I love the idea of governments falling, and an npc invasion as mentioned.
From the Chris Roberts interview I linked earlier:
Quote:
One of the big draws of Star Citizen is the fact that the universe will evolve and change, and part of making that happen is that time will pass. One day in 2014 is one day in 2944 in our universe, and the game universe will record changes and accomplishments within that frame of reference. GM-run events from the live team will be essential to our world's continued growth. We want to differentiate from traditional MMOs by having these on an ongoing basis -- smaller, weekly publishes instead of major annual add-on stories.
And everything has to take into account the players' actions. If players discover new jump points or overthrow governments, we are going to be reactive and inclusive rather than prevent it. Beyond this, I really want your player character in the game to have a sense of mortality and lineage. Characters in the game should show the wear and tear of the dangerous lives they lead and be lauded for heroic or dastardly achievements, and when they finally take one too many laser hits, they should leave their mark in the lore of the world that their next of kin can try to add to.
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In the original Star Wars trilogy books I loved the description of Han Solo as looking worn out. I loved that if you compare the ships in the original trilogy to the prequel trilogy that all of the ships didn't have the artistic lines of the height of the republic ships, and had a more worn out look.
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Oh and for a bit of perspective, they raised over $1 million in under a month without any kind of promotions going on. They are $6 million away from Chris Robert's goal to make a completely crowd funded AAA game ($21 million) and they still have over a year until the beta
I wonder what kind of waves Star Citizen is going to make in the game publishing world after everything is said and done. Kickstarter provided a glimpse of what could be possible, but this is taking things to an entirely new level
Publishers know they can just throw out more brown tinted shooters and make 300 million dollars, and grind out more sequels without much thought.
The biggest result we'll see from SC is perhaps a minor resurgence of space-sims from the shovelware crowd, but likely not much more.
I was always amazed that space sims died the death they died.
Some of my favorite games were from that genre. I think its obvious that I was a big Wing Commander nut. I was even a fan of the sadly incomplete Prophesy (Great flight model though). The Klingon Academy game was an outright blast even though it had bad AI.
The Descent games were a lot of fun as well.
One of the best game openings ever
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Publishers know they can just throw out more brown tinted shooters and make 300 million dollars, and grind out more sequels without much thought.
The biggest result we'll see from SC is perhaps a minor resurgence of space-sims from the shovelware crowd, but likely not much more.
If Star Citizen is the triple AAA title that it's promising to be and gains a large enough audience, I think you'll see a lot more developers leave the bigger studios to start their own dev houses
If Star Citizen is the triple AAA title that it's promising to be and gains a large enough audience, I think you'll see a lot more developers leave the bigger studios to start their own dev houses
I'm not too sure. Chris Roberts is really good at selling the idea that he has all the answers, while most developers couldn't convince me they know how to balance 2 classes.
Add to that a very (very) active communication line with the audience, and a pedigree not marred with crap (arguably his most "failed" project was somewhat nerfed by Microsoft, Wing Commander movie notwithstanding), and you have a unique situation for how a new IP can be developed.
That said, I'm sure we will see some wannabe's leave their respective development houses and try to make it on their own, but the industry is rife with stories of reasons why this or that or the other thing went wrong during a project, and there are very few known (and therefore, likely to gain exorbitant crowdfunding) personalities in the business that can command a group the way Roberts does. Those that can (Gabe Newell, Cliff Bleszinski, John Carmack, etc.) already run their own dev houses.
I'm skeptical that $21 million begets a AAA title in today's economy. There's a ton of work to do to make a game like this (1) complete and feeling "full" in both content and features, (2) balanced, and (3) compelling in its gameplay such that you want to keep coming back to play.
They have shown off fancy ship models, and they really look great and appear to be paying attention to functional elements in the design. BUT THAT"S THE EASY PART!
I'm hopeful this game becomes all it could be, but its pretty ambitious with what seems like a relatively small budget.
I'm skeptical that $21 million begets a AAA title in today's economy. There's a ton of work to do to make a game like this (1) complete and feeling "full" in both content and features, (2) balanced, and (3) compelling in its gameplay such that you want to keep coming back to play.
They have shown off fancy ship models, and they really look great and appear to be paying attention to functional elements in the design. BUT THAT"S THE EASY PART!
I'm hopeful this game becomes all it could be, but its pretty ambitious with what seems like a relatively small budget.
21 million is pretty good if you consider it just a development budget. A lot of games spend 1x-3x their development costs in advertising, and roll it into their overall "budget".
Considering Star Citizen already has 220,000 paying customers, I don't think they will bother too much with advertising, outside of whatever costs their YouTube videos incur.
I'm skeptical that $21 million begets a AAA title in today's economy. There's a ton of work to do to make a game like this (1) complete and feeling "full" in both content and features, (2) balanced, and (3) compelling in its gameplay such that you want to keep coming back to play.
They have shown off fancy ship models, and they really look great and appear to be paying attention to functional elements in the design. BUT THAT"S THE EASY PART!
I'm hopeful this game becomes all it could be, but its pretty ambitious with what seems like a relatively small budget.
The original Crysis cost $22 million, Assassin's Creed 2 cost $24 million. If you ignore the massive marketing campaigns that publishers spend huge money on (over $100 million for Battlefield 3) Star Citizen's goal is right in the ballpark for a AAA game. And with how fast they're still raising money, with future sales, ship brochures, and the game modules themselves, they should easily surpass the $21 million goal
I have jumped on board! Picked up a Constellation.
I absolutely loved Freelancer. It was an incredible game for it's single player, but the multiplayer part of the game was great on it's own. Seeing it fleshed out, and using cryengine 3, will be phenomenal.
I still get chills while thinking about George Takei's character in Freelancer. So good.
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Some thoughts on where the funding campaign may end up.
I'm going to assume an end date for the campaign of December 31st, 2014. The game should be in beta by then and on its way to release in early 2015, if the schedule remains the same as it is now.
There are 499 days between today and the above presumed end date.
The campaign currently sits at $15.736 million.
Since January 1st, 2013 the campaign has averaged ~$36800 per day.
The slowest period during the campaign was February 15th to April 25th where it averaged ~$10000/day.
The strongest period during the campaign was June 21st to July 10th where it averaged ~$200000/day
Campaign final total @ $40000/day = $35.7 million (If average daily funding continues to increase.)
Campaign final total @ $36800/day = $34.1 million (If average daily funding long-term is continued at this year's average to date.)
Campaign final total @ $30000/day = $30.7 million (Added because current average is roughly $30k/day)
Campaign final total @ $25000/day = $28.2 million (Added because current "low days" are about $25k)
Campaign final total @ $20000/day = $25.7 million (If average daily funding continues strongly but fades somewhat.)
Campaign final total @ $10000/day = $20.7 million (If average daily funding long-term drops significantly from current levels.)
Given the above I think it is almost certain that we will see a game that is completely crowdfunded. Should be interesting!
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I just added a few more scenarios to my projection for the funding campaign and also updated all the totals. I honestly can't see a realistic situation in which they don't reach their goal.
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