For those of you who hadn’t noticed yet, Destiny and No Man’s Sky seem to have a lot more in common than just the sci-fi theme and space travel. No Man’s Sky UI design is questionably similar to the one used in Destiny, including the menu items and upgrade tree.
In an interview with Metro, Destiny’s Lead Designer Steve Cotton opens up about No Man’s Sky when asked about procedural generation. The UI similarities had obviously gone unnoticed at Bungie, as Cotton humorously implied that No Man’s Sky had copied the UI design from Destiny.
He also gave a more serious take on procedural generation, and why Bungie chooses not to go that route. When asked about open world designs, this is what he has to say, “That’s a really good question. We talk about this a lot. For us it’s not good enough to just make a bunch of real estate. Real estate has to be really well thought out, so you really try to create experiences. Everything is very… intentional. And so when you’re hand-crafting and – no offence against No Man’s Sky – but when it’s not done by someone by hand it’s hard to get experiences that are memorable.”
Talking about procedural generation as a concept, Cotton goes on to say, “There’s something very fascinating about it, as a concept, and there are games that can get it right, that do a good job with it. Like, Minecraft is a procedurally-generated world, but their game isn’t about that exactly.”
He also talks about Rise of Iron, the new expansion pack for Destiny that is set release on 20 September for the Xbox One and PS 4. You can read the entire interview here.
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