If you're not familiar with that tale: in the mid-90s Duke Nukem 3D was one of the biggest FPS games, and the developer was lucky enough to be independent so they kept most of the money from sales of it. They then used this money to independently develop the sequel: Duke Nukem Forever. It was going to use the Quake engine to be in full 3D, but then Quake 2 came out and they switched to that engine, then better engines came out and they kept switching. Without a publisher to force them to release they just kept re-building the game with more and more features on newer engines.
Eventually their hoard of money ran out and they went bankrupt. Their assets were bought out by another developer who took the work that had been completed on the latest iteration, quickly slapped it together into a semi-cohesive but shippable game, and shoved it out the door. We got Duke Nukem Forever in the end, but as a shadow of what was promised over the years.
I am not a hardcore supporter of Star Citizen, and I have not put any money towards the game. But I have played the Alpha during their free weekends, and they are slowly making me a believer.
I played a game with three of my friends where we loaded into a space station, jumped into a multicrew ship, and headed out to find our way among the stars. We were able to do things like jump out of the ship on EVAs into open space, jam speeder bikes into the back of other ships and drop them out over the surface of a moon, and generally do awesome (read: silly/idiotic) space adventure stuff.
It's not really a 'game' yet, but they are pretty clearly putting together some sort of experience that is very much playable. It's not enough to make me spend money, but it's closer than anything else I've seen in the genre for sure.
Personally, I think it looks really cool but so very optimistic that I wouldn't put any money towards it.
Even if they never officially release (which I guess could be considered "vaporware", although as you can already download and play it.......) -- it was a fun project to back for my $20 several years ago or whatever. When I see the arguments about how money's just going into the CEO's pockets? Yeah, and like the pockets of the employees at least three large dev studios across the world. I essentially bought one of them a nice meal.
They're talking about an incredible level of detail on the ground (e.g. a working subway system, physically correct ice cubes in drinks and plans to receive damage, when you're in a room with a fire, which consumes the available oxygen), but there was literally nothing about new stuff in space (or is that already completely done and working?).
Given their ambitions I hope they succeed long term and will continuously develop the game, similar to EVE Online.
They got "ships in space" working years ago. This release was celebrating their latest tech, "OCS," which is designed to reduce their in-memory working set. The big benefit of OCS? They're more than doubling the size of their world, adding a planet, gigantic new city, and three new moons.
Of course they're showing off planet-side content. They've had ships flying around in space for literally years now. The big new improvement to that (a new flight model) was demoed in a booth on the show floor, where people could experience it, not in the splashy keynote session.
MVPs are for testing product-market fit. CIG (the makers of Star Citizen) proved their fit long ago. They have a successful product that's about to cross $200 million in revenue. Now they need to turn that product-market fit into successful recurring revenue. And that requires doing something that captures the attention of a market that is notoriously fickle, negative, and entitled.
Immersive systems-based gameplay with things like physically-correct ice cubes is the niche CIG has chosen, and it's been their niche since the Kickstarter. Who knows if the excitement they've generated so far will last. But it's obviously done very well for them so far. It's no surprise they've doubled down on it.
I backed the game in the kickstarter, and I’m fine with logging in now and then to see how it progresses. The results they show are breathtaking.
And yes I understand that this is a game that might actually never make it, but the niche you mentioned is very close to a lot of people’s hearts. So we just keep hoping.
I cannot stop laughing at this. Meanwhile Elite Dangerous is iterating effectively. The difference in philosophy/approach between the two teams with somewhat similar end objectives is stark.
Note: Closest != close
The idea of getting a crew together to fly a large spaceship around is a foundational piece of the sci-fi narrative -- from Leviathon Wakes to Firefly, Star Wars to Star Trek. We want to play those kinds of stories, but that's a challenging game to build. Star Citizen seems to be the first game to seriously try and build it.
Do I think they'll succeed? I'm not sure. Am I really, really hoping they do? Hell yeah.
It's a game where you and your friends play as the different officers on a Star-Trek like bridge, like Helmsman, Weapons and of course Captain. Use a large TV as the main screen and use your laptops for your station. It's really fun.
