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Star Citizen crowd-funding tops $3 million with 10 days to go
The news keeps getting better and better for fans of Chris Roberts' new Star Citizen space sim. Cloud Imperium just issued a press release trumpeting the fact that SC's crowd-funding initiatives have surpassed $3 million with 10 days to go. The company initially launched a self-managed fundraiser on its own website that has generated over $2 million in pledges to date. This was supplemented by a Kickstarter drive that has taken in over $1 million. Roberts' pre-alpha demo reel has attracted nearly 45,000 backers as of press time, and the Wing Commander creator says that the crowd-funding success will allow the dev team to work on additional features. "This is extremely exciting for me and our team because it will enable us to create the game we've been talking about to our fans over the past month," Roberts explained. "But we can do even more. I'm still hoping that we'll reach four million dollars before we close. This will allow us to do more sooner, especially on things like our modder tools." Cloud Imperium has also announced a pledge referral program to help reach its new $4 million goal. [Source: Cloud Imperium press release]
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.
Star Citizen can't be done on current-gen consoles, says Roberts
Chris Roberts says Star Citizen's RAM requirements, based on its proof-of-concept video, aren't met by current-gen consoles. Speaking to Ars Technica, the game's creator also dismissed potential iterations, promising top-end PCs of today are "already more powerful than what a next-generation console is going to be." While he's aiming high with hardware requirements, Roberts expects them to be standard for PC when Star Citizen releases in two years' time."You can't do that much with 512MB [of RAM on a console], so that constrains a lot of your game design," said Roberts. "If I'm building a PC game, I'm going 'Yeah, you need 4GB on your machine.' Of course you're not going to get all 4GB because Windows is a hungry beast, but you're getting a lot more than 512MB so it kinds of open up what you can do, what you can fit in memory at the same time, and it changes your level of ambition."That doesn't mean the game will necessarily be limited to PC, though. Developer Cloud Imperium set up a poll recently for further stretch goals to include in its fundraiser, with options of support for Mac and Linux. As it stands, 19 percent of voters want Linux support, with Mac on 8 percent. Both are way behind the likes of "tactical command mode on capital ships" (37 percent), "more star systems in Star Citizen" (39 percent), and more flyable ship classes (41 percent). If I were you, Mac users, I wouldn't hold my breath.
Star Citizen achieves Kickstarter goal with 26 days to spare
Chris Roberts' Star Citizen title is well on its way if the project's Kickstarter performance is any indication. Wait, Kickstarter? Didn't Roberts set up a crowd-funding initiative directly on the game's official website earlier this month? Why, yes, yes he did, but due to the overwhelming demand generated by thousands of starving space sim fans, the site had trouble handling all the traffic. Roberts Space Industries thus opened an ancillary Kickstarter project with a $500,000 target. When coupled with the $1.3 million raised so far on the main site, Star Citizen is within striking distance of its original $2 million goal with a lot of time left on the clock. Check out yesterday's Massively Speaking podcast for an interview with Chris Roberts himself.
Star Citizen adds Kickstarter to crowdfunding drive
After its official website (and only source of crowdfunding income) went offline due to server-crushing amounts of traffic, Chris Roberts' Cloud Imperium Games have opened an ancillary Kickstarter project to support Star Citizen.The main difference between the Kickstarter and the website itself – beyond the stark difference in fundraising goals – is the Kickstarter's special $5.00 donation level, which grants the ability to change a ship's hull design to players that have already donated on the main site. The rest of the game's registration process, as well as all of the other donation rewards, remain the same regardless of where the donation originated.As of press time, the official site has reached approximately $1.13 million of its $2 million goal, while the Kickstarter has earned $208,370 of its $500,000 target. Funding on the official site continues for another 21 days, while the Kickstarter remains active for another 30.
Wing Commander creator returns to gaming, unveils new project next month
Chris Roberts, the brain behind Wing Commander and Freelancer, announced his return to game development yesterday with a newly launched website*. The site more than hints at an upcoming high-end space sim, giving users a 'golden ticket' to a private showing of Roberts' 'next creation,' scheduled for 10am JST (7am Pacific) on October 10 at GDC Online. Furthermore, Roberts' updated LinkedIn profile lists him as the boss of Cloud Imperium. According to the site, Cloud Imperium launched last year and is "dedicated to high end gaming and anything involving spaceships."Although Roberts forged a career in Hollywood over the last decade, producing films like The Punisher and Lord of War, his passion clearly remains in the space sims he made across the 90s. His new website's introductory message reveals he left games development because he was frustrated with its technological limits. Roberts' Wing Commander series mixed space combat with high-end cinematics starring the likes of Mark Hamill and John Rhys Davies, and (in retrospect) the disparity between the graphics and video is stark.Roberts now feels he has the tools to build a world "more satisfying and richer" than any film he could work on. While things have changed much since Roberts' last worked in the industry back in 2003, the return of the man who made one of gaming's most celebrated series is certainly worth keeping an eye on.*if you're looking for the number code to login, think upon the most important question
