No Man’s Sky: A Whole Universe to Explore [PSBlog]

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Hello PlayStation.Blog! I’m Sean Murray, and I work at a little indie studio in the UK, making a game called No Man’s Sky on PS4. I’m writing this on a plane back from Gamescom, where we showed some press the game behind closed doors.
We’ve only done three days where we’ve talked to press about the game so far (two at E3 and one at the VGXs last year), but for an indie game we’ve had lots of interest and excitement. Something I’m still struggling to get my head around. So much so that I didn’t actually want to go to Gamescom! We’ve never actually shown any European press the game though, and we felt bad about that.
PlayStation provided a room and I gave a hundred press a demo of the game for an hour, together with a really rambling presentation… where I apparently never looked up at the crowd once.
I can’t really remember what I said, but I guess I wanted to share some stories from development, and I thought maybe you’d find them interesting, too.
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We tell people No Man’s Sky is a science-fiction game, set in an infinite procedural universe. When I read sci-fi growing up, though, the thing I always wanted to experience was the feeling of touching down on a planet that no one had ever been to. To walk over the crest of an alien landscape and not know what I might find.
My favorite moment so far from making No Man’s Sky happened a few months back. David was adding four-legged creatures to the game (he insists on calling them ungulates), Hazel was adding a weather system, and Ryan was adding collision to all the trees (which is really hard when you have a whole forest full of them).
I hadn’t seen any of this, and I was flying around the universe, trying to take some screenshots. I neared the surface of a planet and suddenly it started to rain. As I was touching down I scared some deer who broke through the woods, dodging in and out of trees. Now this was jaw-dropping to me, because I’ve never seen any of these systems before, but also it felt like this was a real place I’d discovered. No one had been there before, and I didn’t know whether to shout excitedly, or just keep it to myself.
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In a nutshell, moments like that are No Man’s Sky for me. Sure there is trading, combat, weapons, ships, and a core game, but really for me the quiet moments of discovery are what it’s all about.
The cool thing is that every planet has a single number, a random seed, that defines everything about that planet. A single random seed generates every blade of grass, tree, flower, creature. So as the developer I can note down the planet seed, and then just go back there any time I want. We demoed this at Gamescom, just jumping round the universe to different planets. There are no load times, because nothing needs to load, as the planets are entirely computer-generated.
Really this seed defines how many planets you can discover before things start to go a bit crazy and undefined. For us we choose a big number. We’re working to a 64-bit system, which is 2 to the power of 64… or 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 possible planets. Even if a planet is discovered every second, it’ll take 585 billion years to find them all!
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Being a coder, I really enjoy the tech side of things, but that’s not what’s important. What’s important is how interesting, varied, and exciting we can make this universe of ours. That’s what developing No Man’s Sky really is. It’s about filling the universe.
The procedural technology does lots of that for us, but we have to provide it with the sparks, like the patterns of spaceship design that we think look great, and different types of creature and the way they vary. We have to build the systems, the rules. We’ve shown so far creatures that you’ll be familiar with, but we’re thinking now about creatures that look far more alien, and they’re slowly changing the way even we’re perceiving the universe. It’s getting weirder, maybe not so friendly, and surprising us at every turn.
It’s been a joy to see the game boot every day as No Man’s Sky becomes richer and more varied and we see more surprising things, but it’s also sort of frustrating, because it’s so hard to share our excitement at what we’ve been creating. It has never felt right to just go and show off lots of a game that’s about discovery. It’s like that should be up to you when you finally get to play. I can’t wait for that, and it just makes me want to finish the game as soon as we can.
And my plane has just landed! Thanks again for everything, and we’ll talk again soon.
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Via - http://blog.us.playstation.com/2014/08/26/no-mans-sky-a-whole-universe-to-explore/

18,446,744,073,709,551,616 planets!!!
insert over 9000 joke

Lock if old
 
Being a coder, I really enjoy the tech side of things, but that’s not what’s important. What’s important is how interesting, varied, and exciting we can make this universe of ours. That’s what developing No Man’s Sky really is. It’s about filling the universe.
The procedural technology does lots of that for us, but we have to provide it with the sparks, like the patterns of spaceship design that we think look great, and different types of creature and the way they vary. We have to build the systems, the rules. We’ve shown so far creatures that you’ll be familiar with, but we’re thinking now about creatures that look far more alien, and they’re slowly changing the way even we’re perceiving the universe. It’s getting weirder, maybe not so friendly, and surprising us at every turn.
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So the devs are actually thinking about filling the universe with interesting stuff? Nonsense! I've been hearing around here that this game will be nothing but empty planets! ;)

Really can't wait for this one. It must be a daunting task but if done well enough they will have the game of the century on their hands I think. With endless potential and possibility.
 
