14 DAY TRIAL // The most prolific game made with the help of crowdfunding, Star Citizen is already shaping up as one of the best space sims that have been created.
Developed by Chris Roberts’ Cloud Imperium, the game has already reached $68.5M (€57M) in funds and people are still pledging to Star Citizen’s crowdfunding campaign that kicked off officially back in October 2012.
In a comprehensive letter to backers, Chris Roberts unveiled some of the secrets behind Star Citizen’s successful crowdfunding campaign.
One of the most important aspects highlighted by Chris Roberts is the fact that Star Citizen has one of the most engaged community in video gaming.
Soon after the debut of the crowdfunding campaign, the developer thought to “go beyond the traditional alpha model” that is usually offered to those who pledge more to a project, and offer the functionality of Star Citizen as the game was built.
The decision proved to be one of the best Chris Roberts could have taken, along with the promise that his team will listen to players’ feedback and implement any changes that make sense in the long run.
Furthermore, Cloud Imperium is delivering regular patches to the game, usually twice per month and solicits feedback from those playing Star Citizen.
All these can be comprised in a simple phrase and that would be the fact that Star Citizen is not being built by 300 devs working at Cloud Imperium, but by all those who pledged and wish to offer their constructive feedback on the game.
This is a model that’s been embraced by Larian Studios as well and their final product, Divinity: Original Sin proved to be one of the best games released in 2014.
"Star Citizen isn’t a sprint, it isn’t even a marathon"
Star Citizen has a long road ahead, but there’s no doubt that with the help of such a dedicated community, this game will be the best space sim ever.
In 2015, developers plan to release the FPS module, which will go live for the backers. In addition, Chris Roberts confirmed they would be offering players “first drops of the Persistent universe,” beginning with the Planetside social module, the multi-crew Arena Commanded and the first Episode of the single-player campaign, Squadron 42.
So, you should not wonder whether or not Chris Roberts and his team will manage to build a great space sim game, instead ask yourself how great it will be.
