafton in 2022, has led to Neon Giant expanding in size, as well as ambition.

The Best War Games sat down with Neon Giant's Creative Director Tor Frick to discuss the studio's journey so far. He explained the importance of having the right people working for the studio, as well as the advantages of having a smaller team. Frick and his co-workers are looking to use these advantages to ensure Project Impact is a suitable step-up in size and scope when compared to The Ascent.

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Neon Giant Dev Talks Creativity And How The Ascent Was Developed

Neon Giant's Arcade Berg explains why creativity was important while creating the setting for The Ascent in an interview with The Best War Games.

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Neon Giant Has Doubled in Size Since It Started Out

After Neon Giant was formed in 2018, the team that developed The Ascent was made up of a little over 10 people. This meant that in most cases the studio only had one person performing each role, which at times proved challenging, particularly if someone was on holiday or sick. Thankfully, Krafton's acquisition has helped the company to grow, meaning such issues are no longer a problem. Frick further explained this expansion. He said,

''We're now 20. We doubled it! So now we have pretty much two of each, backups if someone is sick, which makes a massive difference. Don’t get me wrong, everyone here likes pressure. That's very important for the end process. But also, business wise, it's not necessarily smart to have no contingencies. We're very ambitious, and we want to be very flexible in what we're building. To do that, you need to have the right people.''

Tor Frick on The Advantages of Working With a Smaller Team

While Neon Giant has doubled, it is still a relatively small studio when compared to larger developers. Some would see this as a disadvantage, but for Frick, this small stature brings many advantages with it, as they can make quick decisions, have fewer people to answer to, and can take risks that would be much tougher to sign off in a bigger studio with bigger budgets. Frick explained,

''We have a smaller team, so we can be a lot more agile. We can take bigger risks creatively, and react quicker than you can in a bigger production. So we intend to use that by making something that is creatively a little bit riskier. One of the strengths of having a small team is that you can solve things really quickly. We can make things that are pretty intricate because not many people need to be in the room for the conversation to happen.''

The future certainly looks bright for Neon Giant and Project Impact, which Frick confirmed is an FPS game set in a highly interactive Cyberpunk-style futuristic world. Despite most of the team hailing from AAA backgrounds, it seems like they are all enjoying the degree of freedom and creative control Neon Giant allows them. Fans should keep an eye out for more details on Project Impact further down the line.

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