From what I understand, from what they have said, 10% of those planets will offer more than a rocky husk. Of those, a further 10% will have something unique and crazy about them. Apparently it is meant to be weighted so that the odder stuff happens as you journey to the centre.

I really hope that the game isn't too barren for players though. I remember Liberation (CD32) used to ship with the premise of how it would take a lifetime to complete. Not sure why that was seen as a benefit.
 
he mention trading, what are we trading btw? is there like material you gather? also, is it trading with other player or is it just some in game economy with npc?
 
Callibretto said:
he mention trading, what are we trading btw? is there like material you gather? also, is it trading with other player or is it just some in game economy with npc?
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I doubt it's trading with other players. More likely trading at space stations, settlements, etc.. that you come across.
 
I think that there really needs to be an honest discussion about 'open world' design. I'm excited for NMS, too, but I hesitate to call most of these games real open world as opposed to 'a really large space'. GTA 5 is one of the few games that realistically attempts to capture a living open world (even though it more of a state).
 
Callibretto said:
he mention trading, what are we trading btw? is there like material you gather? also, is it trading with other player or is it just some in game economy with npc?
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Yes, you need to find materials on these planets to upgrade your ship,armor and gun.
 
The planets thing sounds super hype, but discussion of the core systems of the game have been continuously dismissed over and over again.

I really hope this game delivers a fraction of what it could be. Right now my mind wants to fill in the gaps with endless possibilities, and that's simply not fair.
 
BlackBanditSho said:
I think that there really needs to be an honest discussion about 'open world' design. I'm excited for NMS, too, but I hesitate to call most of these games real open world as opposed to 'a really large space'. GTA 5 is one of the few games that realistically attempts to capture a living open world (even though it more of a state).
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How so? Just because GTA copies our world pretty much 1:1, how is a game like this not open world? What is your definition of open world?
 
I expect cool things from this game. Good to hear they are focused on making unique things to discover in addition to the core gameplay.

I mostly want to explore since so many other games are all about shooting.
 
KentBlake said:
What does that mean (G.O.A.T.)?
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Aug-8-goat-eats-at-KLO-Orchards-300x225.jpg
 
That's sounds nice. This game sounds nice, but so far they are not taking about the game part of the game. Yes you can explore and do stuff, but how does the game play, what are the mechanics.

This smells like they are hoping to sell the game based entire on numbers than on mechanics. It also feels like the way a lot of games especially mmo focus on something like graphics, open world long enough to distract you and get your money.
 
That sense of discovery is going to be the best part for me as well. Leaving one world, flying through the atmosphere and into space and then landing on another completely different world that is totally alien in it's own way will be an experience unto itself. I really hope they pull this off.
 
I'm really baffled as to why so many people are interested in this game. A group of space deer runs away from you, and that's a mind-blowing game? All the randomly generated territory seems like a bug rather than a feature. How could this stuff ever be as interesting as something that's intentionally designed down to the inch? This strikes me as something which will emerge as a bloated alien rather than a sleek spaceship. A billion planets and nothing interesting to do on any of them.
 
JeTmAn81 said:
I'm really baffled as to why so many people are interested in this game. A group of space deer runs away from you, and that's a mind-blowing game? All the randomly generated territory seems like a bug rather than a feature. How could this stuff ever be as interesting as something that's intentionally designed down to the inch? This strikes me as something which will emerge as a bloated alien rather than a sleek spaceship. A billion planets and nothing interesting to do on any of them.
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The way I see it, the RL universe is randomly generated. Yet from what we know about it, it's fucking amazing (atleast to me).

The reason why "randomly generated" puts people off is because up until now we only have the tech to generate on a very simplistic scale game wise. Things can only be so detailed. If more work is put into the algorithm, there is an exponential opportunity for more detailed creations.

