Overview

Light No Fire is an upcoming open-world fantasy survival game from Hello Games, the studio behind No Man's Sky. The headline pitch is unusual: a single shared planet roughly the size of Earth, played simultaneously by everyone, with no instanced servers, no separate worlds, and no second planet to hop to when you get bored of the first. Adventure, building, survival, and exploration are the four words Hello Games uses to describe what you actually do there.

As of May 2026 the game is unreleased. Hello Games has not announced a release window, a console version, or system requirements. The Steam store page (App ID 2719590) has been live since the December 2023 reveal and lists release date as to be announced, platforms as PC, and system requirements as to be confirmed.

The Four-Pillar Framing

Hello Games describes the game through four overlapping pillars in the official press kit. Every article in this wiki traces back to one or more of them.

Scale

The planet is described as roughly Earth-sized. Sean Murray's reveal pitch put it this way: mountains that are miles high, taller than Everest, that when you climb to the top of them and look out, you can see rivers and canyons and continents. You can see oceans. Community estimates from the trailer put a continuous walk around the equator at hundreds of days of real time. The world and planet article covers the geography in detail; the procedural generation article covers how it is generated.

Scale changes how everything else works. Travel matters, because you cannot reach the next continent on foot in a play session. Boats and ships, ground mounts, and dragons and flying mounts are not bonus features; they are the answer to the planet's geography.

What You Do

The core loop is the standard survival sandbox arc (gather, craft, build, fight, explore) applied to a planet rather than a map. The press kit and Steam tags both emphasise this combination of survival mechanics with RPG depth.

• Explore: climb mountains, swim oceans, fly between continents, find ruins and ancient civilisations. See biomes for what you can find.

• Gather: harvest resources from different biomes, each with their own materials and challenges.

• Craft and build: construct persistent structures, weapons, gear, and boats. See base building and crafting.

• Fight: combat and creatures covers what is known about swords, bows, staves, magic, and the bestiary.

• Survive: the official description calls it a constant fight for survival. Hunger, weather, hostile creatures, and unknown depths all factor in.

• Cooperate: ocean crossings need large boats and crews, which means cooperative play is woven into the geography itself.

Species and Character

The reveal trailer features a diverse cast of humanoid species rather than a single human protagonist. Humans, rabbits, foxes, badgers, bears, wolves, and otters are all clearly visible. Whether all of them are selectable in a character creator, what the customisation system looks like, and whether species affects stats are open questions that Hello Games has not yet answered. See citizens of the new world for what has and has not been shown.

Development And Studio

Light No Fire has been in development since around 2018, in parallel with No Man's Sky support. Hello Games is a small studio (roughly 70 employees as of late 2025), and Sean Murray has described the Light No Fire team specifically as tiny, continuing development in the background of the studio's ongoing No Man's Sky work. The development history article covers the full timeline; the Hello Games page covers the studio.

The August 2025 Voyagers update for No Man's Sky shared underlying technology with Light No Fire. Sean Murray confirmed that the new walkable, room-by-room ship construction system in Voyagers is the same engine that powers boat building in Light No Fire. The no Man's Sky comparison page covers what the two games share and where they diverge.

In November 2025, during the Steam Awards Labor of Love nominations, Murray posted a brief written update describing Light No Fire as our next Labor of Love and confirming that the team was continuing at pace with progress he found really special. That has been the most recent direct statement on Light No Fire's progress.

What Is Not Confirmed

Hello Games' public footprint on Light No Fire is narrow: one reveal trailer, one press kit, a Steam page, and a handful of statements. Many systems that fans would expect a fantasy survival game to have are either undocumented or only hinted at. See platforms and release for confirmed launch metadata. The following items are repeatedly asked about but currently unknown:

• Release date or even a rough window.

• Console availability (PC via Steam is the only confirmed platform).

• System requirements (Steam lists them as to be confirmed).

• Specific magic system mechanics (mana, spell schools, progression).

• RPG progression structure (levels, skills, classes, species effects).

• Character-creation UI and roster.

• Player population cap per area.

• PvP rules and griefing protection.

• Pricing and edition structure.

This wiki tracks what has been shown and what has been said. Speculation is kept to what is not confirmed sections rather than the article body, and prior franchise material from No Man's Sky is treated as adjacent context rather than imported wholesale.

Quick Reference

For deeper dives, follow the wikilinks above. The development history page is the most detailed timeline; world and planet is the most detailed geography reference; and multiplayer covers how players will share the world.