Star Citizen

[Morreion]

Star Citizen official site

Star Citizen (Wikipedia)

Star Citizen is an upcoming space trading and combat simulator game for the PC. It consists of persistent world massively multiplayer, single player campaign, and customizable private server components. Players take the role of spacefaring humans in a 30th century Milky Way centred around the fictional United Empire of Earth, an analogue to the Roman Empire. A central theme of the game is citizenship (or lack thereof) in the UEE. Players are not automatically granted citizenship, rather must earn it if they desire, and in-game opportunities are influenced by it. Strong focus is placed on player interaction. The game is slated to enter alpha phase in Q4 2013.

Star Citizen is currently being developed by Chris Roberts' Cloud Imperium Games Corporation, founded in 2011. Roberts' previous works include games such as Wing Commander, Privateer and Freelancer.


Star Citizen: A Game You Should Care About (Ten Ton Hammer)

...The new game will be multiplayer with an optional single-player component called Squadron 42, which takes the player through a military campaign to introduce the player to game mechanics and concepts in a more traditional way. Squadron 42 will offer a unique option--you can either play it offline, or online with friends. Players will also have the option of skipping military service and getting right into the game if that’s their preference.
Squadron 42 is the elite squadron of the United Empire of Earth’s 2nd Fleet.

Star Citizen will also be presented using an open-world architecture concept that allows the player to have that unique experience between small fighter craft and the larger capital ships. In the fighter, the player would be restricted to a small cockpit with little move to move around. Larger ships such as transports and carriers however, will have more room to walk around inside them. The result should be a much more immersive environment where each ship feels specifically unique.

Star Citizen's death mechanics to create 'a sense of mortality and history' (Massively)

He stops short of calling SC's mechanic permadeath, but he does note that every "death" will affect your avatar. "Eventually, after too many deaths, your character's body will just give out," he explains, "and instead of waking up in a med bay, you'll be attending the funeral of your fallen character from the eyes of the beneficiary you specified when originally creating your character."

Star Citizen tops $8 million in crowd-funding (Massively)

Chris Roberts' highly anticipated space sim sandbox just passed the $8 million mark, which means that it's garnered an additional $1.75 million over and above its original Kickstarter campaign that concluded last November. As of today, the project boasts more than 142,000 pledges. Over 3,400 new accounts have been created, and more than $500,000 has been raised in the last two weeks alone.

Roberts: Star Citizen to be 'a pretty well-realized world on all levels' (Massively)

"Yes, you're flying around in space, but you're also down on planets. You're talking to people. You're trading. I think you're going to feel like Star Citizen is a pretty well-realized world on all levels," Roberts explained.

Chris Roberts On Life After Crowdfunding, Games Vs Film (Rock Paper Shotgun)

I feel like the games business is the middle ground. The games business is coming back because of crowdfunding and stuff. There are people that maybe don’t sell 10 million copies, but maybe they sell a million copies or something. They’re getting an opportunity to make a game again. Like Tim Schafer. He was never a guy that sold multiple millions of copies, but he had a core audience, and it was a good business in the old days, the LucasArts days. Then there was a point where, all of a sudden, if you’re not selling 3 million or 4 million copies, EA or Activision isn’t interested. Then he’s in a no-man’s-land. That’s what crowdfunding enabled to come back.

Star Citizen base character model teased (Massively)

But wait, Star Citizen is a space flight simulator, isn't it? Well, yes, but players will also have a fully customizable avatar for use in boarding actions and bipedal combat as well as a hangar full of ships.

Cloud Imperium previews spiffy Star Citizen marine concept (Massively)

The artwork, which includes a full-body shot and helmet closeups, was done by artist Rob McKinnon.

Star Citizen’s ship customization systems explained (PC Gamer)

“…Ship modification is a game of resource management where players will juggle space requirements, power consumption, heat load, signature, mass, CPU resources, durability and the cost and availability of parts. We’ve created a system that allows you to manage all of these individual pieces in intricate detail, but also build a unified whole that will behave the way you want it to without micromanagement during the actual combat.”