Check out algorithmic art.

Octopod_by_syntopia.jpg

(from wikipedia)

Technically a computer created that, but a human wrote the algorithm. Thats where the "art" is or whatever you want to call it.
 
I hope they show some proper gameplay loops and mission design in the near future. I still don't know anything about the structure of this game.
 
This game is going to be one of my most played games on PS4, I know it. The only thing that would make this experience any better would be Morpheus support, which it will likely have. I can't believe we're already seeing some truly incredible games and we're not even 1 year in. This and PT in VR will be incredible and I would imagine more Morpheus titles will be announced next years E3 and beyond (like Gran Turismo, but don't get me started on how hyped I am for seeing GT7 and in Morpheus).

I'm not concerned at all about the Procedural Generation, I know enough of it to understand what it means and how it works on a very basic level. If this releases before Morpheus, (conjecture was around April I think from a comment Murray made) I can foresee I will play through Remote Play on my Vita, especially for the colour palette, just blissfully strolling through solar systems, landing in and out of planets and just observing. I can forsee it might take me a long while to visit more than a dozen different planets as I'll just want to be exploring everything I see. If it's anything like how I am with Don't Starve where I see something, I go over to pick that up and see something else so I veer off and get that and so on and so forth; it's going to take me a looong time to reach the centre of the galaxy.
 
MMaRsu said:
How so? Just because GTA copies our world pretty much 1:1, how is a game like this not open world? What is your definition of open world?
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Not necessarily picking on NMS, but the idea of quality over quantity is starting to resonate with me. Anybody who has flown in a plane or done any traveling would tell you that if someone can capture the experience of simulating ONE planet, it would be impressive. I live in Los Angeles, which is drastically different from, say, New York, which is remarkably different from even Santa Barbara. Not to mention the water, the desert towns, the coastal towns, the mountain regions, the eco system in the water...

We haven't even touched on the idea of the various continents and the differences in cities there.

I'm sure NMS will be fun. However I wish somebody would make an 'open world game' with the type of care that Rockstar puts into one GTA game, but utilizing fantasy or Sci Fi settings. It appears that The Witcher 3 will comes the closest to that.

When I'm playing GTA 5 it's almost surreal how it feels when I'm driving from Los Angeles to Santa Monica, to Riverside (I forget the analogous GTA names), to the desert. I really feel like i'm driving to those places with different people that live their lives outside of the programming of the game. The world feels REAL.

I'd be more impressed with NMS with just a few full planets over THOUSANDS.
 
jett said:
I hope they show some proper gameplay loops and mission design in the near future. I still don't know anything about the structure of this game.
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I don't think there is gonna be any set missions other than "get to the center of the universe". How you accomplish that is up to you. You can be a miner. An explorer. A trader. A bounty hunter. Murray has been very vocal about his inspiration from DayZ and Minecraft and how he is not a real big fan of traditional gaming levels/mission structure, at least not for this game. I think the structure will he a lot like those games. Create a huge world and some basic gameplay mechanics and let the players loose.
 
What the fuck is the actual GAME PLAY like though. There's like zero information of what the game actually is instead of nothing but smoke and mirrors so far. Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty hyped about the game... but I'm starting to feel a bit cautious about this whole thing.
 
Artadius said:
What the fuck is the actual GAME PLAY like though. There's like zero information of what the game actually is instead of nothing but smoke and mirrors so far. Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty hyped about the game... but I'm starting to feel a bit cautious about this whole thing.
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Smoke and Mirrors
  • the obscuring or embellishing of the truth of a situation with misleading or irrelevant information.
And what would those be in this case? I've got a pretty good idea of what the game is intended to be based on what Mr. Murray has said in interviews. Not showing gameplay beyond what has been shown in interviews and trailers (which were stated as recorded gameplay) is not the same thing as lying and obfuscation.
 
jett said:
I hope they show some proper gameplay loops and mission design in the near future. I still don't know anything about the structure of this game.
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Yep. The media is trying to hype this game up so much and there's so much we don't know. It's turning into another Destiny situation where we need to see it properly to actually 'get it'.
 
