Mass Effect Andromeda Dev Experimented With No Man’s Sky-Style Procedural Planets

Ultimately went for quality over quantity.

Posted By | On 25th, Mar. 2017

Whether you think the side-missions are all annoying fetch quests or absolute bliss, no one’s denying that Mass Effect: Andromeda is a large game. With so many planets in the game to potentially look at, aside from the ones you actually explore, one has to wonder whether Bioware looked at procedurally generated planes like No Man’s Sky at some point.

According to Bioware’s Fabrice Condominas in conversation with Finder, it was an idea that the development team explored for a time. “Yes, obviously we are looking at what else is happening in the industry overall. In the specific case of No Man’s Sky, at the time it was released, we were already deep in development.

“But we noticed that it was very focused on procedural worlds and we tried that, actually, over a year. Our conclusion at the time was that it wasn’t for us in the sense that it wasn’t for the type of game we were doing. Because all the content we build we try and make to a high quality, but when we tried procedurally generated content we never reached the level of quality we wanted.”

So the same planets you can scan from space are the remains of those procedural generation experiments and were ultimately abandoned in favour of quality content. “That idea certainly crossed our minds and yes we tried those things, but in the end we went with quality over quantity. The game is already huge, so I don’t think people will feel lost on things to do.”

What are your thoughts on it all? Let us know in the comments.


Amazing Articles You Might Want To Check Out!

Share Your Thoughts Below  (Always follow our comments policy!)



Keep On Reading!

No Rest for the Wicked Trailer Highlights Positive Early Access Impressions

No Rest for the Wicked Trailer Highlights Positive Early Access Impressions

Moon Studios' Souls-like action RPG is available for PC via Steam Early Access and has received some praise de...

Counter-Strike 2 Update Adds Left-Hand Aiming, Dropped Weapons Panel, and More

Counter-Strike 2 Update Adds Left-Hand Aiming, Dropped Weapons Panel, and More

Dust 2 also returns with Overpass removed from the Active Duty map pool. Other maps like Inferno, Baggage and ...

SAND LAND is Out Now

SAND LAND is Out Now

Bandai Namco's action RPG based on Akira Toriyama's manga is playable on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, ...

Destiny 2 Xur Inventory – Knucklehead Radar, Lord of Wolves, Ophidian Aspect, and More

Destiny 2 Xur Inventory – Knucklehead Radar, Lord of Wolves, Ophidian Aspect, and More

The Lost Pacific armor, a new random roll for Hawkmoon, and several new Legendary weapons are also available a...

The Plucky Squire Gameplay Clips Showcase 3D to 2D Transitions, Jetpack, Combat, and More

The Plucky Squire Gameplay Clips Showcase 3D to 2D Transitions, Jetpack, Combat, and More

All Possible Futures and Devolver Digital's action-adventure title releases for PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, and...

Manor Lords Surpasses 150,000 Concurrent Players Upon Early Access Launch

Manor Lords Surpasses 150,000 Concurrent Players Upon Early Access Launch

Slavic Magic and Hooded Horse's medieval city-building RTS recently launched for Steam in early access.