This
new Kickstarter from David Braben and Frontier Developments seeks capital for
Elite: Dangerous, a new installment in the Elite series of space simulations. The series has had its ups and downs since the release of the influential original Elite in 1984, including some lesser sequels and a proposed Elite 4, a project that's been in and out of limbo long enough to make Duke Nukem blush forever. The Kickstarter pitch acknowledges a certain lack of focus for Elite 4, and says the time is now right to redress this, saying: "I’ll be frank - we have had a couple of false starts on this over the years, where progress wasn’t as good as I wanted. Also, understandably, other projects have been prioritised – projects with announced dates or other commitments. Up to now 'Elite' has been worked upon by a small team as a ‘skunk-works’ activity in the background as availability permits. Nevertheless, we have been preparing; laying the technology and design foundations for when the time is right. And that time is now." There's an article about this on
BBC News that includes a video with glimpses of prototype gameplay, and the
Kickstarter page includes details about trading, combat, travel, and more, all under the following overview:
In the game, you will of course begin with a spacecraft and a small sum of Credits. You will be able to trade, pirate, bounty-hunt, explore, and salvage your way to wealth and fame, building on those key elements of the previous games, and with sumptuous graphics only now possible with the performance of today’s machines. Only this time some of the ships out there will be other players like yourself – other members of a secret ‘Elite’ group of space-farers…