GDC 2013: Chris Roberts expounds on Star Citizen's crafting, economy (Massively)

The crafting system in Star Citizen will be different than that of a traditional MMO. In fact, Roberts likened it to SimCity's. Production nodes and factories will be present on the planets, but whether an AI agent runs one or a player does depends on whether a player has purchased it. If a player owns the factory, she has to manage all aspects of production, from getting resources to keeping factory workers happy to getting equipment to distribution to the market. If no player owns it, then the AI takes care of everything, including getting goods out to the market (so there will always be a market, even if players aren't currently filling it).

Stick and Rudder: A guide to Star Citizen's community (Massively)

Internet Spaceships News Network is a fledgling news and user-generated content destination designed to both bring the community together and encourage the creative types to share their wares. You can consume or submit content at the official site, and be sure to check out the forum thread to learn more.

[Regolyth]

This sounds pretty cool. I'll have to keep an eye out for it.

[Morreion]

Stick and Rudder: Why Star Citizen's development model matters (Massivley)

I've pulled a few of the more interesting numbers directly from the SXSW audio, and viewing them gives you a great picture of the kinds of people who backed Star Citizen.

69% of backers are over the age of 25
89% of backers game on a desktop
81% of backers built their own PC
75% of backers have 8GB of RAM or more
29% of backers intend to use Oculus Rift
58% of backers own at least one console

Star Citizen - Early gameplay footageThe takeaway from all these numbers, according to Roberts, is that there is a significant audience of dedicated gamers who aren't being adequately serviced by the current game industry. And someone should make games for this audience because they have jobs and plenty of disposable income, he explained. "Too many people are trying to make games that work on a browser and are really basic experiences," he said.

Star Citizen's Roberts on business models, the PS4, and more (Massively)

And if Star Citizen's ever-increasing crowdfunding totals are any indication, Roberts' audience is more than OK with the process. "We generated $800,000 in February alone, which is crazy," he said. "We don't even have a campaign going, we're not even selling new ships or anything, and we don't have a game." He goes on to guesstimate that his 150,000-odd early adopters are only five to 10 percent of Star Citizen's post-launch audience. "Ultimately that means I can make the same game for a fifth of the revenue, a fifth of the sales, and I can be more profitable, and I can exist on lower unit sales. I think that's good for gamers, because crowdfunding and digital distribution are enabling more nichey stuff to be viable."

Star Citizen's Aurora revealed, Roberts explains further crowdfunding goals (Massively)

Star Citizen is still fairly early in its development stage, but at least one in-game asset has now officially passed through the entire design process. That element is the Aurora, which is Star Citizen's base ship and one that most players will use to begin their spacefaring careers.

The Aurora was designed by Star Wars and Star Trek concept artist Ryan Church. The Star Citizen website is now chock-full of in-engine images and in-character design specs.

Stick and Rudder: Star Citizen celebrates $9 million with Auroras, space suits, and LTI (Massively)

What I saw was flat out gorgeous, both the ship and the brochure. Cloud Imperium produced a glossy PDF styled after one of those spiffy car dealer foldouts designed to make you drool over the latest in automotive tech. Much like the old ship blueprints and pilot's handbook manuals included in Roberts' 1990s-era Wing Commander boxes, the Aurora brochure is an in-character marketing tool intended to both increase immersion and hype the game and its various features. Judging by all my new desktop wallpapers, I'd say mission accomplished.

Star Citizen concept art shows off Orion III colony (Massively)

The main course is a trio of gorgeous images from the former colony world of Orion III. Armitage, as the world was also called, was "the site of the farthest human colony from Earth... and one of the first targets of the Vanduul menace."

Stick and Rudder: Why all the love for Roberts and Star Citizen? (Massively)

In today's accessiblity-obsessed gaming landscape, immersion has basically become a four-letter word. In many ways, it competes with roleplaying for the right to be called gaming's most reviled redheaded stepchild, particularly in the MMO and multiplayer arenas that Star Citizen samples. MMOs are no longer concerned with virtual world building, and most MMO players aren't looking to leave their real lives behind for a few hours as much as they're looking for a 20-minute diversion and a progression-fueled sense of faux achievement.

