Star Citizen opens up with weekly production schedules
Gosh-o
Star Citizen [official site] developers Cloud Imperium Games have always spokenly about their big dreams for the space sandbo but been a bit hazier on the specifics of what's coming when. That's changing. Four years after Star Citizen's initial crowdfunding campaign ended, CIG have started issuing huge weekly updates on development, not just with target release dates but the whole internal schedule too. If you've backed it and are wondering what they're up to, well gosh oh golly you can now see in so very much detail. We may still need to wait for huge tell-alls for off-message commentary but gosh-o this is remarkable insight for such a big game.
CIG plan to issue new production schedule reports weekly. They've broken down features into tasks, scheduled them, said how they're coming on, estimated when they should be done, and even made little pictures with bars and things. You'll see that they plan to release Alpha 2.6 on December 8th, though of course this may change.
Head honch Chris Roberts talks about the decision to open about this in his latest 'Letter from the Chairman':
"Whether or not to share this kind of information has been a long running debate among the team here at Cloud Imperium Games. Target dates are not release dates, and everything you see will shift at some point, sometimes slightly and sometimes wildly. The danger in doing this has always been that casual observers will not understand this, that there will be an outcry about delays every time we update the page.
"We've taken stock, thought through everything and decided that, while that is a risk, above all we trust the community that has given us so much support. The community that has let us focus our passions on this incredible project. You have allowed us to take this journey, you have tracked and followed so much of how game development works... and now we think it is right to further part the curtain and share with you our production process."
Speaking of Alpha 2.6, here's a peek at the new Star Marine stuff due to arrive with it:
