After horrible flood, this indie dev isn't giving up

On Christmas Eve, a horrible wind and rain storm ripped through the United Kingdom, resulting in massive flood damage to the office of Guildford, based Hello Games, creators of the Joe Danger series and the upcoming ambitious space game No Man's Sky. The extent of this damage was extremely significant, studio managing director Sean Murray explained in blog post today, and insurance probably won't cover the damage.

"We lost all our PCs, laptops, equipment, furniture, dev-kits, work in the blink of an eye, and our insurer (and those of those around us) seem like we won't be covered, or at least responsibility is unclear," Murray said. "I don't want to say out loud the value of what we lost, it's horrible. It would probably fund a small game :("

A number of questions about the future of Hello Games and No Man's Sky have come up as a result, and Murray attempted to answer those questions today. First, he explained that Hello Games is now working out of a temporary office, while some staffers are working from home.

"We've filled a couple of dumpsters with our old stuff, and built ourselves a make-shift post-apocalyptic set of workstations--but we're back, full speed," Murray said.

Over the next few months, Murray explained that Hello Games plans to move into a new office or perhaps rebuild the flooded building "better than ever."

"It feels like that moment in a film, where the heroes are down, but not defeated. They are scattered across the world and they have to rebuild," Murray said.

Murray also addressed how the flood and displacement has affected development on No Man's Sky. Regarding the possibility of the game being delayed, he said, "We won't let that happen." To make up for lost time, Murray explained that developers will simply need to work extra hard.

"At times recently I've wanted to be depressed, to wallow, but it's impossible surrounded by this team. They are literally unstoppable," he said. "If we've lost some work, we'll make up the time. We'll steal dev-kits. We'll work on a boat. Whatever it takes (not actual stealing… maybe :)"

Murray also revealed that he has considered launching a Kickstarter campaign to help support the development of No Man's Sky, but right now, this seems unlikely.

"Financially I guess it'd probably be a really good time for us to do one, and so many people have suggested it," Murray said. "I just don't think it's the right thing for No Man's Sky right now though, and we'd probably rather not eat than do the wrong thing for this game."

One way you can support Hello Games during this time is to buy Joe Danger games, Murray said. The most recent of these games--Joe Danger Infinity--launched earlier this month on iOS and is available now for 99 cents.

"What’s happened sucks. It sucks to see years of concept art floating in muddy water, it sucks to lose so much so quickly (Christmas or not)," Murray said. "When we moved into this office it was a wrecked warehouse, and we did it up real nice. It isn't some anonymous building to us, and it literally broke my heart to watch what happened. If you've been robbed (or flooded), you probably know how it feels. From the outside it might make us seem fragile as a company, but I promise we're strong and I hope we'll come out of this stronger."