Claw Marks coverRoberts' games, on the other hand, literally wrote the book on immersion. His original Wing Commander titles came with an in-character manual called Claw Marks that disseminated gameplay information and served to draw players into the world of the Vega sector and the war against the Kilrathi aggressors. Claw Marks featured tactical and ship-related discussions, the latter of which was presented as Joan's Fighting Spacecraft, a tongue-in-cheek reference to Jane's All the World's Aircraft, which has been an aviation institution since the early 20th century.

Cloud Imperium unveils Star Citizen hangar module (Massively)

Cloud Imperium has taken the wraps off Star Citizen's hangar module, a standalone app that's scheduled to be released to early adopters later this summer. Pledgers will get a chance to walk through their hangars and ogle their pledge ships, as well as climb inside them and invite their friends over for a spaceship-themed soiree.

Stick and Rudder: The five types of Star Citizen guys (Massively)

The go-back-to-WoW Guy

It doesn't even have to be World of Warcraft, really. You can substitute any game apart from the pre-release title in question and get the same effect. See, this guy is laser-focused on one thing about the upcoming game and one thing only. In Star Citizen's case, it's space combat. This guy thinks that anything outside of pew pew doesn't belong in the game, despite the fact that Chris Roberts has demonstrated otherwise on multiple occasions. The go-back-to-WoW guy routinely berates "butthurt casual carebears" and points them toward The Sims or Second Life or any number of other stigmatized virtual worlds that he very likely knows nothing about, usually with a snide comment about playing house or playing dress-up.

Like everyone playing video games isn't playing with virtual action figures, amirite?

Anywho, this guy just wants to blow stuff up. His imagination begins and ends with destruction. Which is fine, of course; a world like Star Citizen certainly needs single-minded combatants. He often forgets that it is a world, though, as well as the fact that he's not the center of it.

[Morreion]

Pirate, Merchant or Mercenary? Choose what you want to be!





Star Citizen is the highest grossing crowdfunded project of all time (Massively)

Cloud Imperium released a news blurb touting Star Citizen's newly minted status as the most successful crowdfunded project of all time. The upcoming space sim beat out the $10,266,844 pledged to Pebble Watch to claim the title.

Star Citizen crowdfunding tops $14 million (Massively)

Another day, another million crowdfunding dollars under Star Citizen's belt. The all-time fundraising champ added to its total over the weekend and broke the $14 million barrier. If you're keeping score, there's approximately $7 million to go until the game becomes fully funded by its community. Among the $14 million unlocks are a hibernation/save game mode for explorers and a fourth landing spot on Earth, though Cloud Imperium remains coy on the particular city.

Stick and Rudder Extra: Chris Roberts on Star Citizen's persistent world PvE, PvP, and more (Massively)

Massively: When you passed the $10 million funding mark, one of the stretch goals realized was the in-house motion capture studio. Can you clarify the need for mo-cap stuff in a space sim that some casual observers might assume to be confined to cockpit environments? How detailed are you planning to get in terms of human-avatar-based boarding actions or out-of-ship destinations like space stations or port cities and the like?

Chris Roberts: Motion capture is a critical element in making Star Citizen as immersive as possible. Much of what you mentioned is going into the game: a ship-to-ship boarding mechanic that will need detailed player and NPC animations, and the ability to interact with other players' avatars and NPCs planetside, on space stations, and in other areas. There's also Squadron 42, our single-player campaign, which in the spirit of Wing Commander needs to have a real narrative and emotional connection.

Star Citizen backers proving big publishers 'very, very wrong' (Massively)

Star Citizen continues to pile on its record crowdfunding run. The space sim from Chris Roberts and Cloud Imperium just crossed the $15 million threshold. The milestone means that a new flyable ship class (the escort carrier) will be developed, as will a special backer-only 42-page upgrade handbook that details "customizing and overclocking ship systems."

Cloud Imperium reveals Star Citizen's 300i (Massively)

"I sincerely hope you enjoy the 300i materials released today. Even if you choose not to add a 300 series spacecraft to your hangar you should enjoy the new materials and have a good idea of just how detailed Star Citizen is going to be!"

