Norman’s Sky
While we’re waiting to see if No Man’s Sky lives up to our expectations, Ivan Notaros (who also made Library of Babbler) went and made Norman’s Sky for LOWREZJAM.
Exploring a universe in 64x64 pixels feels very Noctis-like. Every dot you see in the tiny, pixelated sky is a place you can visit, with seamless planetary landings.
That explorability is one of the things I like about procedural generation. You can make a space where there’s no backdrop, where even distant things are real objects.
It’s not the only way to get the effect, and you still have to take into account that there are going to be metaphysical limits to your interactions even if there are no physical limits. But the low-fi aesthetic here helps that: you don’t expect ultra-realism in a teeny window.
Ivan’s been talking about a possible continuation of the low-fi procedural space exploration, with maybe a few more pixels. Sounds like a good idea to me.