No Man's Sky Article From The Guardian

[Zanten]

Developer Tidbits:

-The most interesting thing to me is this; most of us, I think, assumed that Sony provided funding aid to No Man's Sky, thus explaining their presence on Sony's stage. Well, now it appears that although funding aid was offered, Hello Games turned it down and asked specifically for their time on stage. So they weren't on the E3 stage because they got money from Sony... they wanted the stage time INSTEAD of money. The balls on em. o_o

-Apparently at one point Shawn Murray had just finished showing the game to Elon Musk (CEO of SpaceX,) shortly after showing it to Kanye West, and was now running late to show it to Steven Spielberg. ...mostly caught my eye because I thought it was funny how many random famous/successful people largely unaffiliated with the gaming media are apparently pawing at him to get a peek at it. Saying, 'Oh, right, I've got a meeting with Elon Musk, after I see Kanye West, and then gotta meet Steven Spielberg,' sounds like the random shit you make up when you're trying to SOUND well-connected.

-However, Murray has tried to avoid as much of the outside world's feedback as possible, going so far as to delete Twitter from his phone and try to lock himself away from anyone; even positive reinforcement is something he avoids, as, to quote from him; "“But actually, creativity and hard work is driven by ambition. And ambition isn’t helped by constant affirmation. You have to almost get to a place where you’re unhappy with everything.”

Game Features Tidbits:

-Apparently it very well MIGHT be possible to meet other players, as suggested by this quote; "This common destination will increase the chance that people will encounter one another on their journey (even if the game sells millions of copies, when your playground consists of 18 quintillion planets, a single encounter is statistically unlikely). But it’s an optional objective. “We don’t know whether people will congregate or disperse,” said Murray. “I know that people don’t like to be told that we don’t know what will happen in our game, but that’s what is exciting to us.”"

-However, to avoid Feature Creep, the team has remained determined to finish the game they set out to make, and not add a bajillion other possible features; "While showing the game to members of the enthusiastic press, Murray has fielded requests that they make it possible for players to create buildings, communicate with aliens or implement land vehicles into the game. “It’s the reason we haven’t done things like Kickstarter,” Murray said. “There could be so much feature creep. A lot of other companies would have taken the interest, taken loads of investment, grown the team massively and so on. And of course, we did talk about things like that. But it felt like it wouldn’t work. We had an idea for a game and we may never be able to deliver on the hype. But we can deliver the game we set out to make. That has to be enough.”"

Game World Tidbits:

-Just going to copy-paste this part, which for the record isn't a direct quote from the developer, but from the article writer, so overexcitement is possible; 'The stars you see in the unfathomable distance aren’t a mere illusion, like fairy lights studded into a black curtain of a stage backdrop, but real orbs. Travel in their direction for long enough and you can touch them.' So, rather than each solar system being comprised of a series of instances, the suggestion here is it is ACTUALLY a full galaxy, operating one consistent space. If you see a distant star, it's a real place, and (admittedly probably in centuries,) you could travel there at conventional speed. In terms of utility, it MIGHT be useless (I say might because, heck, they could include a 'super duper warp drive' that lets you go REALLY fast,) but it's still one hell of a feat.

-This is, again, from the article writer, when it comes to discussing the possibility of life on a given planet and HOW the engine decides which do or don't; 'There is biodiversity then, but in this game only relatively few planets sustain life. The conditions will, as with Earth, need to be ideal. For example, there is a specific distance from a star at which it is likely there will be moisture. From this information the game decides that there will be rivers, lakes, erosion and weather, and every aspect (including the sky’s hue) is dependent on the type of liquid that forms the atmosphere. Many planets will be deserted, some entirely barren.'

-With regards to how the universe itself functions; 'Unlike many video games, which are rigged to respond only to inputs and otherwise rest dormant, like a musical instrument awaiting a player, No Man’s Sky will tick and function regardless of human interaction. Animals have daily routines that they follow. They might drink in the lowland lakes during the daytime before retreating to the hills to graze. Heavy freighters will plod through space to their own timetable, following trade routes and visiting planets where smaller ships will peel off to gather resources. As with the game’s terrains and atmospheres, all of this behaviour is based on mathematics: fractal patterns that are followed with clockwork reliability.'


The article has loads more, including some history on the developer/the work on No Man's Sky, and a bit more detail on their meeting with Spielberg, so I'd recommend giving it a read! If anything from the article sticks out for you, feel free to share! :3