Sean Murray's follow-up to an infinite sci-fi universe is a single planet—but it's a big one.
It may seem strange for a developer that created a galaxy filled with trillions of planets to follow it up with a game where there’s only one. But No Man’s Sky developer Hello Games is doing just that: Light No Fire, its next open world survival adventure, will be contained to a single planet. Thing is, that planet is big. Real big.
No Man’s Sky was huge in a lot of ways. It was a huge hit, a huge controversy, and it was just plain huge in nature: a galaxy with more procedurally generated planets than millions of players could ever explore in a lifetime. But making a game that takes place on a single planet is still plenty ambitious, because that planet is legit the size of Earth.
Interested? Yeah, we are too. Here’s everything we know about Light No Fire, including its announcement trailer, gameplay details, and a few quotes from Hello Games founder Sean Murray.
Light No Fire Release
Light No Fire has no release date yet (sorry)
The release date of Light No Fire has yet to be announced, and at this stage we don’t even have a release window locked down. The game was announced at The Game Awards in 2023, where Sean Murray said Light No Fire had been in development for “the last five years.”
With now seven years of development time, we hope it won’t be too much longer to wait, but if Light No Fire is coming out in 2025, 2026, or beyond, we simply don’t know yet.
Light No Fire trailer
Here’s the Light No Fire announce trailer
The announcement trailer from The Game Awards is, so far, the only real look we’ve gotten at Light No Fire. The Steam store page doesn’t give us much else: all the screenshots are taken right from the trailer. There have been no other teasers or art, so drink in that trailer: it’s really all we’ve got right now.
Luckily it shows us a lot, and what’s there looks pretty interesting.
Light No Fire setting and genre
What’s Light No Fire all about?
Light No Fire takes place on a multiplayer, procedural earth, a virtual planet the size of our real planet. Instead of the futuristic science-fiction of No Man’s Sky, this is a fantasy world: in the trailer we see skeletons, dragons, bipedal rabbits, and giant birds that can be ridden as flying mounts.
Instead of space-age buildings we see cabins made of wood and stone. Low-tech weapons and magic will take the place of sci-fi ships and space stations.
“Light No Fire presents you with an ancient earth to uncover,” says the official site (which doesn’t provide any additional videos or screenshots). “Thick with lore, mystery and a constant fight for survival. Inspired by the adventure, charm and imagination that we love from classic fantasy.”
Light No Fire features
What features will Light No Fire have?
We can speculate a little based on the official website, which states “Light No Fire is a game about adventure, building, survival and exploration together. Set on a fantasy planet the size of Earth, it brings the depth of a roleplaying game to the freedom of a survival sandbox.”
In the trailer we see players building houses, using mounts which they presumably have tamed, and doing a lot of exploring. “Meet players from across the globe, build a life, explore and survive together. Construct persistent buildings and communities, or strike out alone to discover the world for others,” the official site says.
One player appears to be near an obelisk, there are also ruins, and some other large structures to find in the world. These were all features in No Man’s Sky, too, and monoliths could provide players with rewards for solving puzzles. It’s unknown how these similar structures work in Light No Fire, however.
Hello Games keeps updating No Man’s Sky, so is it even working on Light No Fire?
From the sound of it, yes, work on both games is happening at the same time. In fact, the work on Light No Fire is leading to updates for No Man’s Sky, according to Murray.
“The team is extremely busy on Light No Fire,” he said in January 2025. “Each time we push our engine to new places though we have this urge to share it with the community, with No Man’s Sky.” That includes new engine updates, lighting systems, and water physics.
Light No Fire multiplayer
How many players will Light No Fire support at once?
Another unknown. We can see up to 10 players in the trailer, and No Man’s Sky supports up to 32 players in the same instance. But again, we can’t confirm that yet for Light No Fire. Stay tuned.
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