Star Citizen - Chris Roberts' new game

[Timby]

I've also seen today that Valve might be working on a privateer like open world space sim. If true and Star Citizen gets off the ground, it would make this niche's landscape quite interesting for the next two years.

If that's true, Roberts should just go to Valve and beg for the money. They'd give him the creative freedom he so clearly wants.

Honestly, though, I have a feeling that he's still hoping to get the Wing Commander license from EA, which is why the storyline is under the stretch goals -- he needs some extra cash to get it out of EA's hands. That trailer was Wing Commander, even down to the uniforms (which were straight out of WC3), and everything about this project is screaming that it's intended to be a Wing Commander game, but they're developing the new universe / fiction as a fallback in case they can't acquire or license the rights.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I would love a new WC game, assuming it was good quality and brought back the Kilrathi. Although the post-Kilrathi War games were decent (especially The Price of Freedom, which was brilliant), it would be awesome to have a true open universe WC game at the height of the Kilrathi War implemented modern gaming technology.

Even if he doesn't get the license, I would be interested to see what he comes up with.

 

[Timby]

I would love a new WC game, assuming it was good quality and brought back the Kilrathi.

Roberts has been saying that EA approached him about doing a new Wing Commander game, but the talks fell apart after he insisted that it be PC-only. I honestly can't say I fault EA on that one, considering the budgets of space sims -- Wing Commander IV cost something like $12 million back in 1996, though admittedly a large chunk of that was the FMV, and Freespace 2, which killed the market, had a hojillion-dollar budget behind it.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I would love a new WC game, assuming it was good quality and brought back the Kilrathi.

Roberts has been saying that EA approached him about doing a new Wing Commander game, but the talks fell apart after he insisted that it be PC-only. I honestly can't say I fault EA on that one, considering the budgets of space sims -- Wing Commander IV cost something like $12 million back in 1996, though admittedly a large chunk of that was the FMV, and Freespace 2, which killed the market, had a hojillion-dollar budget behind it.

Yeah, I remember when Freespace 2 killed the space sim genre. Sad days.

 

[superdeluxe]

Why are the storyline things being included in the stretch goals? You should plan to have that anyway unless you're doing what XCOM is doing and letting the player create the story.

More $$$$ means you are able to create more storylines. Not seeing the issue here.

 

[superdeluxe]

It depends on how big the name Roberts really is and if there's enough 30+ year olds who remember Wing Commandor and Freelancer (games i adored as a teenager).

5 million is a very tall order and yet a drop in the bucket for a major game.. top of the line games nowadays cost tens of millions and only a select few franchises exist that make a return on this investment.

I honestly doubt Robert's has remained a big name.. outside of people in their 30s and gaming nuts i don't believe the majority of today's Xbox and PS3 crowd know who he is much less that he's getting a game together.
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All those teens/folks in their 20's are now making decent salary and love to live in nostaligia of things in the Past. We've seen how well project eternity, Wasteland and Shadowrun have done.

 

[smiki]

Space Combat is a dead genre and could use a boost.

You guys do know that Diaspora: Shattered Armistice, a Battlestar Galactica themed freeware standalone space combat game made with the so-called FreeSpace Open engine (significantly upgraded FreeSpace 2 engine) got released this September? Just saying, because you guys seem like you might enjoy it.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Space Combat is a dead genre and could use a boost.

You guys do know that Diaspora: Shattered Armistice, a Battlestar Galactica themed freeware standalone space combat game made with the so-called FreeSpace Open engine (significantly upgraded FreeSpace 2 engine) got released this September? Just saying, because you guys seem like you might enjoy it.

By the way, I wouldn't be quick to say the genre is "dead." It's just not as high-profile as it once was. Freespace 2 certainly killed the genre (for a while), but now it's back. You have the X series, which remains modestly popular. Looking through my Steam account, I've got these various and sundry space combat sims (in the Freespace/Wing Commander mold):

* DarkStar One (2006)
* SpaceForce: Rogue Universe (2007)
* Evochron Mercenary (2012)
* SOL: Exodus (2012)

Granted, there aren't that many of these, but what's available is pretty good.

 

[JGordon]

Keep in mind that all we've seen is a pre-rendered sizzle reel, and we have no idea whatsoever what development has taken place already, outside of the announcement that it's running CryEngine 3 and that Roberts has a very rough prototype.

