Disregard everything I said about No Man's Sky

Tomorrow, I'm going to trade in No Man's Sky.

I thought I loved No Man's Sky. I think I was just lying to myself. I think I had just forgotten what I was promised

Watching videos from the initial announcement up to a month (ish) before release made me cry a bit on the inside. Literally everything about the promo videos is amazing and looks like a bloody good game. But instead we were given....well....you know.

Looking at some of the things that were said about what No Man's Sky would include and how many of things are actually in the game, you just can't help but hate Hello Games.

I admired them at first, a small studio trying so hard for so long to create an incredible sci-fi adventure game. And what the produced isn't even close to what they promised.

Again, looking at the promo videos and comparing them to the finished game, you can see what is missing, and the list is long.

When it comes to promos, footage shown 3 years before the release of a game is going to look different when compared to the finished product. Which is fair. Some things are added, some things are changed, and some things removed altogether. And that is fine, as long as you address some of the features that have been removed and perhaps compensate for it.

If you look at some of the footage from around a month before release, it looks identical to the footage from 2/3 years ago. But the finished game is COMPLETELY different. Are you trying to tell me that you changed/removed that much from a game in one month? Nonsense. That is borderline false advertising.

When a small team takes on a big challenge, if it isn't quite up to scratch, they try and make it look as good as possible with what they have, admit their errors and add stuff in updates.

Hello Games have not done that. I mean, they are patching bugs, but they haven't seemed to apologise for basically selling us an unfinished pile of trash, nothing even close to what was shown in recent promo videos.

Just bear in mind, this game was delayed by about 2 months. Imagine what it would have looked like 2 months before it was released.

Hello Games promised us the universe, instead we got a crayon picture of the universe draw by a drunk, 3 year old ape.

Sorry for ranting*



*I'm not sorry at all.

A shortish review of No Man's Sky

I've been playing No Man's Sky since it came out (August 10th in the EU) almost non-stop.
I dunno if that gives a good impression right off the bat but I'll into more detail anyway.

I like to describe No Man's Sky as Minecraft, but with an extra 4th dimension. In No Man's Sky, you explore a procedurally-generated universe with randomly created planets, creatures and plant life. You can harvest, mine and buy resources to create new technology so you can explore even more of the universe. It doesn't really have that much of a story, other than a main questline involving something called the Atlas, some kind of entity (idk).

A lot of people say that it isn't great for a number of reasons. It lacks depth, the NPCs are static, the graphics are meh, the planets are basically all the same, the mining is rather monotonous and the crafting is tedious. And let's not forget the many bugs and glitches, but lets be fair, every game on launch has a couple of bugs and glitches. And they'll most likely get patched up in some updates, along with some other content they may add in.

I personally enjoy the game. I want to know what is at the centre of the universe and what the deal with the Atlas entity is. I enjoy scouring a planet looking for a chance at getting some decent blueprints or resources. There are so many little goals to strive for.

Ok I managed to keep that rather short, so that's good.

I tried to make this review as impartial as possible. All I'm saying is, No Man's Sky has it's issues, but I enjoy it.

My love/hate relationship with creating games

When you have an idea for a game, no matter how simple it is, you always underestimate how much you actually need to do and how long it will take, especially when you're doing it alone. Every single thing in the game has to be made (more often that not) from scratch. And that alone is quite daunting and time consuming.

But when you have all the visual assets done, and it's time to actually start putting stuff together.

This is the exciting part, and also the most irritating. It's like trying to create a Lego model but one piece isn't quite right and you spend way too long trying to fix it/find another piece.

If everything I did went smoothly, I could make something in probably 3 days. But all of those tiny unexpected problems just jump out of nowhere, the one thing that seems to be the most simple turns into a total nightmare. And sometimes, it means you have to find a new solution to something, which comes with 100 more problems. It's like that joke you might have heard amongst programmers:

99 little bugs in the code.
99 little bugs in the code.
Take one down, patch it around,
127 little bug in the code...

It's sad how true it is. Some people think making games is like being God. When in fact, it's more like Tom Hanks in Castaway trying to make fire. Making games is all about those little victories. Finally figuring out a problem that seems so insignificant, yet if it wasn't fixed, the game just wouldn't work/run.

An object finally spawns in the right location instead of 2 inches to the left? Arms are thrown in the air in celebration.

A sprite animation with perfect timing and fluidity? Champagne for everyone.

It's almost character building, it shows persistence, resilience and patience. If you gave up after the first error that you had been tackling for an hour, you wouldn't get anywhere. And then at the end, when you look back on the hours and days and nights you spent on this silly little game that really isn't going to get you any money or recognition, you'll think to yourself, "what the hell was the point in all of that?". But sometimes it's not about the money or fame, but it's about all the knowledge and skills you developed along the way

That sounds so damn cheesy...

sorry...