Rock, Paper, Shotgun

And Beyond: Star Citizen Has Raised $2 Million

By Adam Smith on October 25th, 2012 at 12:00 pm.

Chris Robert’s space game revival, the ambitious Star Citizen, has raised the $2 million that was needed before the development team could be convinced to turn on their computers and build a galaxy. Because of problems with their own money-gathering droids (they couldn’t gather it as fast as it was being thrown, as I understand it), the project moved to the magical land of Kickstarter as well. A quick bit of advanced mathematics confirms that the $586,615 raised through Kickstarter plus the $1,416,317 figure on the Roberts Space Industries site is more than $2 million. So it’s going to happen. Why should that excite your space-loins? Look here.

The Kickstarter still has a long way to go, ending on November 19th, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the money keeps coming at a fair rate. There are stretch goals, although they are of the ‘help us to do this sooner’ rather than the ‘convince us to do this at all’ variety.

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52 Comments »

  1. 25/10/2012 at 12:06 Iskariot says:

    To think we will have to wait a few years before being able to play this…. It is torture.

    • 25/10/2012 at 12:13 Papa_Dragon says:

      Not really, multiplayer alpha for backers in 12 months:
      http://www.robertsspaceindustries.com/comprehensive-stretch-goals/

      • 25/10/2012 at 12:17 Truga says:

        I already have a HOTAS on the way, because my current joystick just won’t do! I’ll be training in other games until this hits. Mostly Evochron, probably, since the model there is also Newtonian.

        This is going to be so awesome, I’m already shaking with excitement!

        • 25/10/2012 at 14:03 Everyone says:

          Newtonian

          Oh. :-(

          I was all excited now I’m not.

          • 25/10/2012 at 14:13 Papa_Dragon says:

            Don’t be sad. Watch this first: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LuHNXTN–0

          • 25/10/2012 at 15:32 jkz says:

            Why, what parts of special relativity will you be needing in order to enjoy the space game?

          • 25/10/2012 at 15:49 Sheng-ji says:

            Hehe, every time someone approaches the speed of light, the game speeds up for everyone else to model time dilation!

          • 25/10/2012 at 16:09 jkz says:

            This feature must be implemented!

          • 25/10/2012 at 16:19 frymaster says:

            it looks to be fairly independence war-esque, which is one of the few games (along with descent) where you need 3 joystick axes for rotations and 6 buttons for translations (joystick with twist, plus hat switch, plus 2 more buttons)

            as long as they also go down the “gameplay is king” route of making the thrusters (the retros, at least) be infeasibly powerful, I’ll be happy

          • 25/10/2012 at 17:19 iteyoidar says:

            The second Independence War was originally designed to be played on Dreamcast as well and kept most of the control system from the first one. I think you have plenty of axes on a 360 gamepad, though precise aiming could be a problem unless they have some kind of semi-autoaiming deal.

      • 25/10/2012 at 12:28 Iskariot says:

        I have been gaming for multiple decades, but I never played beta, let alone alpha versions of games.
        For me it is the finished product or nothing. I am weird that way.

        • 25/10/2012 at 13:04 InternetBatman says:

          I generally do not play betas or alphas, but the one and only exception has been minecraft. Minecraft had a unique product that already delivered far more than most finished games, and I started playing it a few weeks before the alpha turned into the beta (which was nothing of the sort – betas are supposed to be feature complete).

      • 25/10/2012 at 16:22 Smashbox says:

        I’m going to go out on a limb here: That’s not going to happen, I would bet.

    • 25/10/2012 at 12:16 derbefrier says:

      yep but there are some decent ones to play in the meantime. My buddy and I found this game called Evochron Mercenary. I missed this one for some reason but its actually quite enjoyable. I would recommend it to any space sim fan. its also pretty cheap at 25 bucks

  2. 25/10/2012 at 12:06 Xardas Kane says:

    All praise the high and mighty gaming Lord. In a better world Nexus 2 would’ve gotten its fair share of kickstarting as well, but I guess you can’t have everything.

