Interview with “The First Berserker: Khazan’s” level designer

Last updated on February 20, 2026

I had the opportunity to speak with the level designer who worked on The First Berserker: Khazan for a lot of time.. namely “Donghyen Moon”.

A very talented individual who brought us an exceptional level design in this solid action game that released last year on all platforms.

In this “Q&A” type interview, I asked him 10 questions about his experience at the studio and details about “The First Berserker: Khazan, with direct approval from Neople.

Of course, he couldn’t answer all of my questions, so I decided to only post the questions that had a concrete answer.

 Question 1 –

          What was the biggest difficulty in creating a level design for the First Berserker: Khazan?

      Answer –

      Donghyen Moon  –> The biggest challenge was to balance the appropriate amount by level and the difficulty felt.

As a specific example, I was deeply concerned when working on the 8th
mission El Lavaca, which is the middle point of the total 16 main missions.
Except for the boss battle, I set a goal of about 30 minutes of play time with
only pure movement and combat, and the process of narrowing the gap
that this 30 minutes could feel boring or too short depending on the user
was very difficult.

The same was true of difficulty. Due to the nature of our game, we focused
on controlling difficulty levels through spatial design rather than simply
controlling the level of attack or physical strength of monsters. I constantly
wondered how to place monsters on this terrain to give them reasonable
pressure, and what kind of movement should we create to make it fun for
users to attack.

In the beginning, I repeated the test based on my experience and feeling as
a developer, but my subjective judgment was limited. Fortunately, by
checking the play patterns and feedback of real users through two FGTs, I
was able to establish a clear reference point for quantity and balance and
learn a lot at the same time. I would like to thank the users who participated
and left valuable feedback.

 Question 2 –

        Were there any games that inspired the level design?

      Answer –

      Donghyen Moon  –> I was most inspired by the Dark Souls series, which showed the essence of Inwang and Souls-like Exploration, the textbook of hardcore action RPG.

Everyone in the development team is a big fan of the genre, so we’ve put a
homage element everywhere that goes beyond mere references to show
respect. Those who see as much as they know, and who have a good eye
for it, may have already found it.

Typically, there’s a fork in the early Heinmach region. When you fall into the
right side street instead of the main route, you’ll encounter Seolin, a
powerful elite monster, which deliberately borrows from the layout and flow
of crystal lizards that kept users on their toes at the Cemetery of Ash, the
Dark Souls 3 tutorial area.

In addition, the rotating gondola gimmick appearing at the Imperial Palace
level is also an element of reinterpreting and implementing the elevator
mechanism of Anorondo, an iconic area of the Dark Souls series, to suit our
game.

In fact, when designing the layout of the overall map or the organic spatial
connectivity, as well as the specific gimmicks, I tried to study and reflect
the spatial design shown by the two works in depth.

 Question 3 –

      Was there an area or sequence that went through a major redesign?

      Answer –

      Donghyen Moon  –> Similar to question 1, a major redesign was carried out in the process of controlling the volume and difficulty after the first FGT.

Based on the data and feedback collected at the time, our top priority was
to minimize the amount of time that would cause negative experiences or
break the flow to users. We reviewed all levels from the ground up, and
thought about maximizing the play experience with minimal resource
modification.

In particular, there were significant changes in the Stormpass and El Lavaca
areas where I was in charge. For example, in the case of El Lavaca Village,
unnecessary movements at the introduction were drastically deleted to
increase immersion.

The bizarre prison area was originally intended to be
labyrinthine in complexity, but the structure was intuitively redesigned by
accepting feedback that this acted as stress in finding directions rather
than the fun of exploration.

In fact, ripping up and fixing a layout at a level that’s already been
completed is a huge workload not only for planning but also for the art and
programming teams. However, thanks to the common goal of creating
higher-quality games, colleagues from other departments actively
collaborated without complaints, and we were able to complete the
reorganization successfully.

Question 4 –

    Have you ever thought about adding secret bosses between levels? From
what I’ve played, there was only one boss in any of the levels.

      Answer –

      Donghyen Moon  –> Of course. The beauty of exploration and the joy of discovery given by Hidden Boss is a topic that was fiercely discussed within the development
team.

However, adding a boss monster required a huge amount of resources from
relevant departments, including designing combat spaces, setting world
views, and implementing unique patterns, not just characters. There was a
practical difficulty in capturing everything within a limited development
period.

