No Man's Sky. A new next-gen title from Hello Games (of Joe Danger fame). To describe this as an open world title would do it a disservice, as the game features a procedurally generated universe. That's right, a universe. You can seamlessly go from under water, to land, into a ship and fly out of orbit into space. From there you can visit any number of planets and explore to your heart's content. At least, that's what we're promised, and if the trailer is anything to go by, this could be big.
Made by only four people, No Man's Sky looks insanely ambitious. The planets will have their own ecology and ecosystem, according to Hello Games' Sean Murray, who noted "We're all playing in the same universe." So the stars you see in the sky are actually other planets that other players are playing on. Madness!
Check out the mammoth undertaking in No Man's Sky debut trailer below.
This looks awesome, but is PS4 a confirmed platform? I know the developers have had good relations with Sony in the past (they made Joe Danger, which launched on PS3 first), but this level of procedural generation is something I'd expect out of the PC space, not console.
Imo PSU is getting a bit ahead of things, but the game's future on PS4 is being rumored (beside PC) because
1) Hello Games supposedly has a good relationship with Sony (cf Joe Danger)
2) Shahid Kamal has apparently been interested in the project and talking with the devs since -before- the anouncement
I really hope they get to finish this, this is the type of game I have really been looking for, for a long time (since the Damocles/ Frontier Elite 2 days on Amiga).
You think this game would make it to store shelves?
It looks really good. (Minus the SW clones. )
I don't think I want it on Store Shelves, just in Digital Distrib
To be on store shelves, it would need a Publisher, and this is how I see the talk happening:
Quote:
Publisher X: Guys, we LOVE your game. Totally. Completely. Which is why we want to up your budget by $10m. HG: Wow ... That's .. great? Pub X: And we're giving that team of code-pushing monkeys to code faster too. All 50 of them to start with. We have a barrel full of em' if you need more. HG: Uh .. wait, we' re not ... Pub X: You said you are about 80% done with art and concepts, 60% done on game assets, and 40% on actual game code .. so ... as you are now about a year from release. HG: Yeah, we... Pub X: Ok, with the new budget, and the monkeys, we are going to give marketing a release date in five months, Before Summer, Paying Beta in Three with some exclusive Crap that you guys can come up with. HG: What? No ... Wait... Pub X: Oh, although we completely trust YOUR vision and are 100% behind you, we'll need the following to be added to the game to secure our investment:
- Mostly FPS mechanics
- Online Co-Op and PvP
- and Keep the "free roaming and discovery Sh*t " to a minimum.
HG: ... Pub X: Ok then. Oh ... have you thought about replacing your new age Synth music by some Gangsta Rap, or Pop? We have a cool deal with Miley Cirus you know?
- Procedural on the atom level means that they created elements (water, atmosphere...) that have components which dictate how and what type of environments are there (inluding life). Not all environements will be hospitable, and you will see an environement's chemical composition on screen (cf ocean in trailer).
- The environment is procedural and responds to physical laws. Clouds seen are generated by water evaporating and other mechanics, not there because placed there by an artist.
- Procedural also means that seeds are used to generate systems. If you go visit the same coordinates as someone else, the same seed being used means that you will see exactly everything else at the same place than someone else. But if you do anything major, changes will be applied (if you upload/ share your location and your changes).
- The universe's map will be available from the start, with "unknown" on most planets.
- It will be impossible for any one player to visit all planetary systems in a lifetime. Even with the sales they hope for, the most Sean hopes for is to "put a dent" in the exploration.
- There is apparently more to do than just "exploring" or "surviving", and Sean Muray explains that everyone will start at the edge of the universe, in different places. He seems pleaased to use the world "experience", for players. He expects that a common goal for all players will be to journey toward the center of the universe and the dark matter that is there. As you move closer to the center, worlds will become more dangerous & more sinister.
As long as it amps up what was done with Mass Effect 1, allowing for seamless transitions from space to planet without any cutscenes (as in Mass Effect), plus offer a wide variety of visual variety for each planet with plenty of new objectives on each planet, and battles to undertake in space or things to explore out there to keep it constantly interesting, No Man's Sky could be a great exploration game for this small team.
No Man’s Sky is a game about exploration and survival in an infinite procedurally generated universe.
History
No Man's Sky has been in our heads for a very long time. In fact, it has its roots in Sean Murray's experiences growing up on a ranch in the Australian outback. It was the true middle of nowhere, where if something went wrong you were told to just stay where you were and light a fire at an exact time every day, and hope that someone would find you. The night sky was filled with more stars than you’ve ever seen, and we've all thought that this is exactly where videogames would go, videogames that contained the whole universe, and you’d be able to visit it all. No Man's Sky takes that jump - it's the game we've always wanted to make.
