Procedural design in digital games: Space and environment interaction in No Man's Sky

This study analyzes the effects of procedural design on the space and environment in No Man’s Sky. The research includes 300,000 comments from Steam gaming platform users between 2016 and 2024. Player comments were analyzed using the following categories to understand players’ experiences of space and environmental interaction: “creativity and possibilities,” “environment and space design,” “environmental interaction and dynamism,” “exploration and diversity,” “game mechanics,” “procedural generation,” and “repetition and predictability.” Word frequency, thematic analysis, and sentiment analysis were used to assess players’ perceptions of procedural design. The findings suggest that despite the procedural design’s freedom of exploration and visual variety, players generally perceive the experience with neutral emotions. Repetitive designs and limitations were found to reduce player satisfaction. The impact of innovative content was limited. This study highlights the potential of procedural design to create aesthetics, functionality, and individualized experiences in game design. The procedural design should be optimized in future studies to create stronger emotional effects, and these design processes should be restructured with insights from player comments.