No Man's Sky

Overheal · 10-06-2014 4:14am #1

Hello Games wrote:

ABOUT

No Man’s Sky is a game about exploration and survival in an infinite procedurally generated universe.

A TRULY OPEN UNIVERSE
Whether a distant mountain or a planet hanging low on the horizon, 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.
Where you’ll go and how fast you’ll make your way through this universe is up to you. It’s yours for the taking.

EXPLORATION IS SEEING THINGS NO ONE HAS EVER SEEN BEFORE
Explore uncharted solar systems and catalogue unique new forms of life. Every planet’s landscape is different from the next, and populated by species never before encountered.
Find ancient artefacts that could reveal the secrets behind the universe.
Choose whether to share your discoveries with other players. You won’t see them, but they’re exploring the same universe in parallel; perhaps you’ll make your mark on their worlds as well as your own.

SURVIVE ON A DANGEROUS FRONTIER
Every solar system, planet, ocean and cave is filled with danger, and you are vulnerable.
Your ship and suit are fragile, and every encounter can test your skills to the limit. From dogfighting in space to firstperson combat on a planet’s surface, you will face foes ready to overwhelm you.
And one mistake could see you lose everything. In No Man’s Sky, every victory and every defeat is permanent.

BUILD FOR AN EPIC JOURNEY
The voyage that stands before you cannot be taken lightly. You’ll need to prepare.
Collect precious resources on the surfaces of planets and trade them for the ships, suits and equipment that will take you to your destiny in the stars.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRpDn5qPp3s

This title/IP/Idea has pinged my radar a few times over the years. Like I said in the E3 megathread I first heard about the concept back in 2007 when I was in IT Carlow Games Development. Someone elsewhere (these guys?) were developing some hot-**** procedural generation techniques. For planets.

Since the announcement I'm not 100% sure it was Hello Games, or these guys http://elliptic-games.com/ as there are clearly multiple devs out there with the same concept I'm not gonna speculate without more information. What we do know is Hello Games is actually UK based http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hello_Games though Sean Murray himself is Irish. So some of the information in the E3 thread may be inaccurate. The other title Rodinia looks a lot more like what I saw as a concept back in the 2000s though.

What is known though is this game follows a lot of the same concepts that I've heard about for a few years now: the world is infinite and procedurally generated, from the flora and fauna to the planets and asteroid fields. As we heard at E3 every player starts on their own planet. Yikes. This has the makings of an epic space sim. As players explore uncharted space, the servers run the procedural generation and create new anomalies and planets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvWMcquMohE

Can't imagine this will be a Playstation Exclusive (besides, Sony got a huge chubby boner from proclaiming anything they possibly could as being exclusive at that conference and they didn't for this) so expect it to show up on Xbox and PC as well. Will probably be the first space sim I look into in years.

Don't be a cost-prohibitive subscription base. Oh god.

Yeti Beast · 10-06-2014 4:30am

It was announced for PC initially, so I wouldn't be surprised to see it make it to XBox One as well. Glad it survived after their studio was hit bad in the UK floods last winter!

COYVB · 10-06-2014 4:56am

Wins for gratuitous 65dos usage alone

corcaigh07 · 10-06-2014 4:57am

looked incredible, hope it can deliver

Adamantium · 10-06-2014 4:59am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLtmEjqzg7M

You know as a kid, that dream game that you always wished would be made, where you can everywhere, do anything, go into orbit, de-orbit.

I've always dreamed of playing a game where you could walk around new worlds, get on a ship and simply leave the planet, fly through space and visit another planet.

CHRIST IT'S HERE!

4 PEOPLE HAVING BEING WORKING ON THIS. 4.

funny what 4 people can do, makes me laugh at Ubi with their 500+ development teams

The vision for this game is so impressive and grand that I can't really believe they'll pull it off until I actually play it. I wish them all the luck in the world.

I hope the Mass Effect team wake up screaming :P

It's literally pure algorithms. Pure algos, you guys. If they've invested development where they should have (i.e., really impressive math) then it's gonna be mind blowing. If it's the same old procedural tricks we've seen before then it will just be HD minecraft with planetary travel.

Overheal · 10-06-2014 6:10am

True story, thinking "God only 4 people are working on this?" Then you remember Minecraft

"According to VG247, if you were to add together all the different versions of the game, it would come out to over 35 million sales in all:
- 14 million on PC and Mac
- 1 million on PS3
- 10 million on iOS and Android with Minecraft Pocket Edition
- 10 million on Xbox 360, which also happened to be the fastest selling console game in the U.S. Not surprising for a game that broke day one sales records."

http://www.gamenguide.com/articles/9360/20140203/minecraft-total-sales-hit-35-million.htm

Adamantium · 10-06-2014 7:23am

http://www.gametrailers.com/videos/x8pp1o/no-man-s-sky-vgx-2013--sean-murray-interview

Sean Murray in the above interview (seems like such a cool,humble and unaware of it guy)

Paraphrasing:

"When you are in space you can see all the stars in the black, points of light, well you go can travel all the way into them, and around every one of their stars are dozens planets which you can land on and explore/traverse"

I want to give the guys money simply to praise for them for their brass balls and NASA moonshot like ambition.

