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Watch Cloud Imperium's CitizenCon livestream right now
One year ago today, Chris Roberts set space sim fans' hearts all a-flutter with news of his impending return to the game genre he put on the map. The ensuing 12 months saw Star Citizen mushroom into the most successful crowdfunding project of all time and expand its scope far beyond the initial Squadron 42 reveal. To celebrate the one-year anniversary of the announcement, Cloud Imperium is hosting its inaugural CitizenCon In Austin, Texas. Click through the links below to watch the livestream comment section while CIG gets its technical issues sorted out.
Roberts debunks Star Citizen 'feature creep' theories, announces next stretch goal
Star Citizen's crowdfunding total is chugging steadily past the $20 million mark. As such, Cloud Imperium boss Chris Roberts has authored a new letter from the chairman that outlines the next stretch goal and addresses a host of other interesting topics. The goal in question is realistic facial capture technology, which will officially unlock at the $22 million mark. Roberts also took the time to debunk allegations of "feature creep" regarding Star Citizen's ambitious and expanding gameplay functionality. There are two types of stretch goals, he explained. The first are goals that involve features we already have planned or have implemented, but we couldn't create content because of budgetary constraints. The first-person combat on select planets is a great example of this type of goal. We already have FPS combat as part of the game in ship-boarding, and we already have most of this already functional thanks to CryEngine, as we essentially have Crysis3 functionality out of the box. But creating all the environments and assets to fill them is a huge task, so we were planning on not doing any planetside combat initially, simply because of its cost, with the idea that we would slowly roll it out once the game is live. But with the additional funds we can now afford to create some of this content earlier rather than later. The second sort of stretch goal is typified by the facial recognition functionality, "where [the devs] identify technology and equipment that will make the game better and allow us to be more nimble and economically efficient in continually creating content," Roberts explains. In both cases, he says, "we don't commit to adding features that would hold up the game's ability to go live in a fully functional state. Also remember that this is not like a typical retail boxed product -- there is no rule that all features and content have to come online at the same time!"
Star Citizen's AMD trailer sizzles
There's no question that Star Citizen is truly the crowdfunding king; it took the crown long ago. But that doesn't mean Cloud Imperium Games is resting on its laurels -- or pile of funds as it were. No, the team takes that support and gets right back to work creating a game that many are eagerly anticipating. And you can see just where some of that financial support is being used in the game's latest video. Created for Chris Robert's AMD presentation, this trailer is dubbed Sizzle Reel. Watch it for yourself and tell us if you think the moniker fits.
Star Citizen crowdfunding campaign breaks $20 million
The runaway locomotive that is Star Citizen's crowdfunding campaign is still chugging along at full speed, it would seem. In its most recent press release, Cloud Imperium Games has proudly announced that the game's faithful backers have broken the $20 million mark. As if that wasn't insane enough, the studio notes that of that $20 million, $10 million was raised in the past four-and-a-half months alone. The studio's CEO, Chris Roberts, is quite pleased -- and more than a little surprised -- by the campaign's success. "Honestly, we never dreamed we'd reach this point so quickly," he says. Of course, it wouldn't have happened at all without the game's dedicated fans who Roberts calls "the best community in all of gaming." Despite this monumental milestone, Cloud Imperium's gaze is fixed firmly ahead. The press release promises "plenty of game updates" in the near future, including "some surprise announcements" coming on October 10th. [Source: Cloud Imperium Games press release]
Roberts on Star Citizen's exploration gameplay, publisher-free development
Gamasutra has just published an interview with Cloud Imperium head honcho Chris Roberts. Much of the piece is old news if you've followed the game closely (also, the interview was conducted over a month ago at Gamescom), but there are still some juicy quotes from the space sim guru regarding his dream game's non-combat mechanics and publisher-free development cycle. Community interaction and open development is allowing CIG to build a more relevant title, Roberts says. "We had all of these things like bounty hunter, mercenary, pirate, merchant, explorer. And I was shocked that 67 percent of the people [Cloud Imperium surveyed] said that they wanted to be an explorer," Roberts said. CIG wouldn't have known how many players prefer non-combat gameplay under the old design-your-game-in-a-vacuum model. Roberts also talks at length about the benefits of developing publisher-free. For one thing, Roberts says, developing SC at EA or Activision would require $40 to $50 million, whereas doing it at a more efficient indie outfit allows him to get the same functionality for half that cost. "I do feel like there's a shift in the business with what's happening right now, with the ability to be online and connect directly to the community and the fans," Roberts says. "We essentially don't need any publishing functions because we're connecting directly to people, and normally that's what a publisher would do for you."
