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Stick and Rudder Extra: Chris Roberts on Star Citizen's persistent world PvE, PvP, and more
At first glance, Star Citizen is a game about internet spaceships. Extremely high-poly pardon-me-while-I-pick-my-jaw-up-off-the-floor internet spaceships, but internet spaceships nonetheless. If you look deeper, though, you'll see a sim that aims to be just as immersive outside the cockpit as in, thanks in no small part to a diverse set of gameplay options wrapped around a dense player-driven economy. Creator Chris Roberts says this was the plan from the beginning. Actually, it was the plan as far back as 1999, when Roberts first spoke publicly about Freelancer and his grand ideas for a persistent universe title. Fast forward 14 years and Roberts sits in the captain's chair at Cloud Imperium, presiding over a small army of talented gamemakers and a ravenous horde of fans who've made Star Citizen the most successful crowdfunding project in history. Will the finished game live up to lofty expectations? I recently interviewed Roberts in an attempt to find out. Join us after the cut as we talk PvE vs. PvP, the passage of in-game time, and much more.
Stick and Rudder: How dare you spend money on Star Citizen!
I've got to perform a public service this week because there's a certain subset of our audience that simply doesn't get Star Citizen. Granted, taking the time to explain things to trolls may do nothing but invite additional trolling, but hey, at least now I'll have a handy link to copy/paste any time I see some of the how-dare-you-bankroll-Star-Citizen bellyaching going forward. And no, today's column isn't addressed to you personally. If you think it is addressed to you personally, though, that's probably a good indication that you should do what well-adjusted people do and refrain from continually posting about games you don't like!
Star Citizen hits $14 million crowdfunding goal, still rolling
Star Citizen, the crowdfunded space adventure game from Wing Commander creator Chris Roberts, has reached its stretch funding goal of $14 million. The latest round of stretch goal cash will fund an in-game Hibernation Mode and a "Behind the Scenes of Star Citizen" documentary film. The project's current milestone follows up on last year's successful Kickstarter campaign and months of additional financial support from dedicated fans. Star Citizen's creators have revealed a new set of stretch goals to encourage new pledges. An additional ship class and a 42-page Upgrade Handbook will be produced if the project reaches over $15 million in funding, while $16 million will ensure the creation of an Arena mode.
Stick and Rudder: The best bits of Star Citizen's 24-hour livestream
There are livestreams, and then there are livestreams, and Star Citizen's 24-hour marathon that concluded yesterday was a prime example of the latter. The event was crammed full of developer roundtables, celebrity cameos, and enough internet spaceship shenanigans to keep me watching for far longer than I originally intended. Cloud Imperium revealed several new spacecraft, along with additional stretch goals that blew my mind, plenty of slickly produced videos, concept art, and more.
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%
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.
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.
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.
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.
Chris Roberts' Star Citizen crowdfunding concludes at over $6M
Star Citizen concluded its two-pronged pledge drive today with $6,226,891 in funding. The Roberts Space Industry drive currently sits at $4.1 million from believers in the space sim genre, with today's Kickstarter concluding at $2.1 million."I'm completely overwhelmed, humbled and grateful for the support from everybody who backed Star Citizen," Roberts told Joystiq moments ago. "I think we sent a statement to the rest of the gaming world that PCs and space sims are very much alive and kicking. I'm looking forward to creating the game and sharing the journey with this incredible community."Roberts is known for having pioneered the space sim genre with the Wing Commander series, which has been left to languish by EA for 15 years (no, Wing Commander Arena doesn't count). The plan is for Star Citizen's star citizen backers to start testing the alpha version of the game within a year.Update: Altered text based on new information. Roberts Space Industry page will remain open for pledges. Rewards will not be the same as they were during the Kickstarter window, but we've been told that interested folks can still participate in an early buy-in. More details in attached press release.
Star Citizen cargo ship boasts functioning interior, detachable fighter
Remember those old ship blueprints that came folded in your Wing Commander box circa 1991? No? Well, get off our lawn. Assuming you do remember them, or assuming you're as excited as we are about Chris Roberts' new Star Citizen space sim, you'll probably get a kick out of some images just released on the official site. The site has a preview interview and accompanying concept gallery that features a player ship called the Constellation Mark III. There are plenty of schematic views, lore-appropriate statistics, and of course renders of both the interior and exterior of the craft. Yep, apparently that answers the question as to whether or not we'll be able to walk around inside some of Star Citizen's ships, as many of the renders show off everything from the cockpit to living quarters to various observation decks and stations. Oh, did we mention that the Constellation boasts its own detachable star fighter? Roberts also puts to rest any notions of Star Citizen being a typical combat-only shooter. One of his goals is to let you actually look at the cargo in your ship's hold while you're in space. "There's a big focus on simulating and showing everything that you would imagine to be inside and functioning on a spaceship in Star Citizen," he explains. "So if you're hauling it you should see it in your hold (if you can walk back into your hold), if you activate a system, you should see your pilot avatar lean over and switch it on, and so on." The images come courtesy of Ryan Church, a familiar name to sci-fi geeks thanks to his concept art work on the Star Wars prequels. [Thanks to Eric for the tip!]%Gallery-171150%
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 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 has raised almost half a million dollars
Chris Roberts' new space sim Star Citizen has already raised over $455,590 from its crowd-funding drive, despite being called Star Citizen. Pledge counts are not yet available on the website, but Roberts sent out an update today containing that number. "Seems everyone wants the RSI Constellation and physical goodies," he noted, suggesting that many buyers have paid more than $250 for access to the "RSI Constellation spaceship."Technical problems have held some pledges back, Roberts notes, entreating potential buyers to try again. "We still have a ways to go but I have no doubt with your support we will get there." Half a million in two days seems like a good sign.
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
