hackertube.io

The Engoodening of No Man's Sky

Internet Historian · documentary · Watch on YouTube

Game history & retro gamingGaming culture & analysisIndie game development

What it is

Internet Historian tells the story of No Man's Sky, from its over-hyped and badly received launch to years of updates by Hello Games that redeemed the game. It is a long, comedic mini-documentary.

Why Hacker News recommends it

Frequently recommended as an entertaining account of a failed launch and recovery, especially in threads about Star Citizen and over-promising.

  • 9 people recommended it
  • 9 different months
  • 4 strong recommendations
  • first 2020, last 2025

What HN commenters said

  1. “surprisingly a well told, heart-warming (albeit quite long) video telling the story of No Man's Sky”

    Well-told story of No Man's Sky hype and developer redemption

    rgoulter, 2020-08 · Strong recommendation · in “Star Citizen Alpha 3.10”

  2. “I highly recommend this video [1]”

    No Man's Sky's terrible launch and recovery

    cletus, 2022-02 · Strong recommendation · in “Star Citizen will limit its roadmap, as players are getting upset over delays”

  3. “I highly recommend the Internet Historian video on it [1].”

    Story of No Man's Sky's failed launch and years of updates

    jmyeet, 2023-02 · Strong recommendation · in “Bay 12 Games has made $7M from the Steam release of Dwarf Fortress”

  4. “Internet Historian made an amazing documentary on how the game's changed over the years [1].”

    Documentary on how the game changed over the years

    csense, 2025-04 · Strong recommendation · in “Cozy video games can quell stress and anxiety”

  5. “Here's a short story of how and why it had a bad launch”

    Why No Man's Sky launched badly and later recovered

    Asooka, 2020-02 · Recommendation · in “Spore Prototypes (2008)”

  6. “The whole story is incredible and worth your time”

    Hello Games' post-launch journey with No Man's Sky

    snowgrove, 2022-02 · Recommendation · in “Worms or bust: The story of Britain’s most tenacious indie games company (2016)”

  7. “it goes over this entire saga from failure at launch to massive success”

    Saga from launch failure to massive success

    lyu07282, 2023-06 · Recommendation · in “No Man's Sky Now on Mac”

  8. “the engoodening of No Man's Sky is a entertaining mini-doc on the game.”

    Entertaining mini-documentary on the game

    tmpz22, 2023-11 · Recommendation · in “No Man's Sky just keeps getting better”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: no man's sky, hello games, game development, video game history, sean murray

Also recommended by the same people