memory bloc 1691082960: A Fruitful Mistake
Value: The floodgates were opened for an unprecedented level of modding
I remember clocking out of a pretty tiring day and opening up my phone to a barrage of hushed messages from a friend who’d been working on a reverse-engineered scripting API for No Man’s Sky. A lofty goal, which many had failed in, but his determination was infectious, so I tagged along to help out where I could.
He could barely contain his excitement as he told me about the details; someone at Hello Games had accidentally uploaded a Debug Build of Fractals – v4.13. As my friend fervently explained how big of a boon this was for the project, I couldn’t help but be excited for him! It wasn’t until I made it to my PC and inspected the goods myself that I realized, however, that an entire development copy with debug tools was fully playable on my PC at that moment.
I started locking myself away for a full month afterwards, spending every free minute I could get exploring the debug build and taking handwritten notes about what I saw. I couldn’t believe it; the curtain behind the simulation had finally been lifted after 7 years! Hands shaking at being able to use the same tools Sean Murray had shown off in 2014, I finally started looking at what this meant for modding as a whole.
I know now, of course, that this event was the catalyst for a modding revolution in No Man’s Sky. Despite various APIs popping into existence, many fizzled out as soon as game updates began to roll in. Only through his sheer persistence, ingenuity, and patience, though, was MonkeyMan192 able to build and maintain NMS.py, the go-to scripting API for No Man’s Sky, which has accomplished mind-blowing feats already, such as the creation of Planetary Orbits, an Expedition Switcher, and so much more.
The modding community’s insanely creative output with the new tools at their disposal has been beautiful to see and contribute to. A beautiful little mistake gave birth to a newfound island of creativity, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t hope for Hello Games to provide such a modding API on their own.
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