Will ‘No Man’s Sky’ become monotonous?

I’ve noticed an increasingly disturbing trend as of late in regards to Hello Games’ ambitious open-world sci-fi survival-adventure exploration game No Man’s Sky; being that the questions of “Is that all we do is just fly around and look at pretty shit?” and “Won’t the game get repetitive if all we’re supposed to do is explore?” continue to increasingly pop up. Though the former surprises me since graphics have been a bigger focus than gameplay in recent years.



In addition, statements and questions such as “This game looks fake,” “There’s no way indie devs could do this, this game won’t even be half of what they’re promising,” “How can this game really be infinite?” and “How could indie devs possibly do something like this when AAA-companies can’t even pull it off?!” Well my friends, sit back and allow me to explain everything, and put your worries to rest.



How could Hello Games make an infinite galaxy/universe?



Before we cover the real elephants in the room, it’s important to first understand what the game is and how it works. No Man’s Sky is a first-person open-world-sci-fi survival-adventure and exploration game set in an infinite and procedurally generated universe. Players will start at the outer edges of this universe on their very own (habitable) planet with a basic multitool that can scan for resources, detect and mine minerals, and comes equipped a personal defense weapon that can be used to fight and kill dangerous wildlife. They also begin with a basic life-pod that, while incapable of intersteller travel can still fly between the planets in the solar system the player spawns in. This life pod can be traded for a ship at a space station in the system, which can then be upgraded using collected resources. If the player is killed they will lose collected resources and respawn near their ship, while if their ship is destroyed, they lose that ship and respawn on the nearest habitable planet with the life pod they begin with, and will need to obtain and upgrade another ship.



Hello Games have a lore and a backstory in mind for No Man’s Sky, but they aren’t sharing it as they want the player to discover everything for themselves. They’ve stated that the game has no narrative, no missions, and no set goal, but one thing most players might try to do is reach the center of the universe. But they don’t have to. Instead they could just as easily become a botanist, or a zoologist on planet Nexus, the planet that they discovered and named, naming the plants and wildlife. Or they could become an adventurer, braving uncharted worlds and protecting trade routes from pirate attacks, or maybe they want to join up with the pirates. All of these options are possible.



So how can the developers create a universe that’s infinite? Math. How will it keep going? More math. Stifle your groans everyone, math is my worst subject too, as I’ve always been best with words and letters. But simply put, the developers built and coded their own engine which procedurally generates planets and star-systems using an advanced algorithm while at the same time adhering to sets of rules that ensure each planet is unique from every other planet while still being believable in what we understand to be scientific possiblity. Now, I’ll put that into layman’s terms for those of you like myself who have no idea what I just said.



The process begins with graphics designer Grant Duncan, who designs an art asset for the game, like say a tree for example. They then enter that tree’s model into the engine, and then the engine, which uses a system of sliders not unlike what we usually see in customization menus for games like Saints Row or The Elder Scrolls, creates infinite variations of that tree in terms of size, color, type of leaves, etc. However, this system works for everything in the game, and using the algorithms the game is able to continuously create limitless types of planets with limitless chemical compositions that determine things such as plant colors, while chemical compositions of the water in the seas will determine its color, and the composition of the atmosphere, type of star and proximity to it will determine things like sky color. These things will also determine what types of life will have formed and evolved on these worlds. At the outskirts of the universe, players will see things that would be familiar to them, but they will see more mutated and hostile alien creatures and environments the closer to the center they get. Resources will also start to get more rare and valuable as well.



This is also the reason nothing needs to load and seamless travel is possible, there’s nothing to load, just an algorithmic seed program generating everything on the fly and continuing to do so whenever the player plays. It should also be noted that a player can leave a planet and return to it, but when they return everything will still be as they remembered it. The seed only generates new things in areas the player has yet to visit, nothing will regenerate after a player leaves and returns.

A quote from Sean Murray, Founder of Hello Games:

“So as you’re flying towards a planet,” Murray said, “the planet has a seed and that defines what variants all the types of things will live there, what type of grass, what type of trees, whatever, and all of these have been generated as we fly towards that planet. By the time you get there it’ll all be there. Yeah, but it will always be the same, so as far as you’re concerned, if you fly to a planet and see a tree in that exact spot and I fly to a planet and see a tree, I’ll see the exact same spot.” - Polygon article, linked below.



Now, you might be asking how can a universe be infinite but still have an edge and a center? Well, one only needs to look at our own universe for answers. Imagine a circle with an infinitely expanding radius, the circle will always have a center but the edge is always expanding. The same basic principle applies to our own universe, as well as the one in No Man’s Sky. We likely won’t spawn at the actual edge, but very far out away from the center at the least.



That sounds really fun at first, but won’t it just become repetitive or monotonous after a while?



I think in order to best answer this question, we need to simply look at AAA-games that have things like missions, stories, and levels. Say you’re a Halo fan like me, for example. Everyone will pretty much have the same experience because the campaign always follows a linear narrative. You’re shoe-horned into the role of a super space marine with about as much color and personality as a dried up pickle, and you fight the same enemy classes throughout several hand-crafted levels that mostly consist of metalic corridors.



