No Man's Sky Dev Wants To Avoid Over-Hype

One of the big upcoming games for home consoles and PC is Hello Games' No Man's Sky. The game has already developed quite a following and plenty of news coverage from big and small news sites alike. The game's meteoric rise to fame – even though it's still heavy in development – came from its dedication to showcasing actual gameplay footage and aiming big with ambitious ideas. Well, according to Hello Games, all the hype and media attention is great for getting a game coverage, but the hype can also ruin the potential of the game, too.

Examiner caught wind of quotes from Hello Games' studio founder, Sean Murray, who spoke to Gamespot about the studios' ambitions, aims, goals and why they've been trying not to over-hype their own game.

Murray explains that...

“I think that we strayed into this area that is not just excitement, but kind of like hype, and hype is your worst enemy as a developer, because it's that thing that's really impossible to deliver against. It's great that people have that excitement, but all it makes me want to do is actually go quiet and go and make the game.”

That's completely understandable. Sean comes across – based on his brief interviews and appearances on video – as a somewhat reluctant and uncomfortable person in front of the limelight. The game itself, No Man's Sky, is such a largely impressive title insofar that you can venture throughout the galaxy and explore all sorts of foreign planets, massive stars and discover things scattered throughout a procedurally generated universe.

Quite naturally, such a large title would seem daunting, even for a large AAA studio... Murray acknowledges this, saying...

"I think it is just pressure, you know? But I think the way we work we're happy with. I'll give you an example. Every other developer I meet keeps saying 'oh, how many is Hello Games now post-E3, it must be, like, 50 people? You must be hiring like crazy!' But that's not our attitude at all."We definitely don't want it to affect us. And I think it would be this ludicrous mistake as well. You could almost write it out that Hello Games would come back from E3, hire loads of people, go crazy, and never be seen again. But it's also quite nice that we have enough interest, because it allows us to just focus on making the game,"

It's amazing that Murray and crew are taking this in paced strides. They're not going out and recruiting 80 people and becoming a mega-monolith studio that runs the risk of caving in under its own weight; a problem that has consistently plagued many development studios out there.

The game itself is a lot like Minecraft, insofar that players will create their own quest lines and focus their efforts on growing into the game and its experience at their own pace. It's a rare feat that we don't see often from many games due to the risk of players continually complaining about boredom and a lack of things to do. No Man's Sky will be a serious risk in terms of following through with the aforementioned concept because it's easy for a game with procedurally generated galaxies/planets/etc., to fall victim to the same sort of roadblocks that a game like Starbound suffers from.

We'll be able to tell how well No Man's Sky turns out when the game launches in 2015 for the PS4 and PC first, followed by the other platforms at an undisclosed time.

Will Usher

Staff Writer at CinemaBlend.