It is a massive second for No Man’s Sky. This week sees developer Whats up Video games’ exploratory area sim celebrating its tenth anniversary, and to mark the event, I recently spoke with studio boss Sean Murray.
Amid all of the birthday festivities, although, I could not resist the chance to ask in regards to the crew’s different recreation. It has been almost three years since Whats up Video games unveiled its No Man’s Sky follow-up, Mild No Hearth – a co-operative journey set on a procedurally generated fantasy planet – within the type of a trailer. However whereas it is namechecked the sport a number of instances since then – most notably when some of its tech migrated to No Man’s Sky in 2024 – it is remained tightlipped in any other case. So, I requested Murray, when may we lastly hear extra?
“You understand,” he laughs after I broach the topic throughout our dialog, “I’ve discovered my crucial lesson of not speaking about issues beforehand. I’ll say, we’re up to now past the purpose the place we should always have stated one thing by now when it comes to what we’ve got on display, of what we’re taking part in each day.”
However as to when Whats up Video games may lastly be prepared to debate Mild No Hearth in additional element, Murray would not say. “I feel sooner or later we’ll, , let individuals see extra of the sport, and I feel that it will likely be very thrilling for individuals after they do see that. I feel what I’m taking a look at each day is nicely previous the purpose some other studio can be speaking about their recreation and displaying extra.”
Earlier within the dialog, Murray had famous that alongside No Man’s Sky’s persevering with improvement (“one other massive replace” is on the way in which for its decade-old area sim), the crew continues to be “working actually exhausting” on Mild No Hearth. He additionally acknowledged the “very stark distinction” between the promotion of No Man’s Sky in its earliest days and its newest venture. “We have put out a trailer [for Light No Fire], after which we have not stated something,” he continued, “and I feel that is in all probability the way in which individuals would like it in some methods too.”
“I’ve to chunk my lip to not discuss to you about [Light No Fire], and to not present it to individuals,” he added elsewhere in our dialog. “However I’m so extremely enthusiastic about it, and it’s so– it’s such a pleasure to work on.”
Mild No Hearth, which was formally unveiled at The Game Awards in 2023, is a recreation about “journey, constructing, survival, and exploration” set on an historic, procedurally generated planet the dimensions of Earth. It is all impressed by basic fantasy, and sees gamers teaming as much as “carve a life collectively” on a “really open world”, promising the likes of “immersive biomes, distinctive enemies and useful sources to find”. It is formidable stuff, and as someone who’s been playing and enjoying No Man’s Sky since that very first iteration in 2016, I am eagerly anticipating the day Whats up Video games is able to present extra.