Hello Games explains the unique art style of the procedurally generated No Man’s Sky in their most recent video. Check it out and prepare to fly!
No Man’s Sky will take us on an explorative journey very soon, on June 21. Since it’s official presentation during E3 last year, in which Hello Games chief creator Sean Murray got the controller and showed the core mechanics of their game, there has been a lot of talk and expectations around it.
No Man’s Sky relies on its procedural creation process, its expansive and atmospheric universe and the colorful nature of its art. We have been told that there are “quintillions” of planets to explore (18 quintillion, actually), factions and creatures to discover, that each gaming journey will be different and the chances to find another player will be slim.
The Procedural Beats of No Man’s Sky
In their latest video, the folks at Hello Games delve into the unique art style of their game and get a little bit deeper into its creation process.
For instance, art director Grant Duncan comments that the vision and vibe of No Man’s Sky is taken directly from the colorful Sci-Fi book covers of their youth. From all those illustrations that accompanied the classic stories of Asimov and Clarks, citing Chris Foss (a British sci-fi illustrator) as an example. The style of No Man’s Sky certainly looks vivid, very picturesque, almost painted. The team, Duncan explains, follows a color strategy for each of the planets and the procedural rules that create each one, making the colors match each other to create particular atmospheres. This also extends to the shape and meteorological circumstances.
“A planet has a personality,” says Duncan, “that’s what we are kinda of going for.”
Beau Lamb, one of Hello Games artists, also talks about how he took inspiration from Instagram to make the set of creatures that populate the game. They follow the rules of procedural generation too. From jellied fishes and squids to giant dinosaur-like planet dwellers, each of those beings has its own attributes and variations and will add an intrinsic element of surprise to each of the places we’ll explore.
This sense of awe seems to be one of the driving forces of the game, even for the team itself. The size of No Man’s Sky is so massive that the team launched their own probes around with the mission of bringing data from multitude of planets to see that the procedural rules are working as intended. And as it seems, they really are.
“At this stage of the project usually you will know the game inside and out […],” says Duncan, “and at this stage, in No Man’s Sky, we are still landing on planets, we are still meeting creatures […] and being like ‘wow!'”
For some gamers out there, the journey until June 21 will be painfully long. Don’t worry, explorers. You are not alone.
