Anyone who is a classic PC gamer will recognize the name of Chris Roberts, who has spent many years producing some of the best space simulators around, including the infamous Wing Commander. Well, in case you’ve been living under a rock for the last couple of years, he’s back in the saddle once more. His latest project, Star Citizen, has raised a tremendous amount of funds — and not from a traditional publisher.
The project, which once again takes place in the reaches of space and has a strong multiplayer appeal to it, has managed to raise over $50 million in a huge crowdfunding effort, including over $2 million from KickStarter alone.
The funds were divided between both the KickStarter page and the official Star Citizen website, where donations continue to be happily accepted. Backers have been able to buy a number of virtual rewards for the game, including a Hornet fighter and a multiplayer Constellation, which allows players to fly around in the same ship as friends in a humorous, joy-riding fashion.
The game’s development will actually be divided up amongst two teams. The first, the Austin-based Cloud Imperium, will work on the massive multiplayer online portion of the game, under the Star Citizen project name. meanwhile, a Manchester office in the UK, headed up by Roberts’ brother Erin, will focus on the single player component, under the project name Squadron 42. Both halves will be brought together for a complete game once it finishes development.
As far as a given release date, one hasn’t been specifically announced yet, outside of 2015. However, Roberts and company have promised to put the utmost amount of work into the game, so that it carries a similar legacy to Wing Commander, even if it works on a totally different vibe. Said Rob Irving, lead designer for the game, “The product matters. The experience matters. We will sell no wine before its time.”
The game’s massive community has been eagerly providing plenty of advice and feedback to the effort along the way, and several parts of the game have already been released in preliminary form to backers. It’s a truly collaborative effort between the development team and the backers, which Roberts feels has made Star Citizen a far better game. There’s plenty left to be don, and every time the game raises another million dollars more is added to the effort.
One thing’s for sure: Star Citizen could easily fuel the PC era for years to come if it lives up to all its promises.
Source: Ars Technica