The Star Citizen Economy (Star Citizen)

In order to create a fairly stable economy, and yet one that is still able to be affected by player actions, the economy in Star Citizen is built to represent millions of entities (whether players or NPCs) that work together to move resources and finished goods from one end of the galaxy to the other. Miners and other resource gatherers work to extract basic resources from the available supply, traders collect those goods and deliver them to other places, escorts protect those convoys from harm (while pirates attempt the opposite), refineries turn the raw goods into processed goods, and factories collect these processed goods to build the finished products that are in demand on worlds throughout the Star Citizen universe. These goods are not assigned an arbitrary fixed price at each location. Instead, we are creating an organic system that keeps track of how much of everything is available, how much it is needed, where it is needed, and what individuals are willing to pay to get it.

Because the simulation reflects a real population going about their business, if a player is not available to carry ore from Ellis to Terra, an NPC cargo hauler will step in and run the route. If escorts are needed, and players are unavailable to escort that transport, then NPC pilots will escort the vessel. Pirates, too, might be NPC or player ships.

Meanwhile, the nodes that are producing, refining, and consuming these goods are run by non-player characters, as well. As players progress in the game, they may choose to purchase some of these facilities and take over the day-to-day oversight.

Business goes on, and players step in wherever they wish to take part.

Star Citizen's Roberts: 'Every day I'm just thinking about how to make this game awesome' (Massively)

Can't get enough Star Citizen news? We can't either, so we're passing along this nine-minute video documentary recently released by Stage 5 TV. It's called Rise of the Indies, and it offers a newbie's look at Cloud Imperium's upcoming space sim.

Rise of the Indies

Stick and Rudder: How dare you spend money on Star Citizen! (Massively)

If, after all of those reasons, you still have an issue with Star Citizen supporters, or if you still feel compelled to tell us that we're wasting our money, here's the only fact that really matters.

It's our money!

I honestly can't believe I have to spell this out, but I guess the you-should-have-given-that-money-to-charity rhetoric that occasionally shows up in Star Citizen- and other entertainment-related crowdfunding discussions is a byproduct of the nanny state we live in, where social media and an overreaching political class make it seem OK and even expected to stick your nose into everyone else's business.

Maybe there's more to it than being a busybody, though. Maybe deep down, the bashers are a bit perturbed that they don't see the same excitement and enthusiasm in their gaming community that is a hallmark of the Star Citizen community that Cloud Imperium is cultivating. Maybe the devs on the bashers' favorite game are incompetent tools who couldn't make Chris Roberts a cup of coffee and who spend their dev cycles devising new token grinds or other half-witted retaining mechanics instead of piling kickass feature on top of kickass feature.

[Regolyth]

Wow, I didn't know all of that about the crowdfunding that is going into the game. That's really cool. I think I might look into that now. The game seems to be very player driven and I like that it's an indie developer and not EA or Activision. I like the following quote.

Ultimately, it boils down to the fact that I'd rather spend my fun money enabling Cloud Imperium's ideas -- even if they don't work out -- than on funding the creative bankruptcy and less-is-more foolishness that is the majority of the MMO genre these days. And apparently I'm not alone.

I also thought this person's comment was very well thought out.

A note on income class and what we spend on Star Citizen...

I'm 25 and earn roughly $10,000 (USD) a year. I work in supervisory and technical logistics capacity for nationwide distribution for a publishing company. That is not a lot of money, and to date I have spent $345 on SC. Over the next two months I will be spending another $555.

That's nearly a tenth of my salary for A YEAR. I can "afford" this because I have zero debt and manage my expenses well, but what I am paying for is very much an investment. All I hope to reap is wonder and enjoyment.

Yeah I'm insane, but I'm buying the experience of flying a mother******* space ship pal.
Knowing that my money is actually helping our dreams come true (the community's & the developer's) is a priceless feeling, and it's inspired me to build my own ship from scratch.
But it hasn't just inspired me, it has done that for hundreds of thousands of people too, such as these four guys who created a soundtrack for an unreleased game; tinyurl.com/lfjhm2g
Where else have you seen that happen?

We're not just buying a game, we want this to be a part of our lives where we can explore the galaxy without the daily BS of who was elected what and how dare that celebrity name their child after a jelly bean flavour.

