Sprawling survival game Light No Fire is "crazy ambitious," says No Man's Sky creator Sean Murray, but it's part of an exciting trend: "It's a lot for a small team"

Light No Fire announcement screenshot showing open world exploration
(Image credit: Hello Games)

No Man's Sky creator Sean Murray is having a big week. First, he helped people understand the reverberating power of a single, eyedrop-sized Earth emoji. Then, on July 17, his development team Hello Games suddenly dropped the monumental, free No Man's Sky Worlds update — a "part one" update, no less — shifting fan hysteria from the Earth emoji to the vast, explorable planets waiting for them in No Man's Sky. But it doesn't look like Murray's momentum will run out any time soon. He promises that his upcoming game Light No Fire is also "crazy ambitious." 

"The last six months have been very busy for us," Murray wrote on Twitter. "We announced Light No Fire, and we released three major updates already this year. It's a lot for a small team…" But apparently Hello Games can't imagine slowing down. 

"Light No Fire is crazy ambitious and No Man's Sky updates continue at speed," Murray continued on Twitter, echoing the sentiment of the No Man's Sky Worlds press release: "Six months ago we announced Light No Fire," Murray said, "It’s this insanely ambitious game. Over the last five years making games, we’ve learnt new things, and we’re feeding that back into No Man’s Sky.

"It feels like we’re bringing technology back from the future!" he said. 

While Light No Fire does not yet have a release date, its announcement trailer and Steam description suggest the survival game will act as a luxurious sandbox version of No Man's Sky; it'll take place on a single planet instead of many, but it will also offer similar open-world traversal, multiplayer, and "the depth of a role-playing game," Hello Games says.

We won't know it until we play it, but if Hello Games' week has been any indication, it could be safe to assume that things are trending upwards for No Man's Sky fans.  

No Man's Sky Worlds Part 1 rolls out a suspiciously Helldivers-shaped addition.

Ashley Bardhan
Contributor

Ashley Bardhan is a critic from New York who covers gaming, culture, and other things people like. She previously wrote Inverse’s award-winning Inverse Daily newsletter. Then, as a Kotaku staff writer and Destructoid columnist, she covered horror and women in video games. Her arts writing has appeared in a myriad of other publications, including Pitchfork, Gawker, and Vulture.