No Man's Sky Dev Announces Hello Labs Game Funding

The studio behind No Man's Sky has announced that it will be funding devs that want to experiment with procedural generation through a new venture, Hello Labs.

The studio behind the now infamous No Man's Sky, Hello Games, has announced that it's launching Hello Labs, a platform for funding small gaming projects. It will be focused on developers that are working on procedural world generation and experimental games; right now, Hello Labs has one project already in developed and would like to always have one or two projects on the burner as they move forward.

The founder of Hello Games, Sean Murray, made the announcement at the Game Developers Conference, as a surprise end to a presentation involving the math behind No Man's Sky. Murray said that his studio is trying hard to secure the future of procedural generation and that are setting aside money for projects they hope to improve this technology further.

"Making really neat, weird engine decisions, and letting them dictate a cascade of problems: it’s cool for me to be able to stand up and say to talented people like yourselves, we’re looking for that kind of thing."

That Murray isn't alone in seeing a future for procedural generation is shown by No Man's Sky receiving an award for innovation at the GDC. In this case, it's hard to argue with the numbers: Murray revealed in his presentation that to make the massive world of No Man's Sky took up just 300 MB. The developers of XCOM 2 also used this technology to good effect, keeping their game fresh regardless of how many missions players embark on.

That procedural generation also has its own risks went unmentioned in Murray's presentation, but it should be noted that the blame for the grinding many reviews of No Man's Sky mention can be placed firmly at that particular door.

No Man's Sky is available now on PC and PS4.