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!

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Remake Adds Instant Party Swapping, Hint System, New NPCs, and More

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Remake Adds Instant Party Swapping, Hint System, New NPCs, and More

New details have emerged on some of the new features you can expect in the acclaimed RPG's upcoming remake.

Exodus Has “an Amazing, Diverse Cast of Companions”, Including Non-Human Characters

Exodus Has “an Amazing, Diverse Cast of Companions”, Including Non-Human Characters

The sci-fi RPG will feature a core cast of companions that will travel with the protagonist on all of their jo...

Exodus Dev Says Matthew McConaughey’s Character Has “a Big Presence in the Game”

Exodus Dev Says Matthew McConaughey’s Character Has “a Big Presence in the Game”

McConaughey's character will be an important one "from the very start until the very end and the epilogue," sa...

Exodus Will Have “a Huge Diversity” of Alien Species

Exodus Will Have “a Huge Diversity” of Alien Species

When asked about whether or not players will be able to play as a non-human characters, developers didn't give...

Slime Rancher 2 Launches for PS5 on June 11

Slime Rancher 2 Launches for PS5 on June 11

Monomi Park's first-person life sim game originally launched in early access for Xbox Series X/S and PC in 202...

BlizzCon 2024 is Cancelled, Will Return in Later Years

BlizzCon 2024 is Cancelled, Will Return in Later Years

Blizzard will reveal more details for World of Warcraft: The War Within and Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred "over t...