    Now let’s all throw more money at them to make it bigger and better.

    • 25/10/2012 at 12:56 Koshiir Ra says:

      Nice to hear that Star Citizen received its funding.

      But to be honest, I’m really starting to wonder if it’s necessary to regularly report on big projects like Wasteland 2, Project Eternity and Star Citizen. These projects get enough attention as it is and still get several individual articles about them while other smaller games that need the publicity more get only featured in the Kickstarter Katchup. Makes the richer rich and the poorer poor.

      Star Citizen has 8 individual articles, Project Eternity 9, Nexus 0, Distance 0. Surely one or two of those 17 articles could have been omitted in favor of an article about a smaller project.

      I know, it’s not my blog, it’s not possible to report on every single Kickstarter project and I know that publicity doesn’t guarantee successful funding, but sometimes I just think about this.

      • 25/10/2012 at 13:06 Papa_Dragon says:

        If anything, Star Citizen should receive more attention, then those other projects.
        Why? Because
        Roberts has much more to show from the future game, then Project Eternity (1 screenshot), Wasteland 2 (couple of screenshots) combined.
        Besides trailer, the man has a working Tech demo already: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92rb-8mYHE0
        It needs more attention, to (at the very least) set example.

      • 25/10/2012 at 13:09 InternetBatman says:

        You’re making the mistake of assuming that there’s a fixed amount of news, and coverage on one matter precludes coverage on another. They can only publish so many articles a day, but I think they keep it purposefully well-below saturation point so that they can expand when they want to.

        • 25/10/2012 at 13:24 Koshiir Ra says:

          Good point.

          But, it still leaves me wondering why the big projects get lots of individual news while the small ones get none. Especially since RPS has the commendable habit of bringing attention to small, hidden indie games.

          I’m probably overthinking this.

          • 25/10/2012 at 14:32 Xardas Kane says:

            I absolutely agree with you, although it is worth noting they did cover Nexus 2 on the Kickstarter Katchup.

          • 25/10/2012 at 14:39 drinniol says:

            You probably are. News stories in the gaming world come from announcements and milestones.

          • 25/10/2012 at 17:24 Vesuvius says:

            Because the big stories are news? Because many of them are once-in-a-decade events, where genres that have dried up or developers who have been critically acclaimed but not financially successful are getting a chance to fly on their on, unfettered by publishers? Because Double Fine and Obsidian have long histories of making games with artistic and critical merit, and of being punished by the existing system for doing so, and by bringing attention to them you are saying that their vision, perseverance, and originality deserve to be rewarded- and that we want to exist in a world where more games of that sort exist, rather than the world that many big publishers would have us inhabit.

            I don’t feel that these things should be covered to the exclusion of other projects, but they are (to me) very clearly newsworthy and the culmination of long histories and very clear to follow track records.

    • 25/10/2012 at 13:01 Zanchito says:

      You are not alone. I hope Nexus 2 gets its chance somewhere, because it was up there with Homeworld.

  3. 25/10/2012 at 12:17 Papa_Dragon says:

    Great stuff. Now on to the Stretch Goals. I really wish to reach the level on which Bengal Class Carrier will become controllable.

  4. 25/10/2012 at 12:29 RakeShark says:

    Kaloo kalay! Vindication!

  5. 25/10/2012 at 12:43 DJ Madeira says:

    Just imagine what we could do as first-world countries if we gave money to help starving children and suicidal factory workers with the same fervor.

    • 25/10/2012 at 13:07 Sheng-ji says:

      According to the world giving index, charitable donations from the top twenty countries alone is worth three times the worldwide gaming industry.

      We already do give with three times the fervour we have for video games and that’s not counting non financial donations, for example people volunteering or helping a stranger, sorry to knock you from your soapbox.

      Anyway, it’s good to see the village that you are feeding starving children in has internet so you can post. You are putting your money and your time where your mouth is, aren’t you?

