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Make My MMO: Crowdfunding June 16 - 29, 2013
Go ahead -- make my MMO. And here you thought this phrase only worked when interrupting a robbery! What was a unique phenomenon in the not-too-distant past has become an increasingly popular trend: crowdfunding new MMOs. Whether they're using the Kickstarter funding platform or another, more and more developers are turning to the public instead of publishers to take their designs from the drawing board and into reality. In fact, sometimes it feels like there are just too many to keep up with! Besides the new campaigns that seem to be popping up like dandelions, there are the successfully funded games to keep an eye on. So here's what we're going to do for you: We'll make it easier for you to keep tabs on both the new campaigns hitting the crowdfunding scene and the progress of those MMOs that already made their goal and have moved on in their development journeys (but haven't made beta yet). Join us past the break for the inaugural Make My MMO, a biweekly accounting of all MMOs crowdfunded. Have you heard about new campaigns that aren't listed? Send us a note and let us know!
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.
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!]
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!]
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."
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.
Cloud Imperium shows off Star Citizen character motion video
Star Citizen's developers recently wowed us with an extensive look at the game's spaceship customization. Fortunately, the team isn't skimping on the title's character models either. A new video released yesterday demonstrates the range of motion for human avatars, and Cloud Imperium says that this is a good approximation of how characters will function in the finished game. The company also notes that the clip is "real-time, in-engine movement and not a pre-rendered video." Have a look after the break.
Stick and Rudder: A guide to Star Citizen's community
Welcome aboard pilots, privateers, and pillaging pirate queens; you've found Stick and Rudder, the gaming press' first Star Citizen column! I'm putting all pretenses of objectivity aside today because I'm terribly frackin' excited for this game. That's why we're here, now, talking about it way out in front of its release. With all of this expectation comes the potential for massive disappointment, of course, but the good news is that Cloud Imperium is being pretty open about its development process. This has the added benefit of giving us lots to chew on while we sit through the agonizing months leading up to launch. Anyway, now that some of my fanboy gushing is out of the way, let's get down to brass tacks and carry on the time-honored Massively tradition of kicking off a new game column with a community guide.
