Developer Hello Games has somehow managed to fit its universe-sized space sim No Man’s Sky onto iPhone and iPad devices, and it’s partly thanks to the studio’s upcoming Light No Fire.
A decade after its hugely divisive launch and subsequent years-long comeback, No Man’s Sky will come to IOS on the 28th of October with all of its numerous updates included. Hello Games promise the game will run on devices going as far back as the iPhone 11, and pre-orders open today.
“For nearly three years, we’ve had this little side project. There’s something incredible about this universe fitting in your pocket,” studio co-founder Sean Murray said in a deep dive video (below). “We want console quality visuals and gameplay that you can play anywhere. We support touch, we support controllers, even mouse and keyboard. This is something I’ve loved working on.”
Murray also explained that Hello Games has made “tons of tweaks and improvements” that should benefit players on all platforms – PC, PlayStation, Switch and Xbox included. But once upon a time, the team thought a mobile port “would never be possible.”
Of course, iPhones have become increasingly powerful in the decade since No Man’s Sky first landed, though there’s another reason why the port can even exist and run today: Light No Fire.
“We have had to think really hard about where are we going to get this performance from, and how are we going to fit in our memory profile better,” Murray said while speaking to Polygon. “And some of those changes have come from Light No Fire. Things that we’ve been doing there where we’ve had to make things more performant, we’re going, ‘Oh, we can carry that across to all of this.’ It’s all one shared engine.”
Light No Fire’s been away from the spotlight ever since its reveal in 2023. In case you need reminding, it’s a co-op adventure game set on a procedurally generated fantasy planet. While No Man’s Sky aims for the stars, the studio’s follow-up strips things back ever so slightly to focus on depicting one open-world planet (rather than millions) “with no boundaries” this time.
Last month, Murray suggested that Light No Fire was quite far along, but he told Eurogamer (that’s us!) that he’s learned a “very important lesson of not talking about things” too soon. Alright, then, keep your secrets.