I'm alone on a freezing planet blanketed in snow; pine trees the color of rusted metal hang heavy with white powder. It's -163 degrees Celsius (-261 degrees Fahrenheit), but my suit keeps me warm. For now. The thermal meter in the bottom-left corner of the screen slowly ticks down, warning me to find shelter or make some with the grenade attachment I recently crafted onto my gun. It shoots orbs of energy that blast through stone like warm butter, sometimes revealing massive underground cave systems dotted with spiky red plants rich in minerals for me to mine.
Or, I could simply leave the planet. I could hop into my ship and blast off into the inky, star-studded universe. I could find a more hospitable planet occupied by strange, dinosaur-like creatures. I could find a more luxurious star system, a more dangerous galaxy, a more exciting adventure. The universe is mine.
Actually, it's Sean Murray's. He's the mastermind behind No Man's Sky, the creator of this digital universe packed with 18 quintillion planets, each one unique and begging to be explored. No Man's Sky has captured the attention of the gaming world and beyond -- in the past year alone, Murray has appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, met privately with Elon Musk and accidentally ignited a conspiracy theory involving Kanye West. Three years after its announcement, thousands of people around the globe are impatiently waiting for the game to finally launch. And it will, on June 21st.
All of this -- the media attention, the anticipation, the entire universe -- started with four developers working out of a tiny English office in 2009, building a game called Joe Danger.
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