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Star Citizen tops $47 million, will continue to offer stretch goals
Star Citizen has topped $47 million in funding on the wings of its recent Xi'An scout ship promotion. Cloud Imperium boss Chris Roberts talks about the ship and its unique thruster setup (and its corresponding unique flight characteristics inside the space sim's physics engine) in his latest letter from the chairman. Roberts also reveals that 54 percent of Star Citizen backers voted for CIG to continue offering stretch goals. He says that the company will "honor that choice," but that there will be some changes. "I'm not comfortable promising additional features with each million unless they're truly additive," he explains. "When we have a new idea that really impacts the final game and needs the funding then we'll offer it here... but you can expect a number of player rewards and new ways of highlighting Arena Commander as immediate goals!"
Make My MMO: June 15 - June 21, 2014
This week in MMO crowdfunding news, golden oldie World War II Online assured itself of a new client update thanks to a successful Indiegogo campaign. The genre's first and arguably best MMOFPS raised over $10,000, which it will spend on a new test server as well as PC and Mac client updates. Elite: Dangerous developer Frontier made headlines based on the size of its (expanding) dev team, and fellow space sim Star Citizen stirred up some controversy thanks to its hyper-realistic flight model manifesto. Oh, and don't forget to watch that crowdfunded EVE Online documentary when it premieres next month! The rest of our weekly crowdfunding roundup is hiding on the other side of that hypergate.
Star Citizen's new persistent universe director loves economic, strategic gameplay
How important is Star Citizen's persistent universe? Important enough that Chris Roberts has hired game industry veteran Tony Zurovec to oversee its direction. "The game has become so big that I can't actually direct every single aspect of it every single moment of the day," Roberts explains at the outset of a new 40-minute interview vid posted on Cloud Imperium's official site. Zurovec previously worked with Roberts at Origin and Digital Anvil. He also developed the Crusader series and brings a love of economic and strategic gameplay on a galactic scale to the table. Roberts also mentions Zurovec's work on an unreleased Digital Anvil game called Loose Cannon that was essentially "Privateer on wheels" and a pre-cursor to the sort of open-world sandbox mayhem found in Grand Theft Auto III and its sequels. Click past the cut to watch the full interview.
Leaderboard: How much time do you spend getting good at a game?
Yesterday's Chris Roberts post on Star Citizen's flight model got me to thinking about game systems, learning, and the lengths we'll go to to be good at a particular title. It's too early to know for sure, of course, but it seems like Star Citizen might be one of those sim-before-game exercises that requires both a lot of practice time and a lot of study in terms of knowing both your ship capabilities and those of your opponent's ship. What about your current MMOs, though? How much time do you spend getting good at your favorite in-game activities? Vote after the cut!
Roberts on Star Citizen's work-in-progress flight model
If you're keeping up on Star Citizen current events, you probably know that there's been quite a debate brewing amongst the game's backers with respect to the controls and the flight model in the recently released Arena Commander module. Cloud Imperium has heard the feedback, and Chris Roberts has responded with a huge post that clarifies his goals for the game's Intelligent Flight Control System (IFCS) as well as the flight model going forward. If you're a flight sim fan, you'll likely find it fascinating reading. If not, the primary takeaway is that Roberts and CIG are confident in the direction of the model despite community concerns. As Roberts says, "a portion of our community clearly feels the current flight model is 'wrong.'" "We actually allow for a lot more variation and nuance in flight and combat than a simplified Wing Commander/X-Wing-style flight model," Roberts counters. "Like learning to drive a car really well... it requires some learning. You have to anticipate where you want to be and plan for it." He goes on to explain how most space games use an atmospheric flight baseline with predefined pitch, roll, and yaw rates as well as capped speeds and linear acceleration applied to a simplified mass point. "Star Citizen doesn't do that," he writes. "We model what would be needed on an actual spaceship, including correct application of thrust at the places where the thrusters are attached to the hull of the ship -- in our model moment of inertia, mass changes and counter thrust are very necessary. Star Citizen's physical simulation of spaceflight is based on what would actually happen in space."
Star Citizen begins AC multiplayer invites
It's been a busy week for Star Citizen. The crowdsourced space sim sandbox topped $46 million in funding, and Cloud Imperium Games began rolling out invites to the multiplayer portion of the recently released Arena Commander dogfighting module. The module also continues to be patched in order to address bugs and control issues. CIG also kicked off a new video show called Around the Verse. The first episode features a 40-minute running time and a sit-down with AC producer Travis Day. Finally, CIG chairman Chris Roberts penned his customary thank you letter after the $46 million milestone, in which he offered a sneak peek at the game's next in-universe spaceship commercial and made available a community poll relating to the continued use of project stretch goals. "When we started the Star Citizen campaign, the purpose of the stretch goals was to make things we had imagined but didn't think we could afford possible: adding capital ship systems, studying procedural generation, hiring additional artists to build more ships at once and the like," Roberts explained. "The additional funding continues to expand the scope of the game and make what we're doing possible... but it's becoming more and more difficult to quantify that with more stretch goals (and to explain that to the rest of the world, which likes to focus only on how much money we've made.)"
