Star Citizen is a huge gaming project. Many fans are eagerly awaiting the release. To this, Cloud Imperium Games founder Chris Roberts has now commented.
Parts of Star Citizen have been playable for a long time, but it is not really a game yet. However, according to Chris Roberts, that is supposed to change soon. According to an interview with Eurogamer, he sees the Alpha 3.0 planned for this fall as something like an early access version. Alpha 3.0 is supposed to bring many of the basic systems together for the first time, creating a game. This also includes persistence.
Alpha 3.0 is basically the early access version
Alpha 3.0 allows for the first time that your status in the game world is retained. So if you log out of the game after a fight, your ship is still damaged when you continue playing. Items that you deposited somewhere can be found again there. This is a major step for Star Citizen towards MMO.
The AI in Alpha 3.0 will not yet have the level that the developers desire, and in terms of missions, players are still presented with relatively simple tasks. Procedural pirate chases, item deliveries, and missions where you have to identify bodies on a spaceship. Additionally, an initial version of the trading system is integrated.
From then on, new content will be continuously introduced. It will be possible, for example, from version 3.1 onwards, to purchase ships, engage in mining, repair items, and expand infrastructure within the game.
Game development has changed
Chris Roberts also explains that he is breaking away from how games were developed in the past. Previously, development would take place in a quiet room and then the game would be released. This is no longer the case today. Players can be involved from the beginning and influence the development.
Even when the game reaches a state where everything that was intended is included, development continues. Patches and updates will follow, along with new content and improvements. However, he is also aware that not everyone is in favor of this new development process.
Game development is unpredictable
To his critics, he says that games have always been delayed. Even large publishers like EA or Ubisoft announce games and do not adhere to the release date, but postpone it repeatedly. Additionally, some games are simply canceled during development. This is just how the games business is – unforeseen things happen.
With Star Citizen, players experience this earlier because they are not involved in the development process of other titles.
Moreover, according to Roberts, most fans of Star Citizen are happy. He sees the numbers. The numbers of those who are actively playing and those who post in the forum. Of course, there are also critics and those who shout the loudest, but that is always only an extremely small fraction. Most are satisfied and simply do not express themselves.
As for crowdfunding, he does not want to dictate to anyone how much money they should spend. For many, it has simply become a hobby to support the game. All the money raised goes into the game. The company is currently not making a profit, according to Roberts.
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