Chris Roberts, who helped define the space sim genre in computer games during the 1990s with his Wing Commander® and Privateer® franchises, is back in the cockpit again with a new title he says will change the way people perceive games for the PC and will breathe new life into space combat games. The new game, Star Citizen™, was officially announced today at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) Online taking place at the Austin Convention Center. The game is being developed by Roberts’ Cloud Imperium™ Games studio, located in Los Angeles.
Roberts’ re-entry into gaming comes after he spent more than a decade as a director and producer in the Hollywood film industry. In 1990, he introduced Wing Commander to the world of PC gaming and the franchise went on to sell millions of units and spawned multiple sequels, a feature film and another highly successful game franchise, Privateer.
Star Citizen, already 12 months into production, will be launched on the PC and will include all the Chris Roberts hallmarks that fans of his games have come to expect over the years: high quality cutting-edge visuals and technology, a virtual world that is immersive and detailed, a sophisticated storyline that is wide in scope and visceral, heart-pounding space combat.
“In recent years, game designers have stopped innovating and pushing the boundaries of what you can do in this genre,” says Roberts. “I plan on bringing that kind of development mentality back into PC gaming and space sims in particular.
“There is a lot of noise out there regarding social and mobile games right now, and I think PC gamers are feeling a little left out of the mix. But the PC is still incredibly capable of presenting an experience that doesn’t take a back seat to any other platform out there, including consoles. With my game, I want PC gamers to stand up, be counted and get excited again about all the great experiences their computer can deliver.”
At GDC Online Roberts also announced a program to bring his devotees and other interested parties much closer to the development process. A crowd funding site has been posted at www.robertsspaceindustries.com to help raise the necessary funds for completing development of the project. “Our purpose today,” said Roberts, “is to allow our fans to join us in this process early. It will likely be another two years before the full product is ready for release, but early backers will be able to play a version of the game a year from now.
“We are taking this approach to fund-raising for several reasons,” said Roberts. “For one, this route takes the traditional game publisher out of the mix and enables us to take the millions of dollars normally used by publishers for a triple-A title and plow them right back into developing the game. Secondly, using our own crowd funding mechanism allows us to reach out to our international fans, who have been devoted followers of my games in the past. Thirdly, going direct gets us much closer to our fans and allows us to focus more on the community side, create more updates for our fans and directly interact with them as we are making the game.”
Star Citizen, still in early development stages, will not require a subscription, but will not be free-to-play either. Roberts says the game will be available for a one-time purchase. And while players will be able to play in the Star Citizen universe for free, there will also be virtual items available for purchase with in-game credits so players can customize their ships and other items.
The game is being developed for PC only. More information about Star Citizen can be found at www.robertsspaceindustries.com.
Creston wrote on Oct 12, 2012, 11:12:
You know that you actually CAN play X that way, right? Nobody is forcing you to set up factories and own 800 ships. It's there if you'd like to do that but you don't have to. Especially since Terran Wars, being a one man operation who takes bounties, missions, hunts pirates etc is extremely lucrative, probably even more so than actually trading/building an empire.
I believe they're going to take away the multiple ships in X-rebirth and just concentrate on you in one ship. (A la the first X.)
Creston
Creston wrote on Oct 12, 2012, 11:12:Bhruic wrote on Oct 12, 2012, 06:40:BazzaLB wrote on Oct 12, 2012, 01:44:
I played all the X Games, but I have grown jaded by the fact that its more of a factory management sim than anything else. I like to be the lone trader/fighter in a small craft with an incentive to upgrade and explore.
Yeah, that's the way I like to play too. The ability (nay, effectively the requirement) to automate so much of the game makes it less appealing to me. I still enjoy the X games, but I'd rather have a Privateer style game, where I do all the trading myself.
You know that you actually CAN play X that way, right? Nobody is forcing you to set up factories and own 800 ships. It's there if you'd like to do that but you don't have to. Especially since Terran Wars, being a one man operation who takes bounties, missions, hunts pirates etc is extremely lucrative, probably even more so than actually trading/building an empire.
I believe they're going to take away the multiple ships in X-rebirth and just concentrate on you in one ship. (A la the first X.)