E3 2014: Hands-on with Star Citizen and a chat with Chris Roberts
Chris Roberts prefers a joystick or controller to the mouse and keyboard. This came up immediately upon meeting him for our Star Citizen demo/interview at this year's E3. As someone who's mainly watched news on the game from the sidelines, sitting in awe of what looks like a terribly complex title with tons of gameplay options, I was a bit intimidated going into this sit-down. But I came out of it feeling, well, relaxed.
Star Citizen tops $45 million, releases Freelancer commercial
It's been a while since we've seen a new spaceship commercial for Star Citizen. Given that Cloud Imperium is pimping the Freelancer this weekend, though, it's no surprise that the space big-rig now has its own in-universe advertisement. Genre mainstay Lance Henriksen does the voiceover honors, and there's a distinctive Firefly vibe to the whole clip, right down to the twangy guitar underneath. See for yourself after the break, and don't blink or you'll miss the Mother Trucker bumper decal! You might also want to read Chris Roberts' latest thank-you letter penned in response to Star Citizen breaking the $45 million crowdfunding barrier.
The Daily Grind: Are you still excited about crowdfunding?
I'm a big fan of crowdfunding. Middlemen bother me, both inside the gaming industry and out, and anything that allows creators to reach their audience with less interference from MBAs, marketers, and the like is a win in my book. That said, my personal crowdfunding honeymoon period is over. I'm finding myself more and more uninterested in betas, alphas, and backer-only pre-alpha stuff. Case in point is Star Citizen's recently released Arena Commander (or dogfighting module, if you prefer). I'm still a big fanboy, and as such I was excited to fire it up for the first time. I'm also appreciative of all the work that Cloud Imperium has done since the game was announced, but man I just don't want to play pre-release stuff! The stack of finished games on my desk is too large, as is the list of non-gaming hobbies, for me to waste time on buggy builds and feature sets that may change post-release. I'm not complaining, though, as the option to get in and see the development process is great. What about you, Massively readers? Are you still excited about crowdfunding? If so, do you get your hands dirty pre-release? 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!
CIG spotlighting Star Citizen's Freelancer this weekend
Cloud Imperium is spotlighting Star Citizen's Freelancer class hull this weekend, with a lengthy website update, one of those spiffy in-character ship brochures, and three new variants either available via a pre-release backer purchase or available to earn in the finished game. CIG has also patched Star Citizen's hangar module, so if you own one of the Freelancer variants you'll now be able to explore them to your heart's content (though you can't use them in the recently released dogfighting module just yet). The new variants include the DUR, custom fitted for exploration, the MIS, a missile boat design, and the MAX, a dedicated hauler with additional cargo space.
Delayed Star Citizen dogfighting module finally leaves the launchpad
Though bugs delayed the initial release of Star Citizen's Arena Commander a la carte gameplay mode, developer Cloud Imperium Games has popped an airlock, sucking those dastardly code glitches into space like so many hapless xenomorphs. Today's 0.8 update for Star Citizen offers access to new ships and gameplay modes. Would-be pilots can now step into the cockpit of the Roberts Space Industries Aurora, 300i and Hornet. These spacecraft can then be deployed in either the Vanduul Swarm gameplay mode or in simple, self-explanatory free flight. Additionally, this update adds multiplayer gameplay to both the Team and Battle Royale gameplay modes. All of this new content may seem daunting, but Cloud Imperium has also debuted an official "Pilot's Guide" for the new Arena Commander content. Assuming you backed Star Citizen's overwhelmingly successful crowdfunding efforts with enough cash to earn either Alpha access or an Arena Commander pass, this new content is available for download at no additional charge. [Image: Cloud Imperium Games]
Star Citizen's monthly report, AC tutorial vid released
Cloud Imperium has had a busy couple of days, what with launching Star Citizen's long-awaited Arena Commander and all. Last night the firm also released its latest monthly studio report wherein CIG's development teams share their progress reports for the past 30 days. The devs also published a mouse-and-keyboard based flight tutorial for the new dogfighting module. You can view that after the cut.
Star Citizen's Arena Commander is live
Cloud Imperium has released Star Citizen's dogfighting module, more commonly known as Arena Commander. Qualified backers can now access the Vanduul Swarm and Freeflight modes using three different spacecraft: the Aurora, the 300i, and the Hornet. The current version includes limited multiplayer for a handful of backers in the form of the Battle Royale and Team modes. CIG says that these modes will open up to more players as it hunts down lag and synch issues. The announcement post also features a lengthy blurb from Chris Roberts on the future of open development as well as a poll to gauge interest in internal date targets. Finally, there's a launch trailer with gameplay footage after the cut! [Thanks everyone who tipped us!]
Last Week on Massively: On your marks, get set, WildStar!
