Insights from Hello Games on Light No Fire
Nearly three years have passed since the initial teaser for Light No Fire, the highly anticipated project from Hello Games, the studio renowned for its groundbreaking title, No Man’s Sky. In a recent conversation with PC Gamer, studio founder Sean Murray reflected on the journey of the game, coinciding with the 10th anniversary of No Man’s Sky.
During the interview, I inquired about the possibility of seeing more from Light No Fire before the year concludes. Murray revealed that there was a plan to showcase additional content at the Summer Game Fest 2024, but the overwhelming positive reception to the initial teaser altered his course of action.
“I did have a plan, and I thought, we’ll tease it with 90 seconds, and then we’ll show it again at [SGF], probably,” Murray explained. “But I don’t think we necessarily have shown the vision or the ambition of the game. I thought this will be a cool tease, and then we’ll show some more.”
Ironically, the very success of the teaser led to a pause in further revelations. “The reality is, it was incredibly popular,” he noted. “We just shot up like the Steam wish list charts. There’s, like, 20 million views on that tease. We’re the number two game on the [Steam] wishlist.”
Murray elaborated on the studio’s cautious approach, stating, “All of that, and given our past, made us feel like, okay, we don’t need to say anything more right now. Our attitude in general is to avoid saying anything to the press or outwardly unless we really, really need to, and sort of let the game do the talking.”
While he refrained from sharing any new footage, Murray mentioned he had the opportunity to play Light No Fire earlier that day. “What I’m looking at on screen is way, way beyond what any normal studio would have and not have shown more of it to the rest of the world,” he remarked. “We’re lucky from that point of view. We can kind of just keep [it] to ourselves, keep working on what we’re enjoying, and not have to spend our time marketing and hyping and showing the game to people.”
As for the question of whether we might catch a glimpse of Light No Fire before the year wraps up, Murray’s response was predictably cautious. “I’ve learned the very, very hard way to not talk about anything ahead of time,” he stated. “And our attitude in general is to avoid saying anything to the press or outwardly unless we really, really need to.”
