The traditional publishers don’t believe in PC or Space Sims. Venture Capitalists only want to back mobile or social gaming startups.

I say they’re wrong. I say that there is a large audience of PC gamers that want sophisticated games built for their platform. And inside this audience, a significant group of people that have always loved space games, and if given a quality one again will be happy to play it.

Let’s put high-end PC gaming and Space Sims back on the map!

Star Citizen brings the visceral action of piloting interstellar craft through combat and exploration to a new generation of gamers at a level of fidelity never before seen. At its core Star Citizen is a destination, not a one-off story. It’s a complete universe where any number of adventures can take place, allowing players to decide their own game experience. Pick up jobs as a smuggler, pirate, merchant, bounty hunter, or enlist as a pilot, protecting the borders from outside threats. I’ve always wanted to create one cohesive universe that encompasses everything that made Wing Commander and Privateer / Freelancer special. A huge sandbox with a complex and deep lore allowing players to explore or play in whatever capacity they wish.

Finally we are offering the pledge slots a discount to what the final digital price will be. Like Guild Wars 2, the basic game will be $60, but for the early backers we are offering the entry tier at $40.

In addition, part of the money we are asking for is budgeted to maintain the Roberts Space Industries site with constant updates. For those of you that joined before the official announcement on October 10th you’ll know that we’ve been doing two to three updates A DAY. Our goal is for the game’s website to be live from day one, constantly giving information about what’s happening in the galaxy even before the game is live, sharing interesting insights into the development process and canvassing the early backers for their opinions. Roberts Space Industries should be the first stop into the Star Citizen universe. When we say we want to involve the community, we really mean it!

The people who pledge for their spaceships will get to test-fly them long before the general public. 12 months in, we will allow the early backers to play the multiplayer space combat Alpha, and then 20-22 months in they will get to play the Star Citizen space combat Beta, adventuring around the huge open galaxy, well before the general public. We are going to limit our alpha slots to 200,000 as we want to stress test the game with real users, but will not be ready for the full load until we have finished Beta.

For the people who pledge for their spaceship in the Star Citizen universe, you’ll be part of a select club that has exclusive access to early gameplay and behind the scenes development updates.

You as the customer get the ultimate vote in whether we make this game. Your dollars are your votes and the better we do the more resources we’ll have to bring you a great game.

Instead of taking this prototype to a publisher for a green light, we are cutting out the middleman and taking it to you.

We’ve invested our own money, along with some angel funding over the past year in order to build the technical and visual prototype that shows just how Star Citizen is going to push the limits of PC games.

This game is ambitious. If we can raise between $2 to $4 million we have investors that have agreed to contribute the balance we need to complete this game as long as we can validate that there is a demand for a high end PC space game.

Star Citizen is meant to be everything you ever dreamed you could have in a Space-Sim, all in one glorious ever-evolving package.

This is your chance to have your voice heard. To tell the world that high end PC gaming lives. That you want to sit in the cockpit of your space fighter defending the galaxy or making your fortune as a wily entrepreneur.

Today’s game publishers, like their Hollywood counterparts, want predictable returns from sequels to last year’s hits. A game in an out- of-favor genre, set in an original universe is viewed as a bad investment. And the concept of developing a new product exclusively for the PC sends publishing executives and most Venture Capitalists running for the exits.

As you upgrade your PC, Star Citizen will take advantage of your extra processor cores, memory or GPUs. This is why you’re a PC gamer – you love being on the cutting edge, not stuck in the past!

We have backed Oculus Rift and will support it in Star Citizen / Squadron 42. Who doesn’t want to sit in their cockpit, hands on your joystick and throttle, swivelling your head, to track that enemy fighter that just blew by?

As part of commitment to high end gaming we are dedicated to supporting the more exotic enthusiast peripherals; HOTAS, flight chair, rudder pedals. It’s all about the immersion and if you’ve got the equipment we want to support it!

Because of the ability of the game to scale seamlessly you could be looking out the windows on the bridge of a carrier watching the battle unfold or jump into a cockpit and take the fight to the enemy.

From a vast 1km long carrier to a 27m fighter, to your 1.8M tall pilot, everything is rendered and to the same level of detail. Zoom in to the paneling of the carrier and its texel density is the same as the 27M fighter. All without a load screen or loss of visual fidelity.

Every spaceship is built from 100s of sub-components, many of them moving and articulating just like they would in the “real” world. If a component gets damaged during combat be prepared to feel the effects on your ship.

Most current gen “AAA” games have around 10,000 polygons for a character and 30,000 or so for a vehicle. In Star Citizen, the characters are detailed at 100,000 polygons, the fighter at 300,000 and the Space Carrier 7 million! This allows unparalleled detail, making the visuals more immersive than has ever been achieved before.

Because we are fully simulating the physics and flight dynamics, the actual components matter. If a port thruster is damaged, it will affect your maneuverability organically. If you upgrade your thruster package with enhanced thrusters that gimbal faster and deliver more thrust it will affect your performance. Dump cargo, you may be able to get the edge in turning in a dogfight.

Ship’s performance is calculated dynamically based on various physical variables and the ability of your jet maneuvering to deliver thrust towards a requested vector. What does this mean? Infinite customization with component damage, mass or energy changes affecting maneuverability on the fly – allowing for endless combat strategies and results.

Like a modern day F-35, the ships have fly by wire systems which take the player’s inputs and then translate them into the commands for the ship’s engine and thrusters to articulate and deliver the required thrust to achieve the pilot’s request.

