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Star Citizen 24-hour livestream happening now, new Avenger ship revealed
Cloud Imperium is in the midst of its 24-hour Star Citizen livestream. The dev team is broadcasting live on Twitch from its Los Angeles- and Austin-based offices. Founder Chris Roberts as well as nearly every member of the dev team has meandered in front of the cameras at this point, and more importantly for fanboy informational purposes, the firm is revealing something new about the upcoming space sim on a quasi-hourly basis. Just a bit ago it was the Avenger, a sleek new ship intended for bounty hunting and boasting a very different aesthetic from previously announced designs like the Aurora and the 300 series. Cloud Imperium also unveiled Star Citizen's new website earlier today. As of press time, the site is still getting hammered by early adopters in their quest to migrate accounts and soak up new info, though, so you might have better luck scoping it out as the day moves on. CI did indicate that it has doubled the number of web servers in order to handle the increased load.
Chris Roberts can build a Star Citizen space fighter for $35,000
Wing Commander creator Chris Roberts can tell you what it would cost – in real world dollars – for his his team to build a ship inside his upcoming crowdfunded game, Star Citizen. "It can be anywhere from $35,000 to $150,000," Roberts says, speaking to the development cost associated with "a single ship." The ship's price considers multiple factors: the time and money spent by his team to model the object and the care taken to ensure everything within that item functions realistically. Thirty-five thousand dollars, Roberts says, is the price associated with building a small space fighter, composed of animated dashboard displays and moving parts within and out. Larger carriers, like the kilometer-long Bengal Class ship featured in the prototype version of the game and showcased as part of the crowdfunding campaign, inch closer to the $150,000 mark. Once conceptualized, ships are given a detailed wrapper made up of up to seven million polygons, for the game's largest carriers. In contrast to current-generation games, the Star Citizen Kickstarter page noted that most 'AAA' games today have "10,000 polygons for a character and 30,000 or so for a vehicle." A single fighter in Star Citizen, the campaign page claims, is built with 300,000 polygons.%Gallery-168015%
Star Citizen is the highest grossing crowdfunded project of all time
Cloud Imperium released a news blurb touting Star Citizen's newly minted status as the most successful crowdfunded project of all time. The upcoming space sim beat out the $10,266,844 pledged to Pebble Watch to claim the title. The update also offers a bit of clarity with regard to the recent 300 series trailer. "The video you saw wasn't just made in-engine, it used actual game models," Cloud Imperium explains. "You're looking at the 300i mesh you will see in Star Citizen and not some high-poly fake created for cutscenes and good PR. What you're seeing is what you'll play."
Cloud Imperium reveals Star Citizen's 300i
You know what the best part of buying the new Origin Jumpworks 300i is? That new spaceship smell! Cloud Imperium games has taken the wraps off its latest Star Citizen spacecraft, and the beast is given the A-list treatment courtesy of a new in-character brochure and an in-engine video. The reveal also coincides with Cloud Imperium's 300 series sale week, during which you can add a variant or two of the sleek new craft to your Star Citizen pledge hangar. Finally, there's a message from Chris Roberts, too. "I sincerely hope you enjoy the 300i materials released today. Even if you choose not to add a 300 series spacecraft to your hangar you should enjoy the new materials and have a good idea of just how detailed Star Citizen is going to be!" Click past the cut to watch the trailer. [Thanks everyone who tipped us!]
Stick and Rudder: On Star Citizen's E3 absence
So E3 happened this past week. If you're a Massively regular, you're no doubt aware of that since we spammed up our front page and your RSS feed with gobs of hands-on coverage including everything from racing games to The Elder Scrolls Online. One thing we didn't cover was Star Citizen, because thankfully, Cloud Imperium's upcoming space sim sandbox didn't bother with an official E3 presence.
Star Citizen tops $10 million, mocap studio a go
It's a good day to be Chris Roberts or one of the Cloud Imperium game developers working on Star Citizen. The upcoming space sim sandbox finally conquered the $10 million crowdfunding summit earlier this afternoon, and as a result, CIG will build its own motion capture studio. "We hit the unbelievable mark of ten million dollars and, as promised, we're adding an Optitrack motion capture system to our production pipeline in order to build the best, most immersive gaming experience that only a PC game can deliver," says the entry on CIG's YouTube portal. Head past the break for a video message from Roberts and a sneak peek at the Optitrack tech.
Star Citizen devs pay tribute to Oculus co-founder Reisse
The Star Citizen team has posted a tribute to Oculus Rift co-founder Andrew Reisse, who died last Thursday after being struck by a car that was fleeing a crime scene. Here at Cloud Imperium Games, the moment we saw the Oculus Rift, there was no question that we had to support it. Here was technology that would allow the player to inhabit the game world like nothing before. Even better, it was another crowdfunding success story: like space sims, big publishers had decided VR was unprofitable, and here were gamers proving them wrong. We are extremely gratified by the support Oculus has provided our project since our launch. Like us, Andrew and his team dreamed of letting gamers experience their worlds like never before. Now the device he made possible is going to let gamers explore distant star systems with a level of realism no one ever believed possible. We hope that's a fitting tribute. The Oculus team has also posted a memorial and Reisse retrospective.