In the end, we chose choice and concentration. Rather than increasing the
number of hidden bosses, we decided that the only way to give Khazan’s
experience was to raise the level of completion of the main boss battle,
which marks the finale of each mission.

As a level designer, I am somewhat disappointed that the exploration factor
has been reduced, but as a result, I am confident that the decision at the
time was the best option to save the identity of the game, as I was able to
complete the overwhelming sense of accomplishment and pleasure that
users felt when defeating the main boss.

Question 5 –

  The decision to add a full platform section towards the end of the game
was interesting. Was the reason for this addition special?

      Answer –

      Donghyen Moon  –> I’m sure many users felt a lot of pain in that section. Haha, to be honest, it’s the most regrettable design and a section that I’ve learned a lot from when I
look back.

The idea was inspired by the Ozma Raid setting in the original Dungeon &
Fighter while working on a palace-level prototype. We wanted to take our
game-style interpretation of the goal of reaching the castle with the final
boss, Ozma, and the broken remnants of the original “Tower of Time”
floating in the air.

Initially, we expected this aerial platform element to be a refreshing
experience to evoke the flow of play. The internal test response wasn’t bad,
so we decided to expand it, and the initial version was actually a much
harsher level of difficulty than now, but it was refined into what it is now
after several revisions.

However, after the release, I thought that this section, which suddenly
appeared in the second half without sufficient pre-build-ups, caused users
more discomfort or fatigue than challenges, in our game, where jump or
platform action is not the main mechanism.

It is regrettable that what it
would have been like to learn step by step from the early and mid-term or
to reduce the risk of failure.

From this experience, I realized how important the context and timing were
to deliver it to the user as a reasonable experience, although new attempts
are important. In the next project, I think I’ll be able to show you a much
kinder and more convincing design.

Question 6 –

If there was a level that was discarded, could you tell me more about it?

      Answer –

      Donghyen Moon  –> There are quite a few ideas that have unfortunately not been seen in the development process. Among them, the most memorable one is the Palermion Escape Sub-Mission that I planned.

The original plan was a reverse driving play that started at the ending point
and desperately escaped to the entrance, as opposed to the Palermion
infiltration mission in the main episode.

It’s a familiar space, but it was
meant to have a visual freshness and urgency felt as the direction of
progress changed.

In particular, the highlight of the mission was the finale. Unlike the main
episode, which mainly features 1:1 matches with single bosses, we
designed Kazan’s first duo boss battle, in which two elite monsters
collaborate at the same time.

We expected the extreme action pleasure of
digging out both patterns at the same time.

However, given the overall volume of the game and the development
schedule, I decided to delete it with tears in my eyes so as not to
compromise the density of fun.

I had to prioritize setting probability and the
balance of play volume.

Question 7 –

What was the most difficult hurdle you could overcome in Neople and
what was your overall experience in the studio like?

      Answer –

      Donghyen Moon  –> Making console games itself was the most exciting opportunity and at the same time the hardest wall to overcome.

Every game developer must have had a dream in the back of his mind to
create a console package game complete with his or her own hands. And
while the joy was immense when given the opportunity, the practical
challenges were clear.

It is an organization that has accumulated unique know-how in the PC
online and MMORPG genres for a long time. Having been accustomed to
live service games with long breath, it was a tremendous challenge to reestablish the development grammar of console action games from scratch,
which required us to show the completeness of dense single-game.

Since there were few experience in console development inside, what should be
prioritized? Is this quality suitable for the console user’s eye level? Each
process was a big challenge.

But the process was more of a romance than a sense of hopelessness.
Even heading to the ground was a pleasant experiment because all the
team members were united in one goal of making the right console game.
It
was the most valuable experience in the developer’s life, where I was able
to try bolder and more diverse because there was no fixed answer.

Question 8 –

Now that “The First Berserker: Khazan”  launched, what’s “Neople” up to now?

      Answer –

      Donghyen Moon  –> It is difficult to reveal the specific project name here, but one thing I can tell you for sure is that Neople’s challenge does not stop.

Various attempts are currently being made inside Neople to match the title
of a master of action and go beyond the existing grammar.

The new projects to be unveiled will also prove the best action pleasure beyond what you can
imagine, and you can look forward to Neople’s next works.

As of now, we are investigating multiple titles and updates at Nexon, stay tuned for more!

A big “thank you!” to Donhyen Moon for accepting this Q and A interview, and i hope we will cross paths again in the future.