Erin Roberts, Studio Director

Hi guys, what a month it’s been, we’re really excited that the Dog Fight Module is out there and also we’re working towards getting everyone into multiplayer and improving, bug fixing and balancing with all your help. We’ve also taken big steps forward in white boxing our first levels in Squadron 42, as well as started work on Multi-crewed Vehicles, and last but not least the Capital Ships are really starting to look great. Wandering round the “Javelin” Destroyer is a real treat… Next month we’ll be really solidifying the DFM with bug fixes, new features and game modes and of course a fully operational ranking boards so people can start to compare stats. Also let’s not forget Gamescom is around the corner, we plan to have some cool new stuff to unveil at the show. AS always thanks for the dedication and support from everyone, without your guys support and feedback we wouldn’t be making this game great game. You will be seeing updates coming fast and furious from the team now we have put our stake in the ground and given everyonethe first glimpse of Star Citizen with the DFM module.

Programming Director – Derek Senior

This month has been the month of the DFM. From the start of June, we’ve been working incredibly hard to make the launch of DFM as successful as possible, this work continues. A lot of the work has been fixing up bugs, issues and adding some more polish to the game, adding new default mappings for more controllers, getting the Battle Royale game mode available for the MP rollout. We’ve also been working on some other, exciting, game modes coming your way.

We’ve also been getting going on some more behind the scenes work for future DFM, SQ42 and the PU. From working on tools to help designers and artists to set up the hundreds of components we have on each ship, to individual manufacturer HUD colourisation, HUD usability updates, UI for multi-crewed ships, audio improvements, GPU and CPU improvements and bug fixes as well as controller customisation, conversation system prototyping, and lots, lots, more.

Design Director – Nick Elms

Another month whizzes by.

We are still spitting design here in a number of areas, mainly :- Dog Fight Module support, Squadron 42 mission designs and Capital Ship design with Seat Actions.

Dog fighting is out there now! We have a long, and ever growing list of fixes, optimizations, polish, new features, etc. that we are planning to put in over the coming releases. The designers are, as ever, monitoring forum feedback, which is super useful for us and a lot of the issues that you have flagged up will be getting addressed over the coming weeks/months.

We have run through the “Vertical slice” mission this month, lots of outstanding issues to solve, but the walkthrough was awesome. I wish I could post a video, but with it being a S42 mission it would be too much of a spoiler. Suffice to say that when people leave a 2 hour meeting smiling you know something went well.

We’ve had another round of feedback on the “Idris” Frigate interior, just tidying up some minor points before the full PBR texture pass. We needed to add a few more escape pods to cater for the increased crew capacity, and make a bit more sense of the docking systems. You should now be able to drop your Constellation, Retaliator, etc. neatly on the top of the Idris and disembark through the docking collar with some dignity. We are really looking forward to seeing this “Hangar” ready soon.

The “Javelin Destroyer” and “Escort Carrier” are still in “Grey box” phase, but are coming together really well. We are benefiting from lots of lessons learnt from the Idris re-working. Aside from the above, we have been making good progress on ship systems. Mike Northeast even started a new forum thread to specifically discuss the “seat actions” with everyone, which seems to be going well so far. Thanks for all the feedback and ideas.

Overall a very good month in Star Citizen development from here in the UK, thanks again for the fantastic support.

Art Director – Paul Jones

Wow – what a month! Things are progressing along well in all areas, DFM, Sq42, outsourcing – it’s all go, we’ve taken on a concept artist intern and also had 3 students in this last week making a Star Citizen side scroller as their work experience project – it’s a holistic place here in Manchester, give back where we can :)

Space ships, Space ships, Spaceships! All continuing along well, the ones in full production are advancing well and we are learning on the job – it’s a tough mix of product design, mechanical design and performance optimization but the team is doing well, I’m looking forward to when we show more of the Gladius and Gladiator to the community. We also have a heavy fighter in concept phase with Gavin Rothery and its shaping up to be pretty mean looking!

What about Cap ships? Modular Tier interiors are laid out and now we need to push more through the concept pipeline to have the key rooms designed to meet Sq42 cinematic requirements, this is also the case for Shubin now that we have a good idea of mission requirements.

DFM continues alongside, Capture the Core and Conquest mode assets are being readied for release to the public. Lots of animation work going on for new ship types that we are working on getting Hangar ready, and into DFM.