Creston
Creston wrote on Oct 12, 2012, 11:12:Bhruic wrote on Oct 12, 2012, 06:40:BazzaLB wrote on Oct 12, 2012, 01:44:
I played all the X Games, but I have grown jaded by the fact that its more of a factory management sim than anything else. I like to be the lone trader/fighter in a small craft with an incentive to upgrade and explore.
Yeah, that's the way I like to play too. The ability (nay, effectively the requirement) to automate so much of the game makes it less appealing to me. I still enjoy the X games, but I'd rather have a Privateer style game, where I do all the trading myself.
You know that you actually CAN play X that way, right? Nobody is forcing you to set up factories and own 800 ships. It's there if you'd like to do that but you don't have to. Especially since Terran Wars, being a one man operation who takes bounties, missions, hunts pirates etc is extremely lucrative, probably even more so than actually trading/building an empire.
I believe they're going to take away the multiple ships in X-rebirth and just concentrate on you in one ship. (A la the first X.)
Creston
Bhruic wrote on Oct 12, 2012, 06:40:BazzaLB wrote on Oct 12, 2012, 01:44:
I played all the X Games, but I have grown jaded by the fact that its more of a factory management sim than anything else. I like to be the lone trader/fighter in a small craft with an incentive to upgrade and explore.
Yeah, that's the way I like to play too. The ability (nay, effectively the requirement) to automate so much of the game makes it less appealing to me. I still enjoy the X games, but I'd rather have a Privateer style game, where I do all the trading myself.
BazzaLB wrote on Oct 12, 2012, 01:44:
I played all the X Games, but I have grown jaded by the fact that its more of a factory management sim than anything else. I like to be the lone trader/fighter in a small craft with an incentive to upgrade and explore.
ItBurn wrote on Oct 11, 2012, 21:20:
Never played elite. It looks unplayably old. I don't think that mods can fix what I hate about the X games. I should check. Also, have you tried Black Prophecy? The combat is awesome. There's nothing else tho...
Rigs wrote on Oct 11, 2012, 20:17:ItBurn wrote on Oct 11, 2012, 08:27:
:p
I actually don't care that much about graphics or real physics. What I care about is actual exploration, a living universe and rewarding progression.
As do I, but at the moment we're limited to only a handful of sims - X, Evochron, and whatever Mr. Derek Smartypants is scheming with this month. And out of those, I'll take X any day of the week...including Sunday. The series has progressed so far since it's early beginnings and with the mods that have been released, it's about as good as you're going to get until something revolutionary comes along. Is Star Citizen it? I have no idea and no one else does either. I certainly hope so and I hope that it succeeds well enough to make other publishers and dev studios sit up and take notice that there IS room for space-sims in this industry. If there can be a frackin' street-sweeping simulation, there can be kick-ass, open-world Elite-style space trading combat sims...
And speaking of Elite, you all are aware that there is a kick-ass patch/mod for Elite3 that brings it's graphics engine into the modern era, right? Just look for D3D Frontier Elite (FED3D) and the Java version also. I've been playing it on and off for months and it's just SO much better than the original graphics-wise plus there's a mod-loader app with many mods for it as well. Check it out if you itching for something else...
EDIT: Some images of the D3D version of Frontier Elite
=-Rigs-=
ItBurn wrote on Oct 11, 2012, 08:27:
:p
I actually don't care that much about graphics or real physics. What I care about is actual exploration, a living universe and rewarding progression.
Flatline wrote on Oct 11, 2012, 17:54:Not necessarily.
And yet they're going to charge to get *into* the game.
I guess it's admirable he's trying to pull a Guild Wars 2 economy, but really, looking at those price points, it looks like a ship is worth like 7-80 bucks real money. And that's absurd.
Flatline wrote on Oct 11, 2012, 17:54:Dev wrote on Oct 11, 2012, 08:51:
The stated reason they aren't doing kickstarter is they say they want to build the community their own way:
We love Kickstarter. We've backed projects on their site and believe
everyone in the development community owes a debt to Kickstarter for putting crowd funding on the map, and making it legitimate. But for us the ultimate goal of crowd funding is about connecting the "crowd" directly with the creators with as little friction as possible. By building a crowd funding component directly into our site we can insure everyone who wants to back the game can - we provide multiple payment options to make sure that wherever in the world you are there is an option that can work for you. It means you just have one destination to support the project, read updates, and most importantly participate with other members of the community! All on a site that's designed around the game universe being created, providing the least friction possible. Kickstarter, as great as it is, can't deliver this experience, which is why we've decided to go it alone.