Stick and Rudder: The five types of Star Citizen guys
I've been through my share of alphas, betas, and early release communities over the years, and without exception, every one of them is chock-full of the same five guys. Oh sure, these guys have hundreds of different forum handles, and in the case of a nostalgia-drenched core title like Star Citizen, some of them may even be old enough to know better. But they're still the same five guys. These guys are in the good pre-release communities and the bad, and while their passion is largely laudible, their busy-body forum hijinks are nothing if not high-lariously predictable.
Cloud Imperium unveils Star Citizen hangar module
Cloud Imperium has taken the wraps off Star Citizen's hangar module, a standalone app that's scheduled to be released to early adopters later this summer. Pledgers will get a chance to walk through their hangars and ogle their pledge ships, as well as climb inside them and invite their friends over for a spaceship-themed soiree. The hangar module is "about 50 percent fleshed out right now," according to the spiffy Cloud Imperium video tour that you can watch after the cut. [Thanks Eric!]
Stick and Rudder: Why all the love for Roberts and Star Citizen?
I was talking with a gaming buddy recently who missed the whole space sim experience in the 1990s. He's a Star Wars fan and a real-life pilot pushing 40, so it surprised me to learn that he'd never heard of Wing Commander, Freespace, X-Wing, and the like. My jaw really hit the floor as our conversation turned to current games and I began to evangelize about Star Citizen and Chris Roberts. "Who's Chris Roberts?" he asked, with a straight face.
The Daily Grind: Do Kickstarter perks put you off from MMOs?
Last week, drama swirled around Chris Roberts' Star Citizen pseudo-MMO when he announced and then clarified that certain early crowdfunders will receive lifetime insurance on their ships once the game launches. Potential players rightfully worried that such a move could taint the economy and create a special class of characters with pay-to-win perks that place everyone else at a serious disadvantage. MMO players are becoming inured to the idea that Kickstarting a game might land them a poster or tattoo or title or even beta access, but non-cosmetic advantages seem to rile everyone up. It's one thing when Camelot Unchained offers special chat and another altogether when it promises big-time donors their own in-game islands. Then again, without such generous Kickstarter pledges, the games might never be made for the rest of us to play at all, so maybe the trade-off is worth it. What do you think? Does it bother you that gamers with money can buy their way into godhood before a game is even made? Are there Kickstarter perks that put you off from future MMOs? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Star Citizen concept art shows off Orion III colony
This time of night I've only got one thing on my mind, and that's dinner. Seriously, the Massively graveyard shift makes my stomach rumble. Fortunately Cloud Imperium is here to fill it up with some sweet, sweet Star Citizen concept art. The main course is a trio of gorgeous images from the former colony world of Orion III. Armitage, as the world was also called, was "the site of the farthest human colony from Earth... and one of the first targets of the Vanduul menace." After you've dined on the establishing aerial artwork, it's time for dessert in the form of some early sketches for specific planetary locations. Feast your eyes at the official Star Citizen website.
Star Citizen lifetime insurance clarified
After a thank-you post on the Star Citizen site earlier this week clarified how lifetime insurance would work in the highly anticipated space MMO, a follow-up post was needed to further answer many of the fan questions. With the helpful use of graphs and bullet points, CEO Chris Roberts clarifies that LTI will apply to three different groups: Original backers who pledged before November 26, 2012; Veteran backers who pledged between November 26, 2012 and the launch of the new website; and regular ole backers who will have pledged after the new site launches. Be sure to check out the entire post by Roberts on his website for more information. [Thanks to Jon for the tip!]
Stick and Rudder: Star Citizen celebrates $9 million with Auroras, space suits, and LTI
You know, Star Citizen occasionally seems too good to be true. Take this past week, for example. It saw not one, not two, but three major news releases focused on the fledgling space sandbox, all of which were well-received by most in the community and all of which generated even more buzz and positive word-of-mouth for Chris Roberts' crowdfunded juggernaut. I'm certainly not complaining, mind you; it's just that Cloud Imperium's game is doing a damned fine job of turning a cynic hardened by years of sub-standard MMO releases into a wide-eyed game-loving kid again. So let's talk after the cut about the Aurora, our new space suits, and lifetime insurance, shall we?
Star Citizen funding eclipses $9 million
Star Citizen has reached over $9 million in funding, thanks to its almost 170,000 contributors. The space exploration MMO, spearheaded by Wing Commander creator Chris Roberts, began with a successful $2 million run on Kickstarter, and has since raised almost $7 million on its own website. The original goal was "just" $500,000, but Star Citizen has topped every stretch goal it set and then some. As part of its stretch goals, Star Citizen's launch plans include a tablet companion app, celebrity voice acting, a free mission pack for every player, and over 100 star systems to explore while playing. Developer Cloud Imperium Games has just opened offices in Santa Monica, and the game's website is proclaiming a victory for post-publisher game development. Players will get a chance to explore the world of Star Citizen in an alpha release, scheduled for sometime this winter.
