Introduction
This month marks the ninth anniversary of the release of No Man’s Sky, first published in 2016. Its launch generated extraordinary hype, but excitement soon gave way to disappointment before years of updates transformed the game into something far beyond its original form.
I followed that launch with interest, not because of its marketing, but because of its technical idea. I had long been fascinated by procedural generation, first through Benoît Mandelbrot’s The Fractal Geometry of Nature (1983). The thought that mathematical patterns and pseudo-random generators could create entire planets felt like a direct application of that theory. When I finally played the game seriously in 2023, I saw both its possibilities and its flaws. The planetary biomes—radioactive, toxic, cold, hot, desert, and hospitable—introduced hazards and defined local economies. Yet their repetition made the differences difficult to perceive. Critics noticed the same issue at launch: Philip Kollar (2016) argued that survival mechanics overshadowed exploration, while Sam Machkovech (2016) praised the technical achievement but described the gameplay as monotonous. I think of this as the “oatmeal problem”: each bowl is technically unique, but one day’s serving feels very much like the last.
Now, in 2025, Hello Games continues to expand the title. The most recent update, Voyagers, introduces corvette-class ships with explorable interiors and a reworking of planetary systems (Hello Games, 2025). After a year away, I plan not only to return but also to begin a series of blog articles. Some will offer practical hints for play, others will reflect on the game as a design experiment, and still others will narrate the events of my own sessions as I dedicate one hour each day to play.
References
Hello Games. (2025, August). Voyagers: Introducing Update 6.0. No Man’s Sky. https://www.nomanssky.com/voyagers-update/
Kollar, P. (2016, August 9). No Man’s Sky isn’t the game I expected: Thoughts on the first 10 hours. Polygon. https://www.polygon.com/features/2016/8/9/12408750/no-mans-sky-first-impressions-review-preview-10-hours/
Machkovech, S. (2016, August 15). No Man’s Sky review: Total eclipse of the galaxy’s heart. Ars Technica. https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/08/no-mans-sky-review-total-eclipse-of-the-galaxys-heart/
Mandelbrot, B. B. (1983). The fractal geometry of nature (Updated and augmented.). W.H. Freeman.