Thanks for the piece Jef, I too will be rocking a 300i!

[Morreion]

I'm probably going to contribute to this game- I love the buzz about this. Imagine a game with the mechanics that the contributors want, not what some huge game company thinks will sell millions of copies (read: dumbed down and not very challenging).

[Morreion]

Wingman's Hanger Dev Videos (Star Citizen)

Gamescom 2013: Roberts demos Star Citizen's hangar module (Massively)

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

Dragon Con 2013: Star Citizen's Lesnick and Haddock on player feedback, CitizenCon, and more (Massively)

Given your modular development approach, has the entire team been crunching on the hangar, or are there different pockets of responsibility at this point?

Lesnick: The entire team worked on the hangar, though we'll be expanding soon with different teams for different modules. Right now we've all been crunching on the hangar, and it's not really standard development procedure, but it's necessary for us because we feel like we need to prove to our backers that we're actually doing something really cool with their money.

Do you think we'll still see the dogfighting alpha by the end of 2013?

Lesnick: That's what we're aiming at. We're going to sit down and look at our schedule for that next week, but Chris is still saying end of the year.

Star Citizen's $20 million stretch goal is planetside FPS combat (Massively)

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.

Stick and Rudder: On Star Citizen's cash shop (Massively)

All that said, I admit to a bit of an oh no moment when I first saw the headline. I'm no fan of F2P and the way it forces game designers to think like accountants instead of thinking about what's fun for players. Fortunately for me and other old school gaming fans, though, Chris Roberts doesn't appear to like F2P either.

His Voyager Direct explanation letter was music to my ears, and if there was any doubt as to where he stands on cash shops and pay-to-win, it was erased courtesy of this particular sentence. "I'm very opposed to having a game where any of the items, outside of your initial game/ship package, can be only purchased with cash. I hate the bifurcation of items in most online games, even when they are just for flair items. I want Star Citizen to allow players to earn everything they need in-game for ships, upgrades and even flair," he wrote.

Stick and Rudder: On Star Citizen's so-called 'feature creep' (Massively)

The phrase "feature creep" is used by players with limited imaginations and devs with limited budgets. Star Citizen has neither of those handicaps, particularly if its crowdfunding totals continue to show no signs of slowing down. The main thing to remember, though, is that proper MMOs are nothing but feature creep! They are living, breathing, growing worlds, and there is always something more to add until the last server goes dark.

Star Citizen's salvaging career unveiled (Massively)

Star Citizen's salvaging career unveiledDon'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."

CIG patches Star Citizen's hangar, puts Caterpillar on sale (Massively)

Fixes include flickering decals, missing cargo pallets, character sitting and running animations, and more.

Roberts on Star Citizen's exploration gameplay, publisher-free development (Massively)

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."

Star Citizen crowdfunding campaign breaks $20 million (Massively)

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.

Roberts debunks Star Citizen 'feature creep' theories, announces next stretch goal (Massively)

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.

[Regolyth]

I think $20 million is a little much for a stretch goal, but maybe I have no idea what I'm talking about. I do think that feature creep is something they'll definitely need to watch out for.

Anyways, I think I would contribute to this game and not even play it; simply because of the concept of crowdfunding. I'm still impressed by that. I would contribute to it, just to see it successful and in hopes of shutting up big name publishers and promoting more people to do this.

[Morreion]

I'm contributing for sure- just have to figure out how much ;D

[Morreion]

Aurora Spacecraft Brochure (PDF format)

300 Series Spacecraft Brochure (PDF format)

Star Citizen unleashes the Next Great Starship design contest (Massively)

The modding contest will see three-person teams compete for a grand prize of $30,000, the inclusion of the winning ship design in the game, models of the ship, 3D modeling software, and more. Registration runs from October 31 through December 31 with the grand prize being announced in June.

Yep, Star Citizen's still raking in the money (Massively)

Cloud Imperium founder Chris Roberts has announced Star Citizen's latest monetary milestone in a new letter from the chairman. The crowdfunded space sim topped $23 million this week, which unlocked a new Xi'an scout plane. "The goal here isn't simply to add an extra ship to the game, but to add a new type of ship which can be expanded upon as we go," Roberts writes. "Once we've put the effort into building an alien experience for the Khartu, we can apply it to other Xi'an ships moving forward. Essentially, the extra funding lets us build an even more immersive universe."

