star-citizen-stretch-goals
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Star Citizen begins AC multiplayer invites
It's been a busy week for Star Citizen. The crowdsourced space sim sandbox topped $46 million in funding, and Cloud Imperium Games began rolling out invites to the multiplayer portion of the recently released Arena Commander dogfighting module. The module also continues to be patched in order to address bugs and control issues. CIG also kicked off a new video show called Around the Verse. The first episode features a 40-minute running time and a sit-down with AC producer Travis Day. Finally, CIG chairman Chris Roberts penned his customary thank you letter after the $46 million milestone, in which he offered a sneak peek at the game's next in-universe spaceship commercial and made available a community poll relating to the continued use of project stretch goals. "When we started the Star Citizen campaign, the purpose of the stretch goals was to make things we had imagined but didn't think we could afford possible: adding capital ship systems, studying procedural generation, hiring additional artists to build more ships at once and the like," Roberts explained. "The additional funding continues to expand the scope of the game and make what we're doing possible... but it's becoming more and more difficult to quantify that with more stretch goals (and to explain that to the rest of the world, which likes to focus only on how much money we've made.)"
Star Citizen passes $28 million, 300K backers
It wasn't very long ago that Star Citizen eclipsed the unheard of (at the time) $10 million crowdfunding mark. Less than six months later, Cloud Imperium's sci-fi space sim sandbox has nearly tripled that figure with a whopping $28 million-plus in funding and over 300,000 individual backers. CIG chairman Chris Roberts marked the latest milestone with a new installment of his traditional producer's letter. In it, he announced a new starter ship (the Mustang) and a bit of a change in the way further stretch goals will be handled. We are constantly asked where the additional money goes. Surely new mocap hardware or a new starship design doesn't cost a million dollars. The answer is that the stretch goals are an example: One big thing we will be doing with some of the money. Every additional million means that we're hiring additional artists and programmers, equipping the team with better development tools and increasing the size of the talented outsource groups being trusted with aspects of Star Citizen's development. It means more actors and time for mocap studios, more reference for designers, greater variety in game characters, more options in clothing and armor and a large array of ship items and weapons. Every dollar improves the project. That isn't as sexy as spending large amounts of money on impressive, headline-grabbing stretch goals... but it means a significantly better game in the end. So, for the next several stretch goals, we're going to leave you with the knowledge that the money goes to improving all aspects of Star Citizen's development. Instead of specifying some new development goal, we're going to add a new ship to the game as a reward.
Star Citizen tops $12 million in crowdfunding, outlines additional stretch goals
Star Citizen's recent 24-hour livestream saw the game's crowdfunding total roll past $11 million. Last night, Cloud Imperium posted yet another milestone as the game eclipsed a whopping $12 million in community funding, which basically means that the sci-fi spaceflight sandbox raked in a cool $1 million over the weekend. The milestone also means that Cloud Imperium will be building a pro sound studio to replace the "current home office" used for the game's audio production. What happens if the crowdfunding totals top $13 million? Star Citizen will get a new playable ship class (the frigate) as well as command and control center functionality. This means that larger ships like the Constellation and the Idris will allow pilots to tie all of their ships together "and assume central command from the third seat." If the community manages $14 million, a fourth landing spot on Earth will open up -- possibly London or Berlin -- along with a feature-length behind-the-scenes documentary film and a hibernation mode save-game system.
Star Citizen well ahead of crowd-funding schedule, stretch goals added
Chris Roberts' Star Citizen is one of the more successful gaming-related crowd-funding projects to date, and even though there's still two weeks left until the Kickstarter drive closes, the title has already exceeded its $2 million goal by almost $800,000. What's going to happen to that extra money, then? It's partly up to the game's community. The Star Citizen site boasts a new poll with additional stretch goals. Choices include more ships, star systems, NPCs, an enhanced FPS mode, Linux and Mac clients, and some sort of tactical command mode for capital ships. As of press time, new flyable ships and additional star systems were leading the vote.