Features
*A TRULY OPEN UNIVERSE If you can see it, you can go there. You can fly seamlessly from the surface of a planet to another, and every star in the sky is a sun that you can visit.
*EXPLORATION IS SEEING THINGS THAT NO-ONE ELSE HAS EVER SEEN BEFORE Every creature, geological formation, plant and spaceship is unique.
*SURVIVE ON A DANGEROUS FRONTIER You are alone and vulnerable, and will face threat everywhere, from deep space to thick forests, barren deserts to dark oceans.
BUILD FOR AN EPIC JOURNEY Collect precious materials and trade them for better spacecraft and upgrades for your suit and equipment.
PARALLEL UNIVERSES Choose to share your discoveries with other players, or not. You will never see another player, but you could make your mark on their worlds as well as your own.
I guess there wasn't any thread as until now we didn't know if it was coming at all on PS4.
With the 2014 E3, we now know that NMS will be a PS4 first release (I guess alongside PC), and it is -ever since E3 2013 when it was revealed- one of my top 5 most awaited games.
The game is all about exploration in a procedurally generated universe of literally infinite proportions (generated by computers).
The Universe is shared, and any planet discovered will mention your name, but there is according to the developpers no limit set on the number of worlds.
You wake up on a world created for you by the computer/ console, and from there you explore around on ground, on or in water (procedurally generated oceans), in the air with a ship you will find / or build, and from there, space is yours. Nothing is instanced, you go from world to world seamlessly, without transitions.
Hello PlayStation.Blog!
My name is Sean Murray, and I’m part of an independent studio called Hello Games. You might know us from a game called Joe Danger. That’s the only time I’ve been on the blog before. Sony was incredibly supportive of us back then, when we were just starting out as four friends, making our first game.
Now Sony is putting our next game, called No Man’s Sky, on the biggest stage in the world of videogames… and I’m feeling pretty sick with nerves.
I’m writing this during the rehearsals for Sony’s E3 keynote. I’ve never been before, just watched every year from home. It’s a lot bigger in real life.
No Man’s Sky is a science-fiction game coming to PS4. It’s incredibly ambitious and set in a vast universe we have created.
It’s a game without limits. If you see a mountain, you can trek there. From that mountain, if you see another planet hanging on the horizon, that’s a real place, with its own ecology. You can get in your ship, fly into space and it’s yours to explore. Not just that, but every star in the sky is just the light of a sun, with its own solar system waiting for you to discover and adventure in.
To put together our demo for E3, I’ve just been flying around, looking for nice locations for screenshots. Normally as a developer, your game doesn’t often surprise you, but I’ve just been grinning ear to ear as I’ve explored. Getting into fights with pirates, attacking space stations, discovering life I never knew existed. I guess I’m biased, but there are moments where my jaw drops, just seeing unexpected results emerge from procedural systems we’ve created.
Going out on the stage at Sony’s E3 press conference will be the biggest thing our little studio has ever done. We’ve been planning this game for years, even knowing that Joe Danger was a stepping stone to get to this point. Four of us went into a little room last year and finally started prototyping it. We didn’t even know if what we wanted to do was possible.
Before we finally announced it at VGX we just had no idea how No Man’s Sky would be received, but the incredible reaction helped us get through some real difficult times in the months since, like when our studio flooded at Christmas, and we sort of lost everything.
We’ve all been working so hard for our E3 demo since then. We haven’t done any press, or talked to anyone really, we just wanted to make the game, and prove ourselves worthy of all the kind words we’ve had since the VGXs. In that time we’ve seen the universe explode as we’ve designed hundreds of new procedural systems that have led to new forms of life, new patterns of vegetation and amazing geological formations. Back at VGX, the game was so young. Now it’s much more complete.
I’ve flown out first, but the whole of Hello Games is joining me soon to sit in the audience. I can’t wait to see them – it’ll be our first E3 for everyone.
By the time you’re reading this, hopefully the show went off without a hitch and I didn’t vomit on-stage, or whatever (potentially I’m already some sort of animated gif meme embarrassment). But most of all, we hope you like what we’ve shown today.
It's gotten little attention, but I think it looks very interesting. The landscapes look pretty beautiful to me. The way the guy was talking about it though, it sounded a little too ambitious. I'm definitely looking forward to more gameplay, probably moreso than many of the other games shown last night.
It looks very interesting and very ambitious but just need to see more of it. What's the incentive after you've seen a lot of different planets. Just exploring?
Aside from the jaw-dropping graphics of Uncharted, I thought this game looked the most impressive. Even if it is just exploring, that would be okay to me because that is one of the things that I enjoy most with games and this one sounds endless. Pick a planet, head that way and explore discovering new life forms, amazing sights, etc. Seems like something right up my alley.
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