    • 25/10/2012 at 13:10 Lord Custard Smingleigh says:

      Just imagine if you’d spent the time you spent writing that comment helping a homeless person instead.

    • 25/10/2012 at 13:15 InternetBatman says:

      Distributed Patronage is not really giving money to people though, for a large portion of backers it’s buying things that don’t exist yet. To equate a purchase with charity is silly.

    • 25/10/2012 at 13:18 Spork says:

      Comments like this make me think there’s a chart somewhere of all the world’s good causes, ranked in order of worthiness. And we’re only supposed to support the top one, or else we’ll be wasting our money. Is there some sort of weekly top-40 show I’m missing?

      • 25/10/2012 at 13:21 Sheng-ji says:

        You need a psychiatrist to watch daytime tv with you and rank every charity advert in order of manipulativeness.

        I can tell you that the current leader is Water Aid after a long run by various ass charities (donkeys, not bottoms), thanks to some glued on plastic flies under the eyes of children, however, I understand that the RSPCA is about to launch an advert with 10 dead puppies and 10 dead kittens being pulled from a canal. Odds are it’s going to trump it and become the new no. 1

  6. 25/10/2012 at 13:35 Carbonated Dan says:

    I was in for $250 until a friend pointed out that the multiplayer alpha is not the ‘player driven persistent universe sim alpha’ it’s deathamtch and coop alpha, with none of the persistent elements

    I’ll be sticking at a $30 tier so long as the $5million goal is out of reach -

    • 25/10/2012 at 14:17 Papa_Dragon says:

      You probably misunderstood something. Persistent universe will be added right away at release if we reach this 5 million goal, yes. If not, it will be added anyway at a later date. That’s the plan for every stretch goal too. They all planned to be added at some point after release if their corresponding stretch goal is not met.
      But yeah, alpha and beta definitely will be limited to simple MP.

      • 25/10/2012 at 15:09 Carbonated Dan says:

        if they hit $5mil the persistent universe will aim to be launched in 30 months, a year after the single player

        I’m very interested in a space sim DayZ-EVE mashup, so I’ll back $60 even if they don’t get close to $5mil, but if 30 months is asap with $5mil I’m not confident we’ll see the persistent multiplayer ever if they raise any less – no matter that they’re promising ‘eventually’: times change, they may decide market does not exist in four years

        • 25/10/2012 at 18:30 Papa_Dragon says:

          True, but they also may decide that if they want the market to grow, they may HAVE TO add the persistent universe. :)

  7. 25/10/2012 at 13:54 TsunamiWombat says:

    I still remain skeptical a product will be turned out.

  8. 25/10/2012 at 14:08 Kaputnik88 says:

    I suggest we form a borg-like collective when the beta starts, all shall bow to the giant space shotgun!

  9. 25/10/2012 at 14:47 derbefrier says:

    Also they finally released the ship information
    http://www.robertsspaceindustries.com/ships-plan/

    now I can go a head and upgrade. Just have to decide if I want the Hornet or the Constellation

    • 25/10/2012 at 19:46 Archangel says:

      Oh this is beautiful. Brilliant, and beautiful. He’s gone completely gonzo on the spaceship-as-custom-rig idea that started with the ship components in Privateer (and recently in Evochron Mercenary). This is going to be fantastic.

  10. 25/10/2012 at 15:39 EugenS says:

    Fine! God dang it, I just pledged 140 bucks (including that pesky shipping). This is the 3rd kickstarter I give to, after Project Eternity and Shaker (that one died, unfortunately). So here it is. If it’s half as complex and interesting as EVE, colour me impressed.

  11. 25/10/2012 at 16:40 phlebas says:

    Microtransactions and in-game bonuses for backers?

  12. 25/10/2012 at 22:29 Sic says:

    Looks like this is going to get released just in time for a proper Oculus Rift to be released to the public.

    Can’t think of a better game to launch the device with, to be honest.

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