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No Man’s Sky is arguably the most anticipated independent release of this generation so far, but Hello Games is optimistic that it won’t be the last small-budget title to experience a triple-A-level of hype.
Taking to Reddit for an AMA, CEO Sean Murray commented on the exposure given to the studio’s third-ever title, which included No Man’s Sky’s unveiling at E3 and release as a full-priced retail product.
“Sony has been super cool to work with, but mainly just because they haven’t been involved in development, you know?” he said. “We’re still sort of the underdog with Sony, and in the general triple-A (for obvious reasons).
“If NMS is a success, I think that probably will have a real impact in terms of how a lot of people in larger publishers view indie games. People generally think of NMS as a Sony title, but we’re still just a self-funded indie studio – it’s kind of a crazy situation.”
Murray also offered a window into the pressure put upon the small team by players’ growing expectations for the title.
“Obviously the hype is terrifying,” he admitted. “I mean, I have had this hanging over me for three years since we announced.
“It’s catch 22, if we hadn’t announced when we did, we probably would have quit the project without the community supporting us… but god… should I have passed up Colbert? Or E3? I dunno. Every time we showed the game we always assumed people would suddenly not like it anymore… but instead the hype would just get crazier.
“In an alternate timeline, imagine if we could just be showing it for the first time tonight and launching tomorrow? Imagine how fun that would have been…”
With regards to what might follow the hugely ambitious project, Murray revealed Hello’s desire to juggle larger undertakings such as No Man’s Sky with smaller projects such as its previous Joe Danger games.
“Initially I think we’ll all be supporting NMS,” he said. “But there are other ideas we’ve got rattling around in our heads too.
“There’s very few studios that pull off the two game thing, but supporting one game and then kicking off something new – that’s doable right?
“We’ve got another thing we’re already working on that’s unannounced. It’s a small experiment, but hopefully you all might like it.
“Maybe we can be the Johnny Depp of studios – do a mixture of big stuff and indie stuff?”
