5) It’s The Work Of A Tiny Studio
No Man’s Sky is a labour of love for Hello Games, a small dev house based in Guildford, England. The studio is comprised of roughly 20 staff and they’ve pulled off the biggest game ever: no small feat when you consider that the Assassin’s Creed franchise pulls in 400+ staff members.
What No Man’s Sky really proves is that insurmountable odds produce remarkable engineering solutions. Hello Games waned to build a space epic but couldn’t employ the manpower to build every blade of grass. So they devised a formula that would do it for them.
The upshot is that there’s a surprise waiting around every corner – for the developers included. In an industry that has aped films and books by presenting carefully crafted locations and narratives, No Man’s Sky uses technology to deliver an experience no film and no book could ever match. Added to that, it looks fantastic, too – a world rich with colour and personality that could only exist in this medium.
It’s made Hollywood sit up and notice, arresting the attention of the world. Why? Because it’s a monumental feat of engineering. If you’re not impressed watching No Man’s Sky in action, you don’t have a pulse. This game sets a new market for the medium going forward.