People have started civilizations, governments and police forces in No Man’s Sky. One player saw a different kind of business opportunity: a contracting company that builds bases for other users. In only a few days, his business has gotten so popular that he’s decided to donate some of the profits to charity.
Martin Boid is a 31 year old father who lives in the UK. He’s been playing No Man’s Sky since base building got added to the game, and it quickly became a passion for him. He’s now very active on the social media app Amino, which has a thriving No Man’s Sky community of over two thousand members.
Boid’s bases are ambitious and detailed, and he’s built over a hundred of them. For his latest big project in No Man’s Sky, which he dubbed the Hollywood Project, he worked with eight other builders to create bases themed around famous films like Star Wars and Pirates of the Caribbean. “I’m very enthusiastic about building, especially in games I love such as No Man’s Sky, and I’ve thought for a while that it would be great if I could sell these to other players and make my units that way,” Boid said. The game’s Next update allowed him to join other players’ games and build for them in a real multiplayer experience, so at that point, Boid decided to sell his services to players in exchange for in-game currency.
He called his business the Galactic Construction Company, and within in 48 hours, Boid says that he and the builders he collaborates with for the GCC received nearly a hundred requests from players. Their Facebook page is full of glowing reviews and pictures of completed bases for happy customers, but the demand soon became too much for the GCC to handle. When players started offering to pay real money for bases, Boid had another idea. If they contributed to his Just Giving page for the Alzheimer’s Society, they could jump in line. So far, the players have contributed £237, which is about $300, and donations are still coming in.
Boid lost his grandmother to Alzheimers this past Christmas, and he says he knows how hard it can be on a family. “She was married to my grandad for 70 years and died at 88,” Boid said. “She lived a great life with the person she loved. It was sad at the end when she didn’t know who we were.” He still visits his grandfather three times a week, though he hasn’t told him about the charity drive yet. “I’m going to wait to see how far it goes first,” Boid said.
“The No Man’s Sky community is the friendliest gaming community I’ve been part of,” Boid went on. “I think it’s due to the guys [on the Amino app] and the other friends I’ve made in No Man’s Sky that inspired me to build and want to build for others. The amounts of donations so far to the charity show how great this community is.”