[1][2][3] The player controls an astronaut named Finn who uses a futuristic spacecraft to travel between procedurally generated planets.

[4] Gameplay primarily takes place on these planets, where Finn can run, jump, and find collectibles in a similar fashion to the Super Mario series.

[1][5] The team consisted of Alex McDonald (art and sound director),[6] Sam Izzo, Max Cahill, and Ben Porter.

[6][7] Nintendo sent a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notice to Itch.io on 4 September 2016, requesting that No Mario's Sky be removed due to it infringing "Nintendo's copyrights in its Super Mario video game franchise, including but not limited to the audiovisual work, images, and fictional character depictions".

[9] On 5 September, the game was re-released as DMCA's Sky, with all in-game elements and terms that directly referenced Super Mario replaced with non-copyrighted counterparts.