And that’s it, really. You can play through that campaign a hundred times, but it’ll be the same experience almost every time. The enemies won’t change, the story won’t change, the missions don’t change, the levels will never change. But that’s what the multiplayer’s for, right? Maybe, but even then you’re just shooting different players with the same loadouts on a handful of maps based on campaign locations that will, again, never change. Most people at this point would then explain wanting to learn the maps to exploit weaknessnes and use strategy, but this kills all the challenge, which will get old pretty fast once one has grown their e-peen to ridiculous levels. Sounds pretty monotonous and repetitious, doesn’t it?



But then again, Halo’s an FPS. Let’s look at a more open and free game, like say The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Skyrim offers you a lot of freedom and choice, you don’t have to do the main quest, or any quests. You can come out of the tutorial and immediately go trapsing off in a random direction, and then start exploring random dungeons to discover stories unique to them. But most of these stories boil down to bandits being royal pains or draugr coming to life in the crypts, and thus require you to kill them. Actual quests themselves are really just busy work. “Collect 30 Nirnroot. Go pick up my shipment of wine in Solitude and bring it to Riften. I need 20 jazbay grapes. I lost my X in dungeon Y, could you find it for me?”



And sure, you can humor these lazy NPCs clad in armor and boasting of bravery, and run their errands for them. However, most of the dungeons in Skyrim follow a similar design or layout, and are usually filled with the same generic bandits and undead draugr. Even just exploring the map to uncover these dungeons, Skyrim is only so big. Once you one-hundred-percent the game, what then? You can’t leave Skyrim. Dungeons may respawn their enemies and loot, but you’ve already faced those same enemies once, and by that point you’re probably rich with more money than you can spend, and chests at home loaded down with loot already. There’s no arguing that Skyrim has enough content to last months, but that content will end, and you can’t argue that this content fits the very definition of repetition and monotony.



Something keeps drawing us back to these games though, but what? Well that’s simple, we usually make up our own stories and fun at that point. One might try playing Skyrim as a pacifistic coward who can’t directly kill anything. Two friends could get together in a Halo custom game, set up bases at each end of the map with weapon stockpiles and try to infiltrate the other’s base and kill them in creative ways. Another question people continue to ask about No Man’s Sky is “But what’s the point?” This is the point, to explore the vastness of the universe and have-wildly unique and varied sci-fi adventures, in your own way to play! Be a pacifist, avoid conflict and equip your ship with a stealth drive. Be a pirate and plunder trade routes. Like I said before, Hello Games has a lore, a backstory behind the game, there is a rhyme and a reason to be there. They’re just not telling us, they want us to just jump into the game and discover it for ourselves.



The beauty of a game like No Man’s Sky is that the possibilities for something new are endless. Everything is procedural, the stars, the planets, the ecosystems, flora, fauna, ships, even the music and sounds will be procedural. There is no “You’re in a state called San Andreas and you’re stuck here in this game.” There’s no Luke Skywalker NPC to beg you to pick up his power converters for him. You’re in a legitimate universe with planet-sized planets, on a scale comparable to actual planets. No planet you visit will be the same as the last, you might see dinosaurs on one planet, while another might have floating islands with migratory amphibious fish that can fly. No two experiences will be the same for one person, and with that seed algorithm, this game can and will very likely go on forever. We’re not told what to do, or having our hands held by a disembodied voice tutorial. We’re just placed in this world, and left to play it whatever which way tickles our fancy.



So will No Man’s Sky ever become monotonous? From what we know about the game to be true, my answer is no, at least no more monotonous or repetitive than any AAA-titles we’ve seen over the years. Hello Games literally read through the gaming cookbook, ripped out the recipes for the brownish-grey Monotony Pie and began writing their own recipe for a fresh, new, colorful Mixed-Fruit Pie. They’re making the game of both their, and our dreams, and the less they add to make it familiar to those of us spoiled by years of linear on-rails titles and sandboxes closed off by invisible walls, the better! More power to you Hello Games, I have faith in you guys.



No Man’s Sky will be available for PC and will make it’s console debut on Playstation 4.

http://www.no-mans-sky.com

http://www.nmsfansite.com/

For more information, check out the following articles:

http://www.polygon.com/a/e3-2014/no-mans-sky

http://kotaku.com/how-a-seemingly-impossible-game-is-possible-1592820595

http://kotaku.com/what-no-man-s-sky-is-1592766016

http://www.joystiq.com/2014/06/18/no-mans-sky-name-your-own-dinosaur-get-eaten-by-it/

http://www.reddit.com/r/NoMansSkyTheGame/comments/28uq7y/faqinformation_dump_23062014/

For my first article on No Man’s Sky, check here:

http://swjs.tumblr.com/post/88729458500/no-mans-sky-best-of-e3-2014

One can find both E3 trailers in HD here:

E3 Gameplay Trailer

Infinite World Gameplay Montage