“Whatever happened to Infinity?” is a question that regularly pops up in the comment threads and forums posts about adventurous space games. A few years ago, Infinity teased audiences with the promise of the next generation’s Elite. The grand plan was seamless space travel: solar systems, space stations, all the way down to the planet’s surface were going to be rendered, viewable from your cockpit as you flew by. Way back in 2006, they released a combat prototype, and in 2010 there was a pair of videos showing off the engine’s capabilities that still take my breath away. Most people suggested the game was too ambitious, that populating the game’s planets with flora and fauna and cities with missions, was too much. As it turns out, they were right, but it doesn’t mean Infinity isn’t coming out. The team have a plan, and it involves Kickstarter and a combat game called Infinity: Battlescape.
Read the rest of this entry »
Rock, Paper, Shotgun
Posts Tagged ‘Star Citizen’
On The Hunt For Infinity
By Craig Pearson on April 19th, 2013.
Fly Me To The Moon
Chris Roberts On Life After Crowdfunding, Games Vs Film
By Nathan Grayson on February 20th, 2013.
Star Citizen has made $8 million thanks to the contributions of generously wistful wing commanders like you. That’s so much money that, if you broke it down into individual bills and wrapped it around the Earth, you’d have wrapped $8 million around the Earth. And while Chris Roberts obviously had high hopes for his galaxy-sized baby, even he wasn’t expecting to drum up this level of interest. But Star Citizen’s not like the majority of gaming’s freshly crowdfunded crop. Somewhere way up the chain, investors are pulling a decent number of the strings. Or are they? “We’re still doing investment,” Roberts explained to RPS, “but I’m going to be a bit more picky in choosing it, and I’m getting to dictate the terms better. I’m saying, ‘You guys have to realize about making the game as good as possible. No forcing us to go public or to sell out.’” You’ll find that and tons more about the sudden explosion of space games, the future health of PC gaming, the medium’s relative maturity, and crossovers between games and film after the break.
Space Loot: Star Citizen Has All Of The Money
By Adam Smith on November 19th, 2012.
When the Doublefine Adventure Kickstarter was in full flow, Castle Shotgun was filled with bemused exclamations. “Where do people find these funds when men such as we can barely afford caviar sculptures?” Jim cried in obvious distress. “Tim Schafer is undoubtedly wearing a money-beard”, Alec grumbled, envious. “We shall never see the like of this again,” came John’s conclusive statement. Then he hiccuped but it sounded a bit like he was saying ‘never’ again quite dramatically. Shortly afterwards, we saw the likes of it again and now Star Citizen has raised more crowdfunded cash than any other game (almost $6 million) and it’s not quite over yet. To celebrate, here’s a nifty video showing what happens to concept art if it eats its greens.
Star Citizen’s Fleet System Gets Video’d, Detail-ified
By Nathan Grayson on November 13th, 2012.
Did you know that you can command your own fleet in Star Citizen? I suppose that shouldn’t really surprise you, given that you can also do everything else ever in the history/future of space in Star Citizen. Unsurprisingly, Roberts is shooting for the stars with this aspect of the space sim to end all space sims (and/or trigger a flood of other space sims) as well, with phrases like “most sophisticated AI that I’ve attempted on any of my games” drawing widened eyeballs. As ever, though, footage of Roberts’ grand schemes in action makes a decently convincing case for cautious optimism. Do some kind of physics-defying space flip past the break to give it a watch.
Reaching For The Stars, Pt 2
Chris Roberts On PC Gaming, Going To Space
By Nathan Grayson on October 27th, 2012.
Yesterday, we brought you Chris Roberts. Well, we didn’t bring him to you physically (sadly, he refused our requests for a kidnapping), but we presented his thoughts, brain-o-genically frozen and served on a mostly-clean sandwich tray. And now, it’s time for a second helping. This time around, Roberts and I discuss space Romans, control schemes, the potentially disingenuous aspects of crowdfunding, the future of PC gaming, and spaaaaaaaace. Going there, that is. You’ll find all that and more after the break.
Reaching For The Stars, Pt 1
Roberts On Star Citizen, Becoming A Space Crime Lord
By Nathan Grayson on October 26th, 2012.