EVE Evolved: Will Star Citizen or Elite harm EVE?
Publishers haven't been willing to put a lot of money behind a sci-fi sandbox for some time, but upcoming games Star Citizen and Elite: Dangerous seem set to revive the genre thanks to the power of crowdfunding. Star Citizen in particular has collected a world record $19.6 million in pledges so far from almost 258,000 individuals, eliminating the need for publishers and heavy investment entirely. Though both games are designed to be a primarily singleplayer or small-scale multiplayer adventures, their respective developers have already promised shared online universes and sandbox gameplay that could give EVE Online a run for its money. The past decade has shown EVE to be one of the most resilient MMOs on the planet. It's survived several major scandals, barely noticed the release of giant World of Warcraft, and has somehow maintained its subscription-based business model in a market rapidly being overtaken by free-to-play titles. Even at its lowest point, the game managed to survive the 2011 monoclegate scandal and the subsequent fallout that saw CCP Games lose 20% of its staff worldwide. EVE's subscriptions and concurrent user numbers have historically been unaffected by the release of new MMOs or sci-fi titles, so why should Star Citizen be any different? In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at how EVE Online has lived with very little direct competition until now and ask whether Star Citizen and Elite could be among the first games to directly draw players from EVE.
Make My MMO: Crowdfunding September 8 - 21, 2013
In the oft changing world of crowdfunding hopefuls, faces come and faces go... and sometimes they come back again. If one of the newcomers to this edition of Make My MMO looks familiar, that's because the game ran a shorter, unsuccessful Kickstarter campaign last July. With a longer run this time around, perhaps Story Quest Online will fare better. On the flip side, one campaign flipped sections: We congratulate StarCraft Universe on meeting its goal and joining the ranks of the fully funded. Plenty of other news came from the funded ranks as well, from the crowdfunding king hit more funding goals (again) to progress reports and new feature reveals. You can catch all the details right here.
CIG patches Star Citizen's hangar, puts Caterpillar on sale
Cloud Imperium has released a new patch for Star Citizen's hangar module. The update "contains over 100 changes based on feedback [...] from backers experimenting with the module." Fixes include flickering decals, missing cargo pallets, character sitting and running animations, and more. A complete list of patch notes is available via the SC launcher. CIG is also running a weekend-only promo on the Drake Interplanetary Caterpillar. The cargo and pirate support ship will set you back a cool $225.00, but keep in mind that like all SC pledge ships, the proceeds go directly to development costs and the ships themselves will be earnable via gameplay if you choose not to pre-purchase.
Star Citizen's salvaging career unveiled
Don't look now, but there's some more, ahem, feature creep coming to Star Citizen. OK, not really, but Cloud Imperium has announced the $21 million stretch goal, and it is "a major gameplay feature we have been hoping to include," according to Chris Roberts' latest letter from the chairman. The feature is salvage, and "salvage isn't an aside: It's a career with its own mechanic, story tie-ins, and universe-shaping endgames." The dev team has also released some new concept art of a female explorer avatar, and Roberts also takes a moment to outline the options for continuing the fundraising campaign beyond the original fully-funded mark. "The more funds we can raise in the pre-launch phase, the more we can invest in additional content and perhaps more importantly we can apply greater numbers of resources to the various tasks to ensure we deliver the full functionality sooner rather than later," he explains. There's currently a poll at the end of the letter that offers three options for crowdfunding continuation. As of press time, 88% of the 13,000 respondents have voted to continue crowdfunding extra features and development milestones.