Star Citizen's Aurora revealed, Roberts explains further crowdfunding goals
Star Citizen is still fairly early in its development stage, but at least one in-game asset has now officially passed through the entire design process. That element is the Aurora, which is Star Citizen's base ship and one that most players will use to begin their spacefaring careers. The Aurora was designed by Star Wars and Star Trek concept artist Ryan Church. The Star Citizen website is now chock-full of in-engine images and in-character design specs. Cloud Imperium is also running a limited promotion focused on a special model Aurora called the LX. CEO Chris Roberts explains the reasoning behind another fundraising initiative over and above his famously successful Kickstarter campaign. "Star Citizen is going to cost approximately $20 million to make. We have this covered already between the incredible funding we've received from you and the commitments from investors," he says. "But here's the truth: I've been holding off on closing investors because your commitment means we won't need as much money as we originally expected. Every dollar we make from crowdfunding means one less we'll take from outside investors." If you're not up to pledging for the spiffy new Aurora, though, don't worry. "You will be able to earn credits to buy this ship in game once we go live," Roberts writes. "So please do not feel obligated to do anything. Everyone has given more than enough. This is purely a "for the fun" sale/event to hopefully push our funding along." [Thanks Eric for the tip!]
Star Citizen's Roberts on business models, the PS4, and more
Game Industry interviewed Star Citizen mogul Chris Roberts at last month's GDC 2013, and the resulting read features plenty of interesting nuggets for space sim fans and the Roberts faithful. He confirms a few things we already knew about SC's playable hangar demo scheduled for August, as well as the dogfighting alpha in December. He also shares how his team's shortened development schedule and modular process is adding up to a tighter, better game than could be made at a AAA studio. And if Star Citizen's ever-increasing crowdfunding totals are any indication, Roberts' audience is more than OK with the process. "We generated $800,000 in February alone, which is crazy," he said. "We don't even have a campaign going, we're not even selling new ships or anything, and we don't have a game." He goes on to guesstimate that his 150,000-odd early adopters are only five to 10 percent of Star Citizen's post-launch audience. "Ultimately that means I can make the same game for a fifth of the revenue, a fifth of the sales, and I can be more profitable, and I can exist on lower unit sales. I think that's good for gamers, because crowdfunding and digital distribution are enabling more nichey stuff to be viable." Roberts also hints at the future of SC's business model, likening it to that of World of Tanks. Finally, he has a few kind words for Sony's forthcoming PlayStation 4, and even says he'd consider putting SC on a console under the right circumstances. "The good news is that [the PS4] is essentially a PC, so that means PC owners will get much better ports of console games. I'm not a PC elitist by any means," Roberts explains. "If I could be on the PS4, and they were open, and I could do the updating and all the sort of stuff we're trying to do on Star Citizen, then I would definitely consider putting it on PS4 because it's essentially a PC with a friendlier operating system."
The Daily Grind: Which devs would you like to see in the MMO space?
We've seen a number of big-name game gurus make headlines in recent months with various MMOish development projects. Whether we're talking Chris Roberts, Mark Jacobs, or Richard Garriott, there's plenty of star power on display in both the MMO and crowdfunding arenas these days. Are there any other well-known devs you'd like see turning (or returning) to the MMO ranks? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Stick and Rudder: Why Star Citizen's development model matters
Chris Roberts' Star Citizen crowdfunding colossus exploded onto the gaming scene late in 2012 with a chip on its shoulder and a certain can-do attitude that resonated with gamers because of its conspicuous absence over the past decade. "I am a PC game, and I am a space sim," the game's trailer defiantly proclaimed. PC games and space sims, of course, were long past the prime of their 1990s golden years, according to most industry pundits, so how and why did Star Citizen make such a successful splash (over $8.5 million in crowdfunding as of press time, with an additional $5,000 to $10,000 gained on a daily basis)? More importantly why is the title's development model so integral to the future of gaming?
Some Assembly Required: Your guide to MMO sandboxes in 2013 and beyond
Welcome to Massively's guide to MMO sandboxes in 2013 and beyond. I've collected the essential details on all the major sandbox titles releasing this year and in the near future in one easy-to-reference article. If you're wondering whether ArcheAge forces you to PvP, or if you can't tell The Repopulation from Origins of Malu, this is your post. I'll be updating it as game features are added, removed, or revealed, so be sure to use the comments to let me know if I've overlooked a particularly noteworthy item. Finally, I want to point out that this isn't an exhaustive list because of the sheer number of sandbox projects ongoing. For now, I'm choosing to focus on the ones that will be playable in 2013/2014 as well as the projects that have a big-name developer attached.