At the GDC online announcement, Roberts played the mission seen in the trailer in real time. He started off in 1st/3rd person walking around the interior of the carrier, climbed into the cockpit of his fighter, took off, and fought with the raider ships. All without any loading screens or major hiccups (though there were a few minor clipping issues).

So the basics of the game engine are set, and it was surprisingly polished for a pre-pre-alpha build. From his comments it sounded like the only assets they really had completed were the carrier and the 2 fighter classes, but it's pretty impressive that they managed to turn CryEngine 3 into a functional flight sim by the time of the announcement. They had a lot more done than most projects that are at the crowdfunding phase. So there's definitely been a fair amount of development done already.

The combined totals for the RSI site are just over $1.8 million as I type this, and should surpass the $2million minimum goal very shortly. That's after just 13 days of fundraising on the RSI site and only 4 days on Kickstarter, so they are likely on their way to a $3 - $4 million total.

I'm very, very excited about this game. Dusted off my joystick last night and downloaded Diaspora: Shattered Armistice for some practice. I pledged $60 to Star Citizen, and might do more if I can convince the wife that it's necessary for my well-being.

Edit - Roberts has also stated that the $2million goal will kick in additional private funding from investors, who wanted Roberts to prove their was a market for this type of game before they committed the money. So the crowdfunding isn't the only funding stream for this game's development.

 

[Jono]

The game hit its $2 million goal today, so that's one big box ticked in terms of the game heading towards getting made. I'm glad to see that the game looks like it won't stumble on its first hurdle.

Some basic prelim info on the pledge ships, has also been released. They are also going to be expanding on the details for the stretch goals in the next day, which will be interesting.

 

[FPAlpha]

For real?

Already hit the 2 million mark? Really happy to eat my words now

If this really takes off and the announcements come true i'll be definitely checking this game out.. i'm dying for a state of the art space combat sim.

 

[Jono]

Stretch goals have been updated with quite a bit of information. The 30 month mark for Star Citizen to be released has been moved from the $5+ million to $3+ million and that they will aim for 40 explorable systems to begin with.

Some highlights:

$2 million:
*SQ42 - 30 missions

$3 million:
*SQ42 - 35 missions
*Star Citizen - 40 systems (released in 30 months)

$4 million:
*SQ42 - 45 missions, richer storyline
*Star Citizen - 50 systems, extra ship

$5 million:
*SQ42 - 50 missions, celebrity voice acting including someone from Wing Commander
*Star Citizen - 70 systems

There are a number of "locked" goals that I guess will only be revealed when they are met. Kickstarter also has different goals, which I think might be mainly aimed at backers rather than more general release goals.

 

[Mr_Homn]

I hope they get Tom Wilson (Maniac, Biff Tannen) if they reach the 5 million mark. Mark Hamill would be amazing as well, obviously.

 

[superdeluxe]

Nearing 6 million dollars.

All stretch goals have been unlocked.

Last stretch goals at 6million:

Full Orchestra Score
100 explorable Star Systems
Free Squadron 42 'Mission' pack for backers.

Wow.

The Constellation (Ship you get for 250 pledge):

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/cdn-rsi/RSIConstellationMK3BrochureV2.pdf


Early Alpha Computer AI attacking and defending Bengal Class Cruiser (unlocked playable at 5.5 milion):

http://vimeo.com/m/53745615

2 hours LEFT.

 

[superdeluxe]

6 million Success. Incredible.

 

[Jono]

I thought it reaching 3 or 4 million was a bit of a pipe dream at the beginning, so hitting the "max" is pretty amazing.

It is also ending every strongly (about 40 mins left atm). It will come close to raising $2 million in the last two days alone. Also should be noted that it will surpass the previous crowd funding record for a video game by that same amount. Not bad for a "dead" genre.

 

[superdeluxe]

Finishes with 6.2 million. Crazy.

 

[FPAlpha]

Guess it's time to upgrade the machine and buy a state of the art joystick!

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Good on him and his team for securing that much money! I hope they produce a worthy game with it.

 

[superdeluxe]

So it looks like they are extending pledges through the RSI website for a extra day or two, due to the problems that website has had. They are now up to 6.5 million lol