During GDC Online, I find Chris Roberts situated in a plain white room – with little adorning it other than a conference table and Roberts’ PC. Given the almost ridiculous grandiosity of his plans, the sparseness of the room makes for something of an odd contrast. But soon, all of that fades into the background. Roberts runs me through a surprisingly polished demo of Star Citizen in its current state, and it’s hard not to let my imagination get away from me. The foundation’s clearly in place, and the possibilities seem endless. But this is still a game. There have to be limits. Moreover, where’s the line between pie-in-the-stars ambition and reality? So naturally, I ask. I ask about EVERYTHING. In part one, we cover why the universe is broken up into instances, Squadron 42, why Roberts doesn’t think this will become some crazy political struggle ala EVE Online, and of course, Roberts’ aspirations to a life of space crime.
And Beyond: Star Citizen Has Raised $2 Million
By Adam Smith on October 25th, 2012.
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.
Star Citizen Whomps Its Kickstarter Goal In Five Days
By John Walker on October 24th, 2012.
We have so much money. Not RPS – we’re ragged paupers – but gamers as a whole. Publishers think we’re all stealy-thieves, downloading cars and breaking into people’s homes to steal their DVDs, but look at us! Money pouring out of our upstairs windows. We’re forced to give it away, such that we don’t drown in the stuff. And so it is that the Kickstarter phenomenon demonstrates this once more, as Star Citizen achieves its half million funding only five days into its month-long campaign. On, and that’s on top of the $1.3m it’s already raised elsewhere.
Kickstar: Star Citizen Gets Supplementary Kickstarter
By Jim Rossignol on October 19th, 2012.
So it turns out that Chris Robert’s space-faring adventure gave their native pledge-o-matic a bit of trouble, with it falling over and stuff, and so they’ve decided (despite having raised a huge chunk of cash through their pre-order thing already) to supplement proceedings with a Kickstarter. They’re trying to raise $500,000 through the big daddy of crowd-funding, and they already have $100k. Star Citizen, as we explained in great detail here, is a concept for reviving the space game from the man who made Wing Commander. And it’s looking fantastic.
Obligatory Kickstarter video below (you’ve already seen most of it.)
Read the rest of this entry »
Star Citizen’s Big Influences: Demon’s Souls, Real Life
By Nathan Grayson on October 16th, 2012.
Star Citizen – the newest and spacest thing from mighty commander of all wings, Chris Roberts – sounds impossibly good. And I do mean that, but with more emphasis on the “impossible” part than I’d like. No doubt, Roberts is completely brilliant, but he’s proposing a project of utterly mad ambition. Naturally, it’s made me a bit skeptical. That said, an hour-long chat during GDC Online (the full results of which you’ll see very soon) definitely put a few of my fears at ease. Roberts is dreaming bigger than just about any other designer out there, but his pie-in-the-stars ambitions are actually pretty well-grounded in reality. And also Demon’s Souls, surprisingly enough.
Star Citizen: 730,000 Space Dollars Funded Already
By Craig Pearson on October 15th, 2012.
Every time I refresh the Star Citizen funding webpage, the number keeps hopping up. I hope my F5 button isn’t logging me in and and increasing my pledge. Soon it will be the size of space, and Chris Roberts will have to crowd-fund another universe to contain his bank balance. He might even use Kickstarter for that, but his game is proving that you can do it without them.
Read the rest of this entry »
Respond to our gibber
- baby snot : “I think random snippets of dialogue and screams would make this splendid.” on Ferry Good: Sinking Ship Simulator
- DXN : “The US is quietly coming to see the 'scrappy freedom fighter' narrative as more honourable and appealing than the 'always-winning-~ high-tech army' narrative. They want ...” on Call Of Duty: Ghosts RPS EXCLUSIVE Dogshot Gallery
- Skiv : “According to this sandbox test, Titanic splitted into 3 pieces.. interesting.. Will have to test it once i get home from work” on Ferry Good: Sinking Ship Simulator
- Skhalt : “John is totally uninterested in PvP, as he should be: we're talking about a Cryptic game here, the PvP is the equivalent of a multiplayer ...” on Twenty Bucks: Neverwinter
- Gap Gen : “This is actually horrifying to watch.” on Ferry Good: Sinking Ship Simulator
Read our finest words
