Development history

Timeline

2018-2019: Development begins

Hello Games started working on Light No Fire sometime around 2018 or 2019. At the game's reveal in December 2023, Sean Murray said: "This is 'Light No Fire' -- The next game from @hellogames -- we've been working on this for the last five years." Counting back five years from December 2023 puts the start at late 2018 or early 2019.

This overlaps with No Man's Sky's ongoing development. Hello Games was still shipping major NMS updates during this period (NEXT in 2018, Beyond in 2019). Light No Fire was being built in parallel by what Murray has described as a small subset of the studio.

December 7, 2023: The Game Awards reveal

Light No Fire was announced at The Game Awards 2023. Sean Murray appeared on stage alongside host Geoff Keighley to debut the game with a trailer. This was the first time the public heard the name or saw any footage.

Murray's pitch from the stage: "For the last five years we've been working on something new...something very different, something maybe more ambitious. For our new game, we wanted to create an Earth. The first real open world. Something without boundaries and we're going to let everyone play in it together."

Hello Games was clear that the trailer was captured in-engine from real play sessions, not pre-rendered CGI. The footage showed continuous gameplay across multiple biomes, combat, building, dragon flight, and underwater exploration.

Trailer reception

The reveal trailer became the most-viewed trailer from The Game Awards 2023, accumulating roughly 10 million views on YouTube. The reaction was broadly positive. The gaming press covered it extensively, with outlets like PC Gamer, IGN, and GamesRadar running breakdowns and analysis pieces.

The trailer used "Hunger of the Pine" by Alt-J as its soundtrack.

2024: Quiet development

After the reveal, Hello Games went largely quiet on Light No Fire. Mid-2024, Murray tweeted about being busy and commented that "Light No Fire is crazy ambitious." No new footage, no gameplay demos, no release window. The studio was heads-down building the game.

This silence is consistent with how Hello Games operates. After the rocky No Man's Sky launch in 2016, the studio adopted a policy of showing things when they are ready and keeping quiet otherwise. Murray has talked about this approach in interviews: let the work speak for itself rather than making promises.

2025: Voyagers technology sharing

The No Man's Sky Voyagers update in 2025 introduced custom ship building with walkable interiors and crew capacity. Murray explicitly connected this to Light No Fire: "Much of the technology we're introducing with Voyagers is shared with our next game, Light No Fire, which is a truly open world, a shared Earth-sized planet, with real oceans to traverse, needing large boats and crews."

This gave the public its first concrete look at technology destined for Light No Fire, even if it was wrapped in a No Man's Sky update. The ship building and ocean traversal systems in Light No Fire are built on the same foundation.

November 2025: Murray progress update

In November 2025, Murray provided a written update: "In the background, another tiny team at Hello is continuing at pace on our next Labor of Love, Light No Fire, and we know a lot of you are keen to hear more. For now, it suffices to say that I am really pleased with the progress we are making and I think it's going to be something really special."

Two things stand out in that statement. First, he called the Light No Fire team "tiny," which fits the studio's overall size. Second, he called the game a "Labor of Love," the same phrase Hello Games uses to describe their long-term commitment to No Man's Sky. That phrasing suggests they plan to support Light No Fire well past launch.

Release date

No release date or release window has been announced. Hello Games has not committed to a year, a quarter, or even a vague "coming soon." Given Murray's November 2025 comment about being "really pleased with the progress," the game is still in active development. The studio's track record suggests they will not announce a date until they are confident they can hit it.

Hello Games

Hello Games is an independent studio based in Guildford, England. The company has roughly 50 to 70 employees total. The Light No Fire team is a subset of that, which Murray has called "tiny." The rest of the studio continues maintaining and updating No Man's Sky.

The studio was founded by Sean Murray and several other developers in 2008. Their first games were the Joe Danger series. No Man's Sky launched in 2016, and Hello Games has shipped free updates for it continuously since then. The studio is entirely self-funded and independent. They do not answer to a publisher.

Engine

Light No Fire runs on Hello Games' proprietary engine, which evolved from the technology built for No Man's Sky. That engine handles procedural generation at planetary scale, seamless world streaming with no loading screens, and the rendering of massive draw distances.

The Voyagers update technology is being ported directly. Custom ship construction, walkable vehicle interiors, and crew management systems were all built with both games in mind. The engine's procedural generation is responsible for the Earth-sized planet and its biome variety.

Platforms

PC (via Steam) is the only confirmed platform. Console versions are widely expected but have not been officially announced. No Man's Sky launched on PS4 and PC, then came to Xbox later. Hello Games could follow a similar rollout or announce console versions closer to release.

What to expect next

Hello Games has not announced a next showing, gameplay demo, or release date. If history is any guide, the next major reveal will come when Murray feels the game is ready to be shown again. In the meantime, the overview and world and planet articles cover what has been confirmed so far.