I've being jaded by games in the last 5 years or so, I haven't being this wowed by something since... 2003-2004? Final Fantasy VII?. More sweet that this has literally come out of nowhere, I hope it shames other developers.

the ability to land on planets like that and then take off back into space is a mechanic i've been dreaming of. Take note ubisoft and EA. this is next-gen.

I've being incredibly meh my most of my series Metal Gear, Final Fantasy in recent years, all variations or genre types that have polished their 3d graphics to the nth but play all most the same as they ever did.

"You're not wandering passively or ambiently, planets have their own ecosystem and you're not always necessarily on top"

Nuri Sahin · 10-06-2014 11:40am

Probably the biggest highlight of last night from E3 for me, and that despite Rainbow Six appearing out of nowhere!

Love the concept and art work.

super_furry · 10-06-2014 11:45am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLXK8xubtic

Oddly enough it reminds me of one my favourite forgotten gems – Starfighter 3000 on the 3D0. Obviously looks a hell of a lot better but the transition between skimming along the bottom of a planet in your spaceship and taking off in space is still there.

Xenji · 10-06-2014 12:52pm

Probably the best game I saw last night and the one I am most hyped about besides Bloodborne, just take my money now I do not care how much it costs, good to see some homegrown developers involved as well.

Overheal · 10-06-2014 1:36pm

Can it love up to its own hype. We will see

Captain Chaos · 10-06-2014 1:39pm

It's more can it live up to it's concept more than anything. They were not trying to hype this up, just showing the ambitious scale of a game from a very small indie developer. I just hope this all works out for them and they make a platform they can really build off of. It has buckets of potential.

Mickeroo · 10-06-2014 1:46pm

The transition from planet surface to space to other planet was a bit quick for my liking, didn't feel big enough.

>_>
<_<

Overheal · 10-06-2014 2:31pm

Mickeroo wrote: »

The transition from planet surface to space to other planet was a bit quick for my liking, didn't feel big enough.

>_>
<_<

Compressed, perhaps even edited transition for demonstration purposes? Wanted to get to the meat of procedural asteroid destruction and random ai fleet

Though in fairness many spaceships in sci if have pretty rapid liftoff abilities. Unnatural a bit but yeah I'd like to see it a bit lengthier myself, same goes with the dead space between interstellar bodies but I would not be too butt hurt if they emphasized fun play over physically correct simulation ie. 10 minutes to fly to a moon like it seemed in X series. That caused me to turn off X after about half an hour

Mickeroo · 10-06-2014 2:33pm

Overheal wrote: »

Compressed, perhaps even edited transition for demonstration purposes? Wanted to get to the meat of procedural asteroid destruction and random ai fleet

Most likely I hope, I was being a little facetious :pac: I honestly think it looks amazing.

Is there any indication as to whether it will be subscription based or something? I really hope not.

Overheal · 10-06-2014 2:39pm

Not as of yet.

Also: I want stargate a or hyper gates. Not everywhere but like players should be able to build them and create a core network of planets vs the fringes

Maximus Alexander · 10-06-2014 2:41pm

Despite a lifelong love of astronomy, space travel and sci-fi, I seem to be the only person not to be excited about this. It just looks a bit cartoonish and the scale seems to be all wrong. I also don't have much faith in procedural generation to produce consistently interesting and varied environments. It's just not doing it for me at all, unfortunately. I predict it might be a bit of a let down.

I think there's merit in the idea though and I do hope it's a success, as it might encourage others to try something similar.

Shiminay · 10-06-2014 2:43pm

It looks like game of the show for me so far

I sincerely hope it gets Rift support, that'd make me go and get a Rift

Overheal · 10-06-2014 2:43pm

It has no release date so this game will likely undergo a lot more additional development until it lands anywhere

Kiith · 10-06-2014 2:45pm

I actually thought the same (:o), but figured they've sped it up a bit for visual style.

Overheal · 10-06-2014 2:47pm

Shiminay wrote: »

It looks like game of the show for me so far I sincerely hope it gets Rift support, that'd make me go and get a Rift

Sony mentioned their VR project Morpheus at the show. The demo seemed to fully expect the first person perspective in a bobbing and weaving fashion. I fully anticipate VR support and Occulus on PC

Yeti Beast · 10-06-2014 2:49pm

They've definitely been experimenting with OR. Read it months ago so can't remember where exactly.

pixelburp · 10-06-2014 4:51pm

Adamantium wrote: »

You know as a kid, that dream game that you always wished would be made, where you can everywhere, do anything, go into orbit, de-orbit.
[...]