Seems kinda a silly reason. They could easily setup something where you have to make a website account to use a separate survey/fulfilment thing instead of using kickstarter's one. Other games have went to a forum setup and mostly ceased kickstarter updates. So if you want to the forums you got the full current details. I think they are missing out on a lot doing it this way (way more than the 10% or so that kickstarter+amazon takes). Also, what a lot of kickstarters are doing is offering paypal once the project hits the goal, so its possible to have other payment options too. Is fact I think the project eternity is doing that if I remember right.Beamer wrote on Oct 10, 2012, 14:16:Looks a little like F2P to me from that virtual credits thing.
Whoa, I totally missed this virtual credits thing.
Want a new ship, buy it with real money?
Maybe he's trying to be all things to all people to get more popular. Trying to be MMO since its all the rage. Trying to be F2P since its all the latest rage. But if it is MMO+F2P, I'm not going to touch it until it comes out and gets good reviews.
And yet they're going to charge to get *into* the game.
I guess it's admirable he's trying to pull a Guild Wars 2 economy, but really, looking at those price points, it looks like a ship is worth like 7-80 bucks real money. And that's absurd.
Dev wrote on Oct 11, 2012, 08:51:
The stated reason they aren't doing kickstarter is they say they want to build the community their own way:
We love Kickstarter. We've backed projects on their site and believe
everyone in the development community owes a debt to Kickstarter for putting crowd funding on the map, and making it legitimate. But for us the ultimate goal of crowd funding is about connecting the "crowd" directly with the creators with as little friction as possible. By building a crowd funding component directly into our site we can insure everyone who wants to back the game can - we provide multiple payment options to make sure that wherever in the world you are there is an option that can work for you. It means you just have one destination to support the project, read updates, and most importantly participate with other members of the community! All on a site that's designed around the game universe being created, providing the least friction possible. Kickstarter, as great as it is, can't deliver this experience, which is why we've decided to go it alone.
Seems kinda a silly reason. They could easily setup something where you have to make a website account to use a separate survey/fulfilment thing instead of using kickstarter's one. Other games have went to a forum setup and mostly ceased kickstarter updates. So if you want to the forums you got the full current details. I think they are missing out on a lot doing it this way (way more than the 10% or so that kickstarter+amazon takes). Also, what a lot of kickstarters are doing is offering paypal once the project hits the goal, so its possible to have other payment options too. Is fact I think the project eternity is doing that if I remember right.Beamer wrote on Oct 10, 2012, 14:16:Looks a little like F2P to me from that virtual credits thing.
Whoa, I totally missed this virtual credits thing.
Want a new ship, buy it with real money?
Maybe he's trying to be all things to all people to get more popular. Trying to be MMO since its all the rage. Trying to be F2P since its all the latest rage. But if it is MMO+F2P, I'm not going to touch it until it comes out and gets good reviews.
Cutter wrote on Oct 11, 2012, 02:21:
Take a look at the X Rebirth trailer and tell me that doesn't look sweet.
Beamer wrote on Oct 10, 2012, 14:16:Looks a little like F2P to me from that virtual credits thing.
Whoa, I totally missed this virtual credits thing.
Want a new ship, buy it with real money?
Rigs wrote on Oct 11, 2012, 08:21:ItBurn wrote on Oct 11, 2012, 07:37:
Having played the previous X games, I can tell you that that doesn't look sweet.
Well, in that case, go back to that awesome Elite-style space-trading-combat sim that puts Pixar to shame with real Newtonian physics and human-like AI...
...oh, wait...
=-Rigs-=
ItBurn wrote on Oct 11, 2012, 07:37:
Having played the previous X games, I can tell you that that doesn't look sweet.
Cutter wrote on Oct 11, 2012, 02:21:
Take a look at the X Rebirth trailer and tell me that doesn't look sweet.