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Game Developers have a very different take on No Man’s Sky than many fans

There's been no shortage of opinion on No Man's Sky since it released last week, and now developers from around the industry are chiming in with their takes on the infamous space exploration game, and some of them are rather profound. While fan opinion ranges from "boring" to "incredible", developers seem to have a much more intuitive response to the game in terms of the translation from game systems, to immersion, to the emotional response of the player.

Here's what a few of them said:

Samantha Kalman, director of Timbre Interactive (Sentris)

"I think it's a profound achievement in scope and scale."

Alexis Kennedy, a founder of Failbetter and creative director on Sunless Sea and Dragon Age: The Last Court

"Imagine an alternate universe where Star Trek had had no plot or characters, just a different colored planet with different shaped rocks and new animatronic puppets each week; but Nicolas Roeg directed, and Jim Henson had done the puppets. I'd watch at least a few episodes of that."

Bennett Foddy, designer of QWOP, Sportsfriends, and GIRP
"No Man’s Sky is essentially European, echoing Elite, Mercenary, and Captain Blood. If you’re expecting Wing Commander you’ll be disappointed. In the context of the prior games in the genre, it’s nice! But the style of the genre is ‘empty space,' letting your brain fill in a lot.
English devs in particular have a long history of making expansive space exploration games. Not just Elite but Damocles, Starglider, etc. (It's surely no coincidence that the pre-eminent American designer of these games, Chris Roberts, grew up in England.) The design is: 'here's an infinite procedural world. I hid a game in here, see if you can find it.'"
Robin Hunicke, co-founder of Funomena and producer of Journey
"I felt surprisingly guilty harvesting resources from a pristine landscape, especially since it involved shooting them. When I realized the Sentinels were drawn to me based on the rate of my pillaging — I felt like the designers had done something good. I like the idea of games moving away from the idea that you can take anything you want from a place (or its people) to survive."
If you consider how developers look at No Man's Sky, it certainly puts the game in a very different light. And what they say does make a lot of sense; particularly Bennett Foddy's point about the design philosophy being European in nature. But for a fan, that does all come down to personal taste. If you are the type that likes to create their own adventure within a certain set of game rules (not totally unlike Dungeons & Dragons, which a lot of developers LOVE to play), then it stands to reason that No Man's Sky is likely for you.
While things will get better over time via content updates and (hopefully) mod communities, the ship has likely sailed on the idea that No Man's Sky will ever be a universally acclaimed game.

Source: [Gamasutra]

Daniel R. Miller

I'll play anything at least once. But RPG's, Co-Op/Competitive Multiplayer, Action Adventure games, and Sports Franchise Modes keep me coming back. Follow me on Twitter @TheDanWhoWrites

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