Dan Starkey's discussions

Again, you don't need perfect simulation. You're not thinking broad enough. They can play fast and loose with physics. But more than that when I spoke to Sean he mentioned their asteroids specifically did not obey standard physical laws. He didn't go into details, and he mentioned that they still crashed into planets… Read more

You can use a lot of abstraction. It doesn't need to match real-world physics exactly, and it shouldn't try because that's still impossible at any scale with current tech. You really don't have to model that much, and I don't know why it'd be unreasonable to just have a system that instantly makes you go the proper… Read more

So in the trailers I saw, there was mining, constructing, space combat, space travel, etc. Did you watch something else? Read more

Again, people still play Minecraft. Tens of millions of them. Read more

To you perhaps. Read more

I picked Minecraft as a reference point in the piece for that very reason. You don't really do anything in Minecraft other than... whatever the hell you want. I don't see why this would be much different. Minecraft works on exploration and user creation alone. Why not anything else. Read more

WHAT ABOUT WHEN THEY SLAM TWO GALAXIES TOGETHER AND THEM USE THEM AS A BEAM Read more

Surface area. Read more

Ah, but you're forgetting that there are things in space. No part of space is empty. At the very least we have quantum foam, a bit higher and we have stray particles. Space is very nearly empty, but it's not entirely empty. Read more

Pluto's pretty damned small. Fun fact: North America is larger than Pluto. Read more

Not sure if joke. Read more

I think that's a good perspective. I'm excited for No Man's Sky, but I'll admit I'm a sucker for anything that takes place in space. I've been looking for something that would truly make me feel I'm exploring a vast Universe, and I think No man's Sky gets as close as it needs to. But if we're being honest, the idea… Read more

Nobody from the team is really promoting these numbers. I find them personally interesting more than anything. It gives you an idea of how ridiculous numbers can scale really quickly. I added the trivia at the end because I think that's just really cool. Notch doesn't go around saying any of these things personally.… Read more

It's actual sales. Sony says 10 million is their sell-through rate, meaning that's the number of consoles in the hands of actual customers. Read more

That's partially right. If you were near Earth, you'd get a NASTY sunburn, but no long-term, permanent damage. Read more

Bingo. Game development and publication is expensive. They aren't trying to rip anyone off with those stretch goals — that's just what it costs. Read more

Amazingly, yes. Read more

Yeah, you're right. It is kind of strange and I've never considered it like that. Good point. Read more

That is a weird, almost-pattern. Read more

That's interesting. I'd never heard of someone being banned in DD. Read more