UPDATE: Star Citizen has hit the $20 million raised mark - and now first-person combat on select lawless planets will be added to the space game.

The goal was reached on the anniversary of the release of the original Wing Commander, creator Chris Roberts said.

"What this means is that we're expanding the FPS mechanic we've already created for the ship boarding system to apply to more areas of the game," he wrote on the RSI website. "Join an ongoing battle on a contested world, launch an attack on a pirate base, come to the rescue of distant colonists and fend off Vanduul raiders … the possibilities are endless."

Now, a $22 million stretch goal: a facial capture system.

"We've researched a technology that uses a series of cameras to capture real heads and import them into the game," Roberts said. "This will let the team more easily create a variety of realistic characters. In addition, the technology is mobile enough to allow us to take it on the road and capture select fans during special events!"

ORIGINAL STORY: Star Citizen has raised an incredible $18 million through crowd-funding - and it's not far off the $19m mark.

At the time of publication, $18,388,064 had been raised. After hitting $19m, a Jane's Fighting Ships style manual in PDF form will be given free to all pledgers, among other stretch goals.

This latest milestone sparked creator Chris Roberts and co into announcing a $20 million stretch goal: first-person combat on select lawless planets.

Star Citizen hit the $18m raised mark less than a week after it hit $17m, and followed the release of the playable Hangar Module.

The space sim has held the record for the highest raising crowdfunded project of all time since June 2013.

"These numbers are amazing, and the credit goes entirely to the community that has come together to make Star Citizen happen," Roberts said.

"The best news in all of this is that the Hangar Module has inspired thousands of new fans to join the effort. The bigger our community, the better the game experience will be and greater chance we will have of making Star Citizen a game that continues for many years.

"When we first proposed Squadron 42 and Star Citizen, the goal was to bring back space sims and prove that PC games never died. We thought that was an important goal worthy of our effort and your support. We never dreamed that you would take that even farther and become our partners in changing how games are developed. As always, thank you."

Backers who helped Star Citizen push over the $18m mark get an exclusive star system to start the game with. "The only home base hangars there will belong to those that supported us early in the process," Roberts explained. "It would be immersion-breaking if backers couldn't eventually share the jump coordinates of the system with other users... but no one else will have the option of starting a character there."