Stick and Rudder: On Star Citizen's so-called 'feature creep'
I'm going to address the allegations of "feature creep" in Star Citizen this week before misperceptions get further out of hand. If you haven't been following the sci-fi space sandbox in recent weeks, note that Chris Roberts and Cloud Imperium unveiled the title's $20 million stretch goal several days ago. Said goal is FPS combat on select lawless planets, but to hear some armchair developers tell it, Roberts is jumping the shark and gunning for PlanetSide 2 instead of simply adding some instanced bells and whistles onto what's affectionately known as the best damn space sim ever (BDSSE). If you're a Star Citizen backer or enthusiast, you already know everything I'm about to type. If you're casually lurking on the periphery of the game's fandom, though, join me after the cut for the most complete SC crash course that 1,700 words can buy.
Stick and Rudder: On Star Citizen's cash shop
Remember last time when I said that Cloud Imperium's decision to release a playable pre-alpha Star Citizen module was a risky move? Forget that. I mean, it still kinda was, but this particular story had a happy ending. Star Citizen's first public-facing in-game deliverable has been live for over a week now, and for all intents and purposes it was a smashing success.
Make My MMO: Crowdfunding August 25 - September 7, 2013
If you build it, they will come. While that adage hold true for baseball diamonds in cornfields, it's a little bit different for MMOs. If you're set on developing a new virtual playground, you get them to come so you can build it! That's the philosophy behind crowdfunding, anyway, and many are latching onto it. So how fare the fields of crowdfunding lately? New projects (Alteil Horizons, Epic Space) sprouted up, one took root and grew stronger (Divergence), and others (Project Snowstorm, Realms of Creation, Enspira Online) withered away from lack of nourishment. See how your favorite projects are growing right here in Make My MMO.
Star Citizen's $20 million stretch goal is planetside FPS combat
Star Citizen smashed the $17 and $18 million crowdfunding barriers over the past seven days, and as per Cloud Imperium tradition, the latter milestone "unlocked" the next tier of funding rewards. In his latest letter from the chairman, Chris Roberts revealed that the sci-fi sandbox's $20 million stretch goal is "first person combat on select lawless planets." Star Citizen was already primed to include FPS combat on space stations, landing platforms, and via ship boarding actions, but the new goal takes it a step further. "Don't just battle on space stations and platforms... take the fight to the ground," the post says. Speaking of outside-the-ship environments, the post also includes a two-minute sneak preview of Terra Prime's landing zone. Check out the full video after the cut!
Dragon Con 2013: Star Citizen's Lesnick and Haddock on player feedback, CitizenCon, and more
It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks for Cloud Imperium Games. The makers of Star Citizen jetted to Cologne, Germany, for Gamescom, released the game's first live module, and traveled to Atlanta, Georgia, to chat up the BDSSE (that's best damn space sim ever, for the uninitiated) at Dragon Con. We caught up with designer and community manager Ben Lesnick and lead writer Dave Haddock for an update on all the Star Citizen things. Well, OK. Some of the Star Citizen things. Join us after the cut for tidbits on the dogfighting alpha, CitizenCon, and more.
Star Citizen's hangar module is live
Star Citizen's journey from crowdfunding champ to actual game is officially underway. Cloud Imperium just unveiled the hangar module, the first of several planned mini-releases designed to get early adopters testing various aspects of the title as it's being developed. If you've met the pledging prerequisites, you can download the Star Citizen launcher directly from the game's website. From there, you'll need to wait out the three GB patch before logging in to your personal hangar space where you can tour your pledge ships both inside and out. System requirements for the module include eight GB of memory, a quad core CPU, and a DirectX11 capable GPU with at least one GB of onboard memory. Click through the links below for the hangar module FAQ. Pew pew!
