Star Citizen - The PC Game Funded by Fans

[Sledgstone 8,672]

I haven't paid much attention to Star Citizen, but with the constant updates I've seen about huge sums of money, I had to look into this. Star Citizen is the project of Chris Roberts, the creator of Wing Commander. He wanted to make the best space game ever, completely funded by his fans, and he is going to accomplish it. After starting his crowd funding campaign on his own website and kickstarter last year, they have now reached over $32,000,000. Yes.. over $32 Million.

As the large sums of money keep pouring in, there are new funding goals added for every million dollar mark.

Source: https://robertsspace...m/funding-goals.

Here is a quick run down on what the game is about:

Star Citizen is aiming to be the first AAA game developed with money from fans instead of a major publisher. Money pledged to Star Citizen goes directly to the game’s development needs.

Star Citizen brings the visceral action of piloting interstellar craft through combat and exploration to a new generation of gamers at a level of fidelity never before seen. At its core Star Citizen is a destination, not a one-off story. It's a complete universe where any number of adventures can take place, allowing players to decide their own game experience. Pick up jobs as a smuggler, pirate, merchant, bounty hunter, or enlist as a pilot, protecting the borders from outside threats. Chris Roberts has always wanted to create one cohesive universe that encompasses everything that made Wing Commander and Privateer / Freelancer special. A huge sandbox with a complex and deep lore allowing players to explore or play in whatever capacity they wish. That universe is Star Citizen.

They have recently started work on the single player campaign, and this is the most recent video they have released:

This game is going to be gigantic and it's potential is huge. Imagine it, over $32 million in funds for a company dedicated to making a single game.

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[DeathscytheX 9,732]

It would be nice to see this become a standard. Instead of the Big 2 (Activision and EA) holding the entire market hostage, You let the people decide what they want. It could also serve small time publishers better... Instead of going into debt trying to make a game that might get lack of coverage and fail; if their idea is out there and people like it they can make a game that's already been paid for by they people that initially wanted to play it, with a chance to gain more profits after its released.

 

Then again, Activision could be like: You want another COD? Crowd fund it then, we'll consider making one, and then still charge you for the season pass  MWAHAHAHAHA!!! And people would still do it

[Strider Hiryu 2,704]

I've been following the game for a long while, have even considered throwing money at it (but I threw money at another game being funded on Kickstarter). Looks good and I like the idea of crowd funding games, people can fund the games they want and we don't have to wait for EA or Activision to make up their minds.

 

My only problem with this game is the freaking funds this game has generated. $32 million is a lot of freaking money, more money then I've ever seen a game developed for in the past (hell in school we were told when we were making our pitches for our final games to keep the costs as low as possible (speaking theoretically here) and the one I decided to pitch would of only costed 5.5 million). All I can say is for the amount of money going in this game better deliver everything it's promising and more. I only hope something doesn't go wrong and this bombs completely, that's a lot of money down the drain that may or may not be refunded.

 

Of course they would DX, them COD fanboys will pay anything as long as it gets them more COD (something I still don't understand).

[Sledgstone 8,672]

The only game I've been interested in backing on kickstarter was Mighty No 9, but I'm still concerned that it'll get shut down when Capcom eventually sues them.

 

It would be nice to see this become a standard. Instead of the Big 2 (Activision and EA) holding the entire market hostage, You let the people decide what they want. It could also serve small time publishers better... Instead of going into debt trying to make a game that might get lack of coverage and fail; if their idea is out there and people like it they can make a game that's already been paid for by they people that initially wanted to play it, with a chance to gain more profits after its released.

 

Then again, Activision could be like: You want another COD? Crowd fund it then, we'll consider making one, and then still charge you for the season pass  MWAHAHAHAHA!!! And people would still do it

 

Activision would put minimum purchases up like "$50 gets you a copy of the game." "$100 gets the first season pass."

 

And then they'll probably have funding goals like "Once we hit $3 million we'll add a second set of DLCs that will require a season pass 2!"

 

People would probably throw ridiculous amounts of money at them too.

 

The only problem with crowd funding is when a game goes south.. Heres one that raised $500,000.. and everyone that put money into the kickstarter will be getting nothing out of it.

 

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2013/09/clang-kickstarter/

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

I enjoyed watching the FMV of Wing Commander my friend had on PS1. It was definitely the Mass Effect/KOTOR of its time. I also loved Colony Wars on PS2... Space combat is a genre that really needs a big revival. Halo kind touched on it's last few games during singly players... but this game has my interest.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

Wing Commander III was an amazing game because of the full range of actors they had in it. Mark Hamill made that game epic. Also, depending on your interaction with crew members, what missions you chose to accept and who you decided to have as a wing man changed the plot of the game.

 

 

If Star Citizen game play is anything like this (except with advanced graphics and physics), I think it will succeed.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

 

Pretty neat, but the obnoxious cheering for stupid generic shit gets way out of hand. The fanboyism is so hard on this game. Some of the hud IU is really nice, but cheering for a planetary map that looks like a MSDOS render as if it was more beautiful than the Mass Effect galaxy map was a bit silly. People are prasing these visuals to be the best ever, and yet I see a bunch of motion blur, and bland textures. Yeah its alpha, I know, but honestly the visuals don't need to be what Crysis was for its time. It just needs to be fun.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

I watched thru this video the other day and forgot to reply to this. The overall engine looks impressive. The amount of detail is really amazing, but for someone like me its honestly way to much detail. lol. This game was definitely not made for someone as casual as me. Theres no way I could play this game in hour increments considering the character has to literally go every where, interact with every minuscule thing and the only fast travel is basically your own ship. Sure these guys were showing off the engine, but to meet someone to get a single mission, go to that other location, kill 3 or 4 enemies, grab some loot.. it'll take close to an hour. And thats just some side mission. If theres a full blown campaign, I couldn't imagine how long that would take. Multiplayer sounds like fun, but unless everything is instanced somehow, what would prevent people from landing their ship on top of yours to block you in? Couldn't someone just fly their ship straight into you as you walk across the planet. Imagine getting punted off a moon and drifting through space. With only 2 people in the game the FPS took a hit a few times. Sure the game isn't done yet, but I wonder what will happen when they test it under full load with thousands of people wandering around on a single planet. Everyone thought the division looked great in the trailers but in the end everyone was waiting in line:

Imagine all the people lined up to talk to the guy at the bar for a mission in Star Citizen.