That being said, there's neither PvE content on the scale to need that, nor PvP density to support it either.
Artemis Bridge Simulator [1] is nearly a decade old now, and has several clones and derivatives, including AAA VR title Star Trek Bridge Crew.
Honestly, that game in its current alpha state has given me experiences totally unlike anything I've seen in another game.
It's missing a lot still, and the scope creep has been incredible. Who knows when or if they'll ever meet even the basics of their original promises.
But for example, I found a strategy to board (and steal) spaceships that were intended to be "locked", because I managed to get to an entrance that was not locked, once. I watched some entertaining videos, like where people boarded NPC fighters mid-flight, or parked spaceships inside other spaceships they weren't really intended to fit into.
A lot of AAA games "cheat", where the visuals and the actual game mechanics are pretty different. For instance, in Tomb Raider, a dramatic ledge sequence, underneath, is just a couple arrow keys you can use to balance a value and progress forward. All the wind, leaves, character movement, all of that means nothing, it's just the art layer. Meanwhile, Star Citizen has dealt with bugs like the flashlight coming unstuck from a pilot's suit midflight.
It's incredibly unique. And maybe it's an incredibly unique tech demo that will never go anywhere. Maybe Crytek will take RSI for everything they have. Maybe eventually someone else will take the reigns after they go bankrupt and finish it up somehow with more manageable expectations. Who knows?
But it's the most interesting thing anyone's done in the industry in a long time.
I suspect a good number grew up in the days of Wing Commander and Privateer and rose colored glasses remember those days. Now with money to spend it isn't much to fork out a little to relive that experience.
* note, I have not bought into the game
Eventually I could fly it, and it was cool but of course it was alpha and there was nothing to do except drink more kool-aid. More ships, more promises, more stars, more space.
Now, my same ship can land on planets, I can walk around and it's great. Honestly it's pretty cool. The only issue is now I am 26, married, spend 75% of my awake time working or with my wife. I don't want an mmo.
I am no longer the target demographic, and the majority of the early adaptors are not either.
And those effects are compounded - both games are far superior than other games in their genres because they steadily improve and focus on the core gameplay features.
Elite dangerous has had a working game for 6 years and has released at least 15 pretty big updates (with another one only like 2 weeks away). Star citizen is focusing on ice cubes and the rest of the game isn't even really a playable game.
I feel bad for people who are thousands deep into SC.
The promise of what SC wants to be is what is keeping people excited. 6 years in and the demos are still amazing. It’s nice to have a game to hang your hopes to.
If we actually get to play it one day I’ll br even happier :p
I do believe that there has been a bunch of mismanagement, which is a shame, but I still look forward to playing it sometime within the next 5-10 years. No game has ever been as ambitious as the scope of what Star Citizen aims to do.
I did not expect someone to say that non-ironically and be happy about it ...
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/13...
To a lot of backers this isn't just a game, they wan't to build a space matrix.
Lets also remember that crowd funding is not the only way this game has been funded, primarily yes but there's always been private equity and I wouldn't be shocked if we hear about more in the future.
Star Citizen is the excuse to build a platform for a digital universe.
uhm. Insurance? On your in game digital asset? Really?
Some of the pledges have it as a bonus so you get it for free for that ship or for a few months. If you get destroy you can get everything back for basically nothing and faster.
Insurance isn't that big of a bonus but it solidifies your pledge. You tend to see lifetime attached to higher priced or rare packages/pledges. Which is a good message to send to backers that are willing to hand over 500+
If they had started with S42 as a single player game, with a massive universe you could actually have an effect on (like X1/2/3, but you know, good), and then said they were building out a MMO version of it, I'd have thrown my wallet at them.
Full voice controlled copilot with onscreen overlays, voic support and fully customisable commands - useful for the dozen or so pilots I was able to get to test, but it's quite difficult to gain any sales when the game isn't anywhere near where we thought it would be by now.
Oh well, at least I learnt a lot (my first software release haha).