This post originally appeared on Massively from Jef Reahard. At the end of every week, we round up the best and most popular news stories, exclusive features, and insightful columns published on Massively and then present them all in one convenient place. If you missed a big MMO story last week, you've come to the right post. WildStar's headstart kicked off this weekend, and apart from the DDoS attacks, all appears to be going... exactly as most AAA launches go. Some people are irate, some people don't care, and some people are too busy forgoing sleep in favor of playing. Prior to the early access period, Carbine dangled some account security incentives, released an official server list, and unveiled the final pre-launch trailer. Click past the cut for the rest of this week's top MMO stories.
Space bugs delay Star Citizen dogfighting module
A series of bugs grounded this week's scheduled launch of Arena Commander, the space-based dogfighting module for Star Citizen. Project creator Chris Roberts revealed the delay in a blog post on the game's website, saying "it would be foolish to release an unstable build, even if pre-alpha for the sake of meeting an internal deadline." "I know that's not the news you wanted to hear tonight. No-one would like to see the community get their hands on Arena Commander more than I would," he added. Roberts praised Star Citizen's crowdfunding model as part of the reason a delay was possible, citing quality as a main directive rather than a publisher's milestone calendar. "A publisher would make us ship tomorrow regardless of the current build quality," Roberts wrote. "But as you are all focused on quality rather than a financial return for shareholders we are able to take a few more days to deliver something that is stable." Since its crowdfunding campaign began in October 2012, Star Citizen has amassed over $44 million from Kickstarter and from the game's own website.
Star Citizen's Arena Commander delayed
Despite the best efforts of a dev team that's been working around the clock for the past two weeks, Cloud Imperium has decided to delay today's planned Arena Commander release for Star Citizen. CIG's Chris Roberts offers a lengthy explanation on Star Citizen's official website, complete with a list of critical bugs soon to be squashed. It would be foolish to release an unstable build, even if pre-alpha for the sake of meeting an internal deadline. This is the power of the crowdfunding that made Star Citizen possible: a publisher would make us ship tomorrow regardless of the current build quality... but as you are all focused on quality rather than a financial return for shareholders we are able to take a few more days to deliver something that is stable. I know that's not the news you wanted to hear tonight. No-one would like to see the community get their hands on Arena Commander more than I would. This is what can happen with an open development process, especially when we are sharing code and content long before one normally would in traditional development. [Thanks Kommissar K!]
Star Citizen tops $44 million, talks trading, map rooms, and more
Star Citizen has topped $44 million in crowdfunding. As you might expect, Cloud Imperium boss Chris Roberts has penned a thank-you letter and it features a couple of interesting nuggets. First is the concept art, shown above, of a Banu Merchantman freighter. More specifically, you're looking at the negotiation room, and it exists so that traders can have other players visit their ships, display their wares via the visible cargo bay, and generally go about the business of being a trader. "Transporting cargo is going to be more complex than just finding the ship with the highest storage capacity," Roberts writes. "It's going to involve finding the right ship type for the job." In terms of the usual million-dollar milestone backer rewards, the latest unlock is a map room hangar add-on that will allow players to walk through a holographic representation of the known universe.
The Daily Grind: Do huge dev teams give you pause?
We recently discovered that the Skyforge dev team numbers nearly 300 people. Star Citizen's team is over 200. Those are pretty crazy numbers, even for alleged AAA games and even for full-featured massively multiplayer online things. Taking into account that budgets vary wildly from project to project and company to company, do large numbers of devs on an MMO project give you pause? Why or why not? 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's Arena Commander is launching on May 29th
Star Citizen fans, mark your calendars for May 29th. If all goes well, you'll be playing at least a single-player version of Arena Commander as Cloud Imperium begins to roll out portions of its long-awaited dogfighting module. CIG chairman Chris Roberts has posted his weekly recap, which contains the tentative date and a preview of what to expect. "The goal is that every backer will have access to the single-player Free Flight and Vanduul Swarm games mode on this day, and the very first batch of multiplayer testers will get access to the game's multiplayer game modes," Roberts writes. "We will scale up the multiplayer as quickly as possible starting on that date, increasing the number of players as it is stable and stopping to fix bugs where needed." There's much more to the weekly studio report, so click through to the Roberts Space Industries website to read it!
Star Citizen's Arena Commander mode set to launch May 29
Pilots, Star Citizen's tank is filled with over $43 million in funding, you're clear for departure. Don't propel yourself into the deepest, darkest depths of space just yet though - get your bearings, get comfortable in your new, futuristic attire, learn how maneuvering a tin can in space works. If you helped fund Star Citizen, you can do all of these things in the dogfight-focused Arena Commander mode, which is due to make contact with backers on May 29. Developer Cloud Imperium Games plans to offer the single player Free Flight and Vanduul Swarm modes in Arena Commander's initial launch. Studio Director Erin Roberts shared questions the team asks themselves while developing Vanduul Swarm, like "how many fighters in a wave?" and "how many waves?," which suggests an AI-populated, wave-based style of play. Though creator Chris Roberts has supplied a schedule for development up until the planned launch, he acknowledges that there could be "unforeseen issues" that risk a delay. However, he adds that if they surface, "the community will know what they are AND how they impact the schedule as soon as I do." [Image: Cloud Imperium Games]