Ha, the shot of the desert planet & its sandworms immediately made me think 'muad'dib'

I'd be the same as Adamantium, a game similar to what this appears to be has been a dream of mine since a kid; the ability to explore the universe and its countless planets, able to touch down on the surface without hindrance or limitation. It's funny how it has taken this long for a game to appear with (apparently) real-time surface to orbit transitions.

I would also share a little reservation however. The problem about promising a whole universe to play in is just that - it's a whole universe of content to supply. Factor in the procedural generation and I can't help but feel a little wary that without careful development, the experience might quickly repeat itself. The fact it's being made by 4 people is in itself utterly amazing and praiseworthy but also suggests they won't have the capacity to keep things too varied. I do love the art style though and makes a refreshing change from the kind of dull, metallic aesthetic of the likes of Star Citizen.

The trailer looks amazing but my cynicism suggests I'd quickly see the same wildlife on various planets, albeit with different colouring or whatever. Certainly in my own experience the problem I've found with a sprawling, limitless world is that it can quickly get boring when you start spotting the engine's limits. Starbound springs to mind here: I loved the game - and the idea of the game - at first but quickly got tired by the repetition. Sometimes borders are a good thing.

Still though, cautiously excited all the same

gillholmes · 10-06-2014 4:53pm

This game looks strangely interesting.

Maximus Alexander · 10-06-2014 4:54pm

You've sort of expressed my own feelings better than I was able to there pixelburp.

Overheal · 10-06-2014 5:19pm

pixelburp wrote: »

Ha, the shot of the desert planet & its sandworms immediately made me think 'muad'dib'

I'd be the same as Adamantium, a game similar to what this appears to be has been a dream of mine since a kid; the ability to explore the universe and its countless planets, able to touch down on the surface without hindrance or limitation. It's funny how it has taken this long for a game to appear with (apparently) real-time surface to orbit transitions.

I would also share a little reservation however. The problem about promising a whole universe to play in is just that - it's a whole universe of content to supply. Factor in the procedural generation and I can't help but feel a little wary that without careful development, the experience might quickly repeat itself. The fact it's being made by 4 people is in itself utterly amazing and praiseworthy but also suggests they won't have the capacity to keep things too varied. I do love the art style though and makes a refreshing change from the kind of dull, metallic aesthetic of the likes of Star Citizen.

The trailer looks amazing but my cynicism suggests I'd quickly see the same wildlife on various planets, albeit with different colouring or whatever. Certainly in my own experience the problem I've found with a sprawling, limitless world is that it can quickly get boring when you start spotting the engine's limits. Starbound springs to mind here: I loved the game - and the idea of the game - at first but quickly got tired by the repetition. Sometimes borders are a good thing.

Still though, cautiously excited all the same

That reminds me perhaps this or another similar title had the idea that players would continue exploring the world and eventually trigger "World Events" like encountering alien menaces or forerunner world.

The lovely thing is the Procedural generation can serve an epic backbone to the game while you install whatever content you like.

Maximus Alexander · 10-06-2014 5:43pm

Overheal wrote: »

The lovely thing is the Procedural generation can serve an epic backbone to the game while you install whatever content you like.

I agree with this, but I think what often happens is that people sell their game on the procedural / infinite premise and then are afraid to add in lovingly created, non-procedural assets because they don't fit with the USP. In reality, using both to complement one another would be perfect.

Procedural worlds often end up feeling rather barren, even when they look beautiful, if that makes sense. There's usually no real substance.

Icyseanfitz · 10-06-2014 6:18pm

this is also a dream game of mine, as stated id like to see the transitions last longer but fair fecks to these guys! a small 4 person indie game is the only thing to have gotten me properly excited at this years e3!

Overheal · 10-06-2014 7:12pm

Kotaku editors also jizzed their pants:

http://kotaku.com/no-mans-sky-you-win-e3-forever-1588425328

OP updated with extra gameplay/in-engine vid and some gifs

STEGASAURUS

SPACESHIPS

OBELISKS

ROUND CIRCLEY STARGATE RESEMBLING THINGS IN THE BACKGROUND

Yes I also soiled myself.

Xenji · 10-06-2014 7:30pm

That new footage is really cool, hopefully we will get some release timeframe soon.

Overheal · 10-06-2014 7:33pm

Important to note even malware writers have a hard-on for No Man's Sky: Hello Games warns that you might see news about a Beta out already - it is a scam

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/01/17/no-mans-sky-developer-warns-of-beta-scam

No Man's Sky

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