No Man's Sky (Windows)

No Man's Sky is a massive, space-exploration game where it uses procedural generation for pretty much everything. From planets, to alien life forms and more, the hype for the game was unreal at the time.

The game was critically panned at launch for failing to live up to a lot of the promises is made. For the time, it was considered to be one of the worst games ever to be released. The overwhelming negative reception didn't put down Hello Games enough to throw in the towel. In the months following the release, Hello Games released free update after free update to improve the game, add in missing features and ultimately making a massive U-turn after the NEXT update, making it one of the most beloved games ever released.

Nice work, Hello Games!

To do: Revisional Differences. There are also loads of new finds since this article was made.

Unused Graphics#

ANIMATEDTEXTURE#

An unusual texture of 4 colored boxes each numbered 1, 2, 3 and 4. It was very likely used to test animated textures.

Cube Test and Physics Test#

Two differently colored textures, which both resemble a face.

Joe Face#

A leftover texture of Joe Danger's face from the game Joe Danger, which Hello Games worked on previously.

Half-Life 2 Logo#

Two different Half-Life 2 logos. Why these are here is unknown.

Material Test Cube Mask Texture#

A texture most likely used for testing.

Material Test Cube Texture#

Another texture likely used for testing.

Checkerboard Textures#

Four checkerboard patterns most likely used for a test level.

Blue Monkey#

Three textures for a Blue Monkey wearing a fez, which is also left over from Joe Danger.

Chicken Body and Head#

Another leftover from Joe Danger featuring two textures for a green chicken.

Jelly Diffuse#

A basic texture with a few colors and a face.

Dog Icon#

An unused icon. It shows a golden retriever with glasses on.

Buy Ship#

What seems to be an early render of a ship with a dollar sign.

Early Model Renders#

What appear to be early low quality renders of models in the game.

SM CREATURE RENDER#

A small render of an unknown creature.

Placeholder Starship Weapon - "Laser Blaster"#

If the player edits their save file to delete the Photon Cannon system (the primary and default weapon) and boards their Starship, the Starship will still attempt to load the Photon Cannon and fail. What it loads instead is an unused weapon called Laser Blaster as described in the Starship Cockpit's weapon panel. It fires no projectiles (or lasers), does not change the gun reticule, has no ammo count or overheat potential, and cannot be cycled back to if the pilot changes the current weapon.