On larger ships, friends can join you to man turrets, repair systems, or switch with you on the pilot’s chair. Think the Millennium Falcon with Han-Solo piloting and Luke on the turret.

If caught alone in an online ambush, send a distress broadcast to your friends and if they’re nearby they can jump in-system to save your bacon. In each combat instance player slots are reserved for your friends so you can rally forces to join you in combat!

In game trade landing and trade tariffs pay for law and order in the civilized systems. Want to make a bigger profit? Try the outer world – outside earth’s infrastructure and protection. The downside? No military or local police to protect you from an opportunistic pirate!

We plan to put a lot of social ideas in the universe. Since the universe is dynamic, it will create some divisions and factions. For example, it’s a perfectly valid choice not to be a Citizen and operate outside the protection of Earth. We think there will be people that gravitate to crime or helping enforce the law or defending the galaxy from the alien raiders or just accumulating as much money as possible. We want to include all these social divisions so players will gravitate to one or the other much like the real world operates.

Our modding tools will allow players to design new ships for both submission to the persistent RSI ship dealer network or to build custom ships and items for the self-hosted multiplayer mode.

The universe will change based on the players’ actions and adventures allowing them to become part of the history of the universe. As an example, players can scan for gravitational anomalies while out in space. If one is discovered and the player manages to successfully navigate this uncharted jump point, they’ll be able to sell their Nav- Computers recording of their jump flight path for a great profit to a space company for other users to download. But the real prize is getting the system or jump-point named after them!

Upon completion of your tour you’ll re-enter the persistent Star Citizen universe with some credits in your pocket and Citizenship to help you make your way. But in the universe of Star Citizen when one conflict ends, another is just around the corner. You’ll have opportunity to spend more time with your squadron mates as additional Campaigns are released as part of the content update plan.

If you distinguish yourself in combat, you might be invited to join the legendary 42nd Squadron. Much like the French Foreign Legion of old, they can always be found in the toughest areas of operation and always snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, regardless of the odds.

We’re not interested in having yearly updates. We will have a team of people adding content on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, not too dissimilar to what we’ve been striving to do on the RSI website. So we’ll always be adding data, stories and campaigns as well as reacting to the needs and actions of the players.

Space is unending, endless and so are your opportunities. Strike out to make your fortune amongst the Stars or sign-up for a tour of duty in the UEE Fleet.

Why Now? With the power of today’s PC, the prevalence of broadband, and the ability of the internet to connect game developers directly with players, we feel the time is finally right to bring back the kind of space combat game we have always dreamed possible. We want to build something that pushes the limits of an amazing platform that we owe our past success to. We now have the ability to connect directly with everyone that loved our past games and introduce ourselves to a whole new audience… and we intend to take full advantage. We’re invigorated by the idea of creating a universe that never stops evolving and is in constant dialogue with its citizens.

Why PC? The “experts” think the PC is a dead platform. All the big publishers treat the PC as an afterthought. Corporate investors trip over themselves to invest in anything but PC gaming. We think they’re wrong. The PC is the platform that allows the most innovation. It’s the platform that allows the players the most choice in how they play their games. It’s the platform that allows the developer to have a relationship with the people playing their game with no artificial restrictions or walls. There is no platform that pushes the technological barriers like the PC. It is always evolving. Without PCs there would be no World Wide Web, no First Person Shooters. Real time strategy games and massively multiplayer games would have never existed. We owe our success and careers to the platform and we want to stand up for the PC!

Why Direct And No Publisher? The real question is: why not? Publishers are useful in the old physical distribution world, but the internet is the great equalizer. Notch didn’t need a publisher to reach 20-million Minecraft fans. Riot games didn’t need a publisher to reach 30-million League of Legends players, and Wargaming.net didn’t need a publisher to reach 20-million World of Tanks gamers. If we were building a big “AAA” console game it would be crazy to try without a publisher. But we want to build a PC game and publishers increase costs because of their need to recoup their sizable overhead cost. We want to make sure all the money raised goes directly to the development of the game. So we’re throwing ourselves at the mercy of the PC gamers out there that share our vision and passion for the platform and the space combat genre to raise money outside of the “cartel” of traditional publishers. The game will cost less, be more creatively pure, and, most importantly, be built for the real “core” audience – not some corporate suit worried about including all the casual gamers.

Why So Much Money? Admittedly, we are asking for a lot more support than most crowd-funded games, but we are also not building the typical crowd-funded game. We want to build a game that can go toe-to-toe with the biggest “AAA” console titles out there. We want to take advantage of the power of the PC to make it graphically superior. This kind of detail and sophistication doesn’t happen without talented developers working as a team to create an amazing experience. Let’s look at some recent salary data from Game Developer Magazine. The above chart averages the cost at approximately $127,571 per person/per year. Before you howl at that outrageous amount, keep in mind that it represents the total cost – ie. rent, computer equipment, software, utilities health plan, etc. While everyone on the team loves what they do, they can’t work for free. The equipment and software they use costs money. We know there are a lot of crowd funding games promising the moon for what seems an insanely small amount of money. We’ve built a lot of games and know exactly how much work it takes to deliver a top-notch experience. And while there are always risks associated with any creative endeavor we can promise you that for approximately half the amount it would cost a big publisher. We can do this because the people we hire are the people making an awesome game! No executives, no unnecessary middle management, no fancy corporate campus. So while we’re asking for more than most, we know how to spend every dollar to give you a much more immersive and ambitious experience.

The Game Sounds Awesome! But Can You Really Build It? We’ve built a lot of games. From the beginning of the industry when it was two or three of