How Jett: The Far Shore was originally more like No Man's Sky

Jett: The Far Shore, the intriguing indie that got a new trailer during last week's PlayStation State of Play, was originally more like No Man's Sky, as revealed in the latest issue of Edge magazine.

When describing the game's development, Craig D Adams, one half of the team working on Jett, explained what they originally conceived the game as: "Here’s a two-person team doing this videogame of large-seeming scope that relies on procedural world generation, because we had a bunch of that in there. And then, bless ’em, Hello Games pitched up with something that just sucked all the oxygen out of the room.”

Of course, that something was No Man's Sky, the open-universe explore-a-thon that endured a rocky launch to become one of the most prominent indies in recent years. Adams went on to say: "We couldn’t exactly walk in after that and say, ‘Hey, check it out – here’s another spacefaring videogame where you can get in and out of your ship and there’s procedural content.’”

Instead, the development team turned their focus onto the elements of Jett that were more distinctive, namely its characters and narrative. The thinking behind this, as Adam explains: "We had this fear: if you ship something that’s just a Jett and ecosystems, how many people do you lose who need a character and a story and a soul to pull them in?”

There's plenty more in the Edge 360 cover feature on Jett, including the tone of the story that the team is aiming for, a deeper look at the game's conception and early development stages, as well as wide-ranging interviews with the game's creators. You can be one of the first to get access to world exclusive features like this by subscribing to Edge Magazine today.

And for more on Jett: The Far Shore, be sure to check out our breakdown of last week's July PlayStation State of Play, which includes a look at everything that was announced during the show.

Edge 360 is in UK shops now, and can also be ordered for delivery via Magazines Direct. To buy the issue digitally, head to Apple’s App Store or PocketMags.