IdeaWell

Project ideas from Hacker News discussions.

No Man's Sky Cosmos

Original Article

Hacker News Discussion

📝 Discussion Summary (Click to expand)

Theme 1 – Financial sustainability funds free updates

“‘Just’ 1‑2 million copies would go a long way to fund a small passionate team.” – embedding‑shape
“No Mans Sky has sold over 10 million copies.” – royal__

Theme 2 – Procedural generation feels shallow and repetitive

“A mile wide, and an inch deep.” – margalabargala
“Every planet is ‘different’, … but they move the same and act the same. Yawn.” – kjs3
“If your proceduralism doesn't generate easy‑to‑hard solvable problems … its not really adding to the gameplay, only the visual experience.” – WhatIsDukkha

Theme 3 – Updates serve as testing/engine development for Light No Fire

“The enhancements they're making to NMS appear to be backports from the Light No Fire engine … they are releasing updates to No Man's Sky as a marketing effort while the actual technical work is predominantly on the next game.” – rpdillon
“I’d say that the updates into NMS are large‑scale playtests of LNF engine updates, game systems, or both, rather than marketing.” – simoncion
“Part of me is secretly hoping / assuming they’re releasing new features as a testing bed for the changes in Light No Fire.” – t‑writescode

Theme 4 – Sandbox appeal varies by player; some find it boring, others enjoy creative freedom

“It still feels to me, a decade later, more like a very very impressive tech demo than a video game.” – helle253
“I come back after every major update and still find myself bored after a few hours.” – simoncion
“It's a great game to play with friends… build your fantasy space home. It's relaxing, fun…” – magic_hamster
“It was sold as, is, and will always be a sandbox game … Some of us spend 3000 hours in the game because we love the creating and sandbox feel of it.” – t‑writescode

🚀 Project Ideas

Generating project ideas…

QuestForge: Procedural Quest Engine with Handcrafted Narrative Blocks

Summary

  • Provides a library of handcrafted quest templates (dialogue, multi‑part objectives, conditional outcomes) that can be injected into procedurally generated worlds, giving exploration purpose and reducing the “10,000 bowls of oatmeal” feeling.
  • Core value proposition: turns bland procedural planets into meaningful story‑driven experiences without requiring manual level design for each world.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Indie and mid‑size game developers building sandbox or exploration games (e.g., No Man’s Sky‑style titles)
Core Feature Quest template system with procedural placeholders (planet type, resource, alien race) that are filled at runtime; includes a visual editor for branching dialogue and success/failure states
Tech Stack Unity/C# (or Godot GDScript), JSON schema for templates, optional Lua scripting for custom logic
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Revenue-ready: SaaS subscription ($15/mo per seat) + royalty‑free runtime license

Notes

  • HN commenters complained that NMS quests are “fetch missions” and lack drive; one user said “Let users populate the universe with custom quests… you need a custom script language” (saejox). QuestForge directly addresses this by giving developers a ready‑made scriptable quest system.
  • Enables developers to add depth quickly, sparking discussion on how procedural content can serve gameplay rather than just visual variety.

GenDepth: Procedural Generation Depth Framework

Summary

  • A toolkit that forces procedural generators to produce variation that meaningfully affects gameplay (e.g., terrain height influencing flight, resource distribution affecting combat, ecological chains affecting trade).
  • Core value proposition: moves beyond cosmetic diversity to ensure every generated attribute has a mechanical impact, solving the “shallow & unfinished” critique.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Procedural generation engineers and technical leads at studios creating vast open worlds
Core Feature Set of interlocking generator modules (geology, climate, ecology, culture) with explicit gameplay impact hooks; includes validation scripts that flag generated content lacking mechanical relevance
Tech Stack Python (generation pipeline), Rust for performance‑critical noise/function libraries, Godot/Unity integration plugins
Difficulty High
Monetization Hobby (open‑source core, optional paid support/consulting)

Notes

  • Commenters noted “the actual geography doesn’t vary that wildly… but in Dwarf Fortress geography matters a lot” (OkayPhysicist) and wished for procedural elements that “cross‑interact with each other as much as possible” (kettlecorn). GenDepth provides the framework to achieve those cross‑interactions.
  • Encourages discussion on design patterns for meaningful procedural worlds, potentially becoming a reference for future space‑exploration titles.

Nexus Rumors: Player‑Generated Quest & Rumor Platform

Summary

  • A cloud‑based service where players can create, share, and vote on custom quests, rumors, and story hooks for sandbox space games; the game client pulls top‑rated content to populate the universe with player‑driven goals.
  • Core value proposition: gives players agency to create the “drive” they feel missing, turning the universe into a living, community‑crafted narrative board.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Players of sandbox exploration games (e.g., No Man’s Sky, Starfield, Elite Dangerous) seeking more purpose and community interaction
Core Feature Quest/rumor authoring tool (visual script + simple DSL), ingestion API for games, reputation/voting system, optional AI‑assisted suggestion engine
Tech Stack Node.js/Express backend, React frontend, WebSocket for real‑time updates, PostgreSQL for content storage, optional WebAssembly sandbox for safe script execution
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Revenue-ready: Freemium (free basic quests; $4.99/mo for premium features like advanced scripting, analytics, and private quest pools)

Notes

  • Users asked for “Let users populate the universe with custom quests… also add a rumor system to lead players to quests” (saejox). Nexus Rumors implements exactly that idea, turning the community into a content source.
  • Provides a practical utility: extending game lifespan and fostering discussion on player‑generated content moderation and quality control.

AI‑Driven Playtest Simulator for Procedural Games

Summary

  • An AI‑powered service that runs thousands of simulated playthroughs of a procedural game, metrics repetition, identifies “bowl of oatmeal” patterns, and suggests specific generator tweets to increase meaningful variation.
  • Core value proposition: gives developers objective, data‑driven insight into where their procedural systems feel shallow, enabling targeted improvements without costly human playtests.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Game studios and indie developers using procedural generation who want quantitative feedback on content depth
Core Feature Simulation engine that mimics player behavior (exploration, combat, trading) across varied seeds; analysis dashboard highlighting low‑variance metrics (e.g., similar resource loops, repeated encounter types) and recommending generator parameter adjustments
Tech Stack Python (simulation), TensorFlow/PyTorch for behavior modeling, Kubernetes for scalable simulation jobs, Grafana/Prometheus for metrics visualization
Difficulty High
Monetization Revenue-ready: Usage‑based pricing ($0.01 per simulated hour) + optional monthly subscription for premium analytics

Notes

  • Commenters highlighted the “10,000 bowls of oatmeal” problem and asked for ways to “make procedural elements… cross‑interact” and “be understandable to the player” (kettlecorn, feoren). This simulator directly measures those aspects, giving developers the feedback they requested.
  • Sparks discussion on the role of AI in game design testing and could become a go‑to tool for studios aiming to improve procedural depth.

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