Taking a page from the greatest comebacks of gaming history

In late June, I finished my Rewrite #2 a couple of days earlier than what I aimed for. Next up is the line edits, but after 6 months of rewriting every night, I was finally able to slow down and take a break.

I intended to give myself a complete break from writing for 2 weeks (it ended up being only 3 days but that’s another story), so… what to do during a break? Well, given the Steam Summer Sale at the time, I decided to give No Man’s Sky another go.

Back in 2016, I was one of those that jumped onto this game upon release. I mean, a fully open-world version of “Minecraft in space”? Count me in!

But like many others at the time, I found the game underwhelming and riddled with bugs. Before I’d sunk too much time into it, I joined the bandwagon of requesting a full refund. I then forgot about it, assuming it would fade into the oblivion like many other game releases that flopped.

In the past few years, I’d heard about the continued development of the game, how the developers gradually patched up the issues and expanded the game, but it wasn’t until last month I realised that it had been a whole nine years (where did the time go?) and the developers are still working on it and releasing substantive updates and patches.

By now, it had well and truly earned its status as the greatest gaming comeback, and this was the reason I decided—regardless of whether I actually end up enjoying the game—I wanted to support the developers for their passion and persistence.

It’s something I keep reminding myself of when it comes to writing. The publishing industry is tough as ever to break into, and the gaming industry is arguably just as saturated. I don’t know if I’m pouring my heart and time into my writing only for my works to sit stale in my hard drives forever. And I bet the developers of No Man’s Sky went through the same thought process back in 2016 when they hit a disastrous launch and didn’t know if they would ever recover from it. They could’ve wiped their hands and moved onto other things. Instead, they kept going and going and turned the game into a winner.

The earliest draft of the manuscript I’m working on started in 2016 too! So… here’s to hoping the perseverance-turned-success of No Man’s Sky will also rub off on me. 😂

Having played the game almost nightly for a month (a reward to myself after I finish line-editing each chapter), it is truly an incredible game. There’s so much to do and so much to explore, and I can see it is a product of love and labour.

A similar thing happened with Cyberpunk 2077, which I’ve decided is going to be the next game I support because the world needs to celebrate more redemption arcs (I promise it’s not because Keanus Reeves is a character in Cyberpunk 😂), more slow and steady climbs to the peak, knowing that if you stumble along the way, it’s ok to get up and try again.