The Soapbox: Actually, that really isn't an MMO
In last week's edition of The Soapbox, Mike Foster argued that online gaming has evolved over the past few years and that the term MMO should be expanded to cover other online games like MOBAs. He examined the blurred dividing line between new online games and the classic MMOs of yesteryear, and he made the controversial argument that Call of Duty and League of Legends should now fall under the MMO umbrella. I found myself disagreeing with many of Mike's arguments and wanting to make additional points of my own, so this week I'd like to offer a few counter-points on the same topic for debate. The MMO market has certainly evolved since Massively was founded, with some pretty big innovations in gameplay and new ideas like the free-to-play business model taking hold. As much as people like to complain about a lack of innovation in the games industry, the same level of experimentation and evolution has hit industry-wide. Call of Duty has borrowed unlock and XP systems from the world of orcs and dragons, and League of Legends came from nowhere to be at the forefront of a global MOBA revolution, but neither of them is an MMO by any stretch of the imagination. In this in-depth opinion piece, I break down the definition arguments surrounding the term MMO, offer a reasoned view of where the line can and should be drawn, and look at why Massively covers games other than MMOs.
Stick and Rudder: Star Citizen's risky hangar module reveal
Man, I'm excited for next Thursday! Not because it's the day before Friday -- although that's pretty great, too -- but because we're going to get our hands on the first official release of Star Citizen. Chris Roberts called it the "baby Star Citizen" during last night's Gamescom love-in, which you should watch if you'd like to see the Cloud Imperium crew overwhelmed by the rock star treatment it received from the backers who journeyed to Cologne. Anyway, the hangar module! The devs have been showing it off to fans and press, and if initial reactions are anything to go by, it's going to be a successful mini-launch. It's still a risky move, though.
Make My MMO: Crowdfunding August 11 - 24, 2013
Just when you think it will be a quiet couple of weeks on the crowdfunding scene... it isn't. Crowdfunding hopefuls seem to be following the advice of The Gambler this week: Know when to hold them, when to fold them, when to walk away, and even when to run! The funded crowd is holding steady with only a few bits of news, but two projects are on the brink of folding as they are both far short of their goals. Legends of Firestorm, on the other hand, didn't just walk away -- it high-tailed it out of Kickstarter without a word of explanation. In the meantime, thwo new projects (StarCraft Universe and Enspira Online) have joined the scene, and another project resurfaced. Check out the details right here.
Gamescom 2013: Roberts demos Star Citizen's hangar module
Star Citizen's hangar module will be available to backers a week from today, but if you can't stand the wait, have a look at some footage of Chris Roberts' Gamescom demo. The presentation runs for about 10 minutes, and it offers a preliminary glance at the game's ship interiors, avatars, and associated functionality. Cloud Imperium is rolling out bits of Star Citizen in a modular fashion reminiscent of Minecraft's staggered release. Roberts and company are reminding everyone that next week's hangar bay represents a tiny portion of the game in a pre-alpha state, but the firm is nonetheless excited to offer its crowdfunding backers a hands-on progress report. Star Citizen's hangar module will initially be available in basic, business, and deluxe versions depending on customer ship pledges. Roberts says that eventually CI will add additional types including pirate hangars. For the first release, SC pledgers will be able to walk around and inside each of their ships. In other Star Citizen news, Roberts recently told Eurogamer that he no longer needs traditional investor money to make the game. "I'm actually not taking money from investors now. The budget for what we're delivering is about $20 million, and we're almost there [via crowdfunding] -- we'll probably be there before the end of the year," he said. Don't forget to click past the cut to view the video!
Your guide to MMOs at Gamescom 2013
Can you believe it, Gamescom is this week already! The massive trade show in Cologne, Germany, will run from August 21st to the 25th. Of course, if you're reading this, then you have one pressing question in mind: Which MMO studios will be there, and what will they be talking about? While we can't answer the second part of that, we can give you a heads-up regarding the studio attendance. Hit us after the jump for the run-down of which studios will be there along with their Twitter handles because you just know that any big news from the show will be insta-tweeted two seconds later.
