Greetings Citizens,
Star Citizen fans have set yet another
record in crowd funding: $20 million pledged to make sure this game is
made by developers instead of publishers. It’s especially fitting to me
that we reach this goal today, on the anniversary of the release of the
original Wing Commander. Thanks to the support of this incredible
community, Star Citizen embodies everything I dreamed of doing with that
series, and opens up the potential for so much more. Each of you has
helped to make this possible and you are allowing us to create a game
the way games should be created. Thank you!
At the $20 million mark, you unlocked the following stretch goal:
- First person combat on select lawless planets. Don’t just battle on space stations and platforms … take the fight to the ground!
What this means is that we’re expanding the
FPS
mechanic we’ve already created for the ship boarding system to apply to
more areas of the game. Join an ongoing battle on a contested world,
launch an attack on a pirate base, come to the rescue of distant
colonists and fend off Vanduul raiders … the possibilities are endless.
In addition to this stretch goal, we have an extra reward for the
community: a fish tank decoration for your hangar! In the grand
tradition of Starlancer, here’s a little bit of nature to break up your
high-tech hangar. Your fish tanks will be added to your accounts very
soon and will be included with the Hangar in an upcoming patch. Included
in your fish tank is a rare gold Midas fish, found on the planet Cassel
in the Goss System (pictured above). Star Citizen will allow you to add
more fish to your tank by exploring distant planets and collecting new
species.
In the last stretch goal letter, we asked the community to decide
how to handle the funding counter after we reach $21 million. 87% of you
voted to keep the counter going. That is one of the most clear cut
answers we’ve had from the community. As a result, we will continue to
announce stretch goals that reward our early backers and enhance the
game in ways we had not originally deemed possible.
The first of these
goals, for the $22 million mark, is as follows:
- Facial Capture System. We’ve researched a
technology that uses a series of cameras to capture real heads and
import them into the game. This will let the team more easily create a
variety of realistic characters. In addition, the technology is mobile
enough to allow us to take it on the road and capture select fans during
special events! You can learn more about this technology at Infinite-Realities.
There has been some concern about “feature creep” with the
additional stretch goals. You should all know that we carefully consider
the goals we announce. Typically the stretch goals fall into two
categories;
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.
The facial capture system is an example of the second type, where we
identify technology and equipment that will make the game better and
allow us to be more nimble and economically efficient in continually
creating content for the ongoing universe that we are aiming to support.
The motion capture system and sound studio were goals that feel into
this category.
But both types of goals are carefully considered — we don’t commit
to adding features that would hold up the game’s ability to go “live” in
a fully functional state. Also remember that this is not like a typical
retail boxed product — there is no rule that all features and content
have to come online at the same time! As you can see from the Hangar
Module we plan to make functionality and content come on line as it’s
ready, so you should look at the stretch goals as a window into the
future of functionality and content additions we plan for the live game.
Hangar Additions
We also have another poll for the community. As you know, we are
continuing to develop the Hangar Module. You have been incredibly
helpful in identifying bugs for the team to fix … but hangar development
isn’t going to stop there. The Hangar Module is the first brick that
will lead to Star Citizen and we’re going to start expanding outward in a
variety of different ways. In the short term, we’re filling out the
hangar! That means more equipment, more interactivity and more areas
designed to turn it from just a place to keep your spaceship into your
personalized home.
We’re asking for what you would like to see next in three areas of
the hangar: extra rooms (add more space to the hangar), decorations (add
more objects to the existing space) and augmentations (let you
customize the existing space). All of these are on the horizon in some
form, but we want to base our development schedule around what the
community most wants to see.
As always, thank you for your support. In the past year, this
community has gone above and beyond in extraordinary ways over and over
again. Your dedication, your creativity and your passion for Star
Citizen continues to amaze us. Please keep spreading the word: you are
making Star Citizen a reality.
-Chris Roberts
