Star Citizen fans are going to start playing a small piece of the game next week that will only show a basic, and early, segment of the game letting players create an avatar, wander around, open the doors, and clamber inside, but not actually fly the things. That part of the game isn’t ready yet.
Extra features will be added to the hangar module over the coming months that will include customization options and the ability to invite friends. Cloud Imperium are also planning to release a dogfighting module before the end of the year, this will allow the players to test the fighting phase of the game and actually begin flying.
Chris Roberts told Eurogamer that he has decided to make Star Citizen entirely community funded.
“I’m actually not taking money from investors now. The budget for what we’re delivering is about $20 million, and we’re almost there – we’ll probably be there before the end of the year,” he told Eurogamer.
“The nice thing about not taking the investor’s money is, as much as they’re nice investors, they want a return at some point. If this thing’s a big success, they’ll say, ‘EA and Activision want this for about $100 million and that gives me a certain return on my investment’ – but that may not be the best thing for the game. I like the idea that the game gets 100 per cent community funded because all they care about is getting a great game, and all I care about is making a great game.”
The game features Crytek’s CryEngine 3 and the game targets high-end gaming PCs. It’s possible that the game could be made for next-gen consoles as well.
“It would have to be the next generation of consoles,” he said. “Right now we’re just on one platform – but basically [next-gen consoles] are high-end PCs with custom operating systems.”