Stick and Rudder: Ten space sims to fill your Star Citizen void (Massively)

Wing Commander

(1990, Good Old Games)

We might as well start with the granddaddy, no? OK, maybe Elite and Trade Wars are the real granddaddies, but Wing Commander put space sims on the map and led to a slew of imitators during the 1990s. It also put Chris Roberts on the map, which of course led to grander things, including the reason we're all here reading this column.

As you might expect, the visuals are dated, but I played the WC campaign in its entirety shortly after Star Citizen was announced in late 2012 and found that the gameplay holds up incredibly well.

Latest stretch goal speaks to Star Citizen's 'immersive, world-building experience' (Massively)

As per usual with each $1 million milestone, CIG head honcho Chris Roberts responded with a Letter from the Chairman and a sneak peek at upcoming stretch goals. This latest milestone unlocked public transportation, and while that may sound somewhat -- ahem -- pedestrian at first, consider Roberts' description. "A public transportation system may not seem as sexy as a new bomber or a cruiser, but it speaks directly to the goal of making Star Citizen an immersive, world-building experience," he says. "Instead of having a simple fast travel option like an MMORPG, Star Citizen will feature a living, breathing system to support that gameplay requirement... a system that will be impacted by the economy and player actions in all sorts of exciting ways!"

Star Citizen surpasses $25 million, eyes next stretch goal (Massively)

"Even though we've fully funded the base game, every extra dollar helps to make the experience better," Roberts writes. "The content we talk about in these stretch goals isn't 'feature creep;' it's elements we've been building and planning that will be all that more impressive with additional resources. In essence, you're putting things we've already discussed for the future into development now."

Stick and Rudder: What if Star Citizen fails? (Massively)

And look, even if Star Citizen does actually fail -- either financially or in terms of meeting expectations -- the game has already been extremely successful in blazing a trail for others to follow. Gamers and developers now have definitive proof that no matter how niche or hardcore their tastes may be (it's hard to get more casual-unfriendly than a twitch-based space sim sandbox), it is very possible to fund and develop a triple-A project that doesn't water itself down with mass market appeal.

Similarly, publishers and other hangers-on with questionable value-add credentials have awoken to a reality where their "services" are no longer needed. A wise man once said that 50 percent of the human race is middlemen, and they don't take kindly to being eliminated. But unfortunately for big content middlemen, Star Citizen has served notice that they bloody well will be eliminated whether they like it or not, given the right combination of developer talent and fan interest.

Star Citizen breaks $27 million (Massively)

Roberts also announced the next stretch goal; at $29 million, Cloud Imperium will add more resources to the single player campaign such as an epic opening battle and more animations.

Star Citizen passes $28 million, 300K backers (Massively)

It wasn't very long ago that Star Citizen eclipsed the unheard of (at the time) $10 million crowdfunding mark. Less than six months later, Cloud Imperium's sci-fi space sim sandbox has nearly tripled that figure with a whopping $28 million-plus in funding and over 300,000 individual backers.

Chris Roberts addresses Star Citizen PS4 hullabaloo (Massively)

"Star Citizen IS a PC game. It will NEVER be dumbed down for a lesser platform. We will NOT limit the input options or supported peripherals to the lowest common denominator. We will NOT pass on features and technology just because they will only run on some hardware configurations."

Stick and Rudder: How to be an informed Star Citizen (Massively)

In my estimation, Star Citizen's dev team numbers closer to 100 than 30, and it will most likely grow even larger as things like planetary environments, FPS combat, and other additional features are farmed out to pro contract teams and various pre-existing studios around the world. The best way to keep abreast of CIG and its inner workings is Wingman's Hangar, the weekly webcast hosted by producer Eric "Wingman" Peterson. Every single episode features an in-studio dev guest and a lengthy interview. Lately, several episodes have also broken the news about the latest dev team hires. Peterson has even been known to solicit contact info from particularly talented community members, so it's pretty clear that Star Citizen's dev team is on the uptick.