Hello Games’ No Man’s Sky is one of the bigger indie titles we’re looking forward to this year, what with its immense scale and infinite replayability. There’s still a lot we don’t know about the game and managing director Sean Murray shared a few new details in conversation with Eurogamer.
“You can see the terrain is destructible, which is something we haven’t shown people before. We’re not sure how much we want to say because I don’t want it to become the thing. Even showing this I’m nervous, because people will think, ‘Oh, right – it’s like Minecraft’, and then it becomes that. ‘It’s the Minecraft in space game!’
Hello Games is also working hard to make resource gathering, an essential component for upgrading ships and further exploring the reaches of the universe, a fun exercise for players.
“So, a thing that we haven’t really shown off yet is resources. We’re not generally showing this – and it will look better in the finished game – but you can scan by pressing [the square button], and you can ‘see’ certain resources…You can look around.
“Resource gathering in every game is normally super boring, and people purposely make it like a chore. And we want it to be fun. It’s something we’re still playing about with. It’s quite fun to be able to do it from a distance, and we also have this grenade thing. Now this isn’t how it will look – it will be like plasma ball – you’ll just have to trust me. And that blows holes in the terrain. And if you’re really good…
“I find myself just doing this, being on a mountain and scanning and then just destroying everything around me. Doing the usual stupid things of drilling a hole and having an animal fall into it. Stuff like that keeps me amused. And when people are like, ‘What do you do [in No Man’s Sky]?’, the reality is, for some people just that, and that’s fine.”
No Man’s Sky will be out on PS4 and PC this year.