How Light No Fire Made the ‘Impossible’ No Man’s Sky Port Possible

A decade following its initial launch, No Man’s Sky is charting a course for entirely uncharted territory: mobile devices. Developer Hello Games has announced that its sprawling science-fiction exploration game will land on iPhone and iPad this October, with pre-orders officially kicking off today. This ambitious portable conversion incorporates every single update and expansion rolled out over the past ten years, while remarkably supporting older hardware stretching all the way back to the iPhone 11. Accomplishing this technical milestone was driven in large part by advancements made during the development of Light No Fire, Hello Games’ highly anticipated upcoming project.

Ahead of today’s official announcement, representatives sat down for an exclusive virtual roundtable with Hello Games studio director Sean Murray, who shared deeper insights into the complex mechanics behind the port.

Work on this mobile adaptation commenced approximately three years ago, placing its inception right around the rollout of the game’s macOS release in 2023. While Murray humorously noted that any rational software engineer would typically deem such a massive universe impossible to run smoothly on a smartphone, the crew at Hello Games eagerly embraced the seemingly insurmountable challenge.

The final outcome genuinely feels like magic. The mobile iteration contains every substantial feature and overhaul introduced to date, including the sweeping Cosmos expansion released this past September. The only notable omissions are planetary settlements and multiplayer functionality—features that were similarly absent when the title debuted on the Nintendo Switch. However, Murray hinted that these systems might find their way to mobile devices later on, depending heavily on user feedback and player demand. Furthermore, the conversion boasts fully customizable touch controls, optimized user interfaces, comprehensive gamepad compatibility, alongside native mouse and keyboard support for iPad users.

Perhaps most surprising is the wide spectrum of compatible hardware. According to Murray, No Man’s Sky runs effortlessly on the iPhone 11 and newer smartphone models, as well as third-generation iPad Air devices and above. Astoundingly, the complete experience—housing years of continuous content creation—shrinks down to a modest footprint of under 5 gigabytes.

No Man’s Sky on iPhone

How did the studio pull this off? Murray credits the ongoing, rigorous optimization discipline they established years ago when adapting the game for its original PlayStation 4 launch. While supporting multiple hardware ecosystems has always been central to their strategy, a significant portion of the performance gains required for mobile originated directly from work on Light No Fire.

“To bring it to iPhone and iPad, we’ve inadvertently resulted in a better experience on those other platforms over the last few years without people even realizing it. Because we have had to think really hard about where we are going to get this performance from, and how we are going to fit into our memory footprint much better,” Murray explained to Polygon. “And some of those improvements stem directly from Light No Fire. Solutions we developed over there to boost efficiency allowed us to carry those breakthroughs straight across, since everything operates on a single shared engine.”

No Man’s Sky on iPad

First unveiled during The Game Awards in 2023, Light No Fire remains an intriguing, procedurally generated survival sandbox. While official updates and media drops have been sparse since its initial reveal, the title has steadily maintained its position as one of the most-wishlisted upcoming games on Steam. Discussing how the studio divides its workforce between Light No Fire and No Man’s Sky, Murray noted that resource allocation constantly fluctuates because both games rely heavily on shared underlying systems.

“Sometimes we’re developing features for Light No Fire and a brilliant idea strikes us, leading us to think, that would be phenomenal in No Man’s Sky as well,” Murray shared. “The Voyagers update was a prime example of this; we built new technology for Light No Fire and realized it would enable the pilotable ships that players now enjoy cruising around in within No Man’s Sky. Both projects continually benefit from this synergy, as Light No Fire serves as a robust testing ground where new technologies are rigorously stress-tested and refined.”

No Man’s Sky is scheduled to launch for iPhone and iPad on October 28, priced at $19.99 with a convenient trial option allowing players to test the waters before purchasing. Meanwhile, Light No Fire has yet to receive a definitive release window.

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Source: Polygon