Every time I hear something about NMS I get excited. I can't wait for this game to come out. Space fantasy games have always been my niche and favorite genre, Mass Effect just increased and hopefully NMS continues this trend. The universe is a vast place and hopefully Sean Murray can deliver the goods!

But it could all come crashing down like with WatchDogs, where we were hyped a TON by Ubisoft and it all resulted in a very subpar and disappointing game.
 
Fushichou187 said:
Smoke and Mirrors
  • the obscuring or embellishing of the truth of a situation with misleading or irrelevant information.
And what would those be in this case? I've got a pretty good idea of what the game is intended to be based on what Mr. Murray has said in interviews. Not showing gameplay beyond what has been shown in interviews and trailers (which were stated as recorded gameplay) is not the same thing as lying and obfuscation.
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I'd say at this point with how much people are clammoring for actual gameplay information... there's alot of irrelevant information out there. It's all about the game play experience. So far we've been shown some pretty tech demos.
 
My big question with this game is how interesting will these planets be to fully explore (or even at least partially explore). I mean, will the area I touch down in basically be what the entire planet essentially looks like? If I see a mountain in the distance, is there any real exploration purpose in trying to get there outside of just running across expected resources for trade?
 
In every single thread about this game people always want to see more gameplay, but more what exactly?!

Ever since those great three Gamespot videos I have felt like I have a pretty good idea of what exactly the game is going to entail.

They are aiming to capture that certain indescribable feeling of wonder one might have when actually discovering a new world for the first time, which will only be diminished if they release a paint by numbers gameplay video showcasing everything in serious detail..

From what we have seen so far I know there is exploration, jetpacks, mining, dogfighting in space, encounters with an unknown alien race, trading and possilby pirates etc.

Alongside that, of course there is a narrative driving the game. Do people really, seriously need to know every detail of that right now to know how this game is going to play?
 
The cool thing is that every planet has a single number, a random seed, that defines everything about that planet. A single random seed generates every blade of grass, tree, flower, creature. So as the developer I can note down the planet seed, and then just go back there any time I want. We demoed this at Gamescom, just jumping round the universe to different planets. There are no load times, because nothing needs to load, as the planets are entirely computer-generated.
Click to expand...

A very interesting concept. Though I do wonder how it works as far as dynamic content such as minerals that have already been mined or animals that are constantly moving.
 
Raven77 said:
My big question with this game is how interesting will these planets be to fully explore (or even at least partially explore). I mean, will the area I touch down in basically be what the entire planet essentially looks like? If I see a mountain in the distance, is there any real exploration purpose in trying to get there outside of just running across expected resources for trade?
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Sounds like the answer to that is no. Land on planet, explore a bit, gather resources, move on. That's the gameplay they've described so far.

Blanquito said:
A very interesting concept. Though I do wonder how it works as far as dynamic content such as minerals that have already been mined or animals that are constantly moving.
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It's been said that there is no persistence. When you leave a planet it defaults to its fresh state. They only store the 64 bit seed for the planet, not the planet data itself. Otherwise it would be impossible to store all that data.
 
I don't know why the devs don't just make a compairson to Minecraft. This is basically the same idea on a larger scale. Minecraft uses the same concept of (near) infinite worlds generated procedurally, each from a unique seed number.
 
nynt9 said:
It's been said that there is no persistence. When you leave a planet it defaults to its fresh state. They only store the 64 bit seed for the planet, not the planet data itself. Otherwise it would be impossible to store all that data.
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Oh I didn't know that. They have mentioned things like finding other players (though it is extremely rare)... how would the system then handle that situation? Would you be seeing the same planet as I am, or would the planet reset itself while I am on it or something? Just things that are popping into my head.
 
Have they said anything about upgrading your ship ? Will we be able to build our own ships, will we be able to fly bigger ships etc ?
 
ckohler said:
I don't know why the devs don't just make a compairson to Minecraft. This is basically the same idea on a larger scale. Minecraft uses the same concept of (near) infinite worlds generated procedurally, each from a unique seed number.
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Probably because the game they're building isn't going to play like Minecraft. Yes, Minecraft pioneered & popularized procedural generation which this game uses, but just because it borrows one aspect doesn't mean we need to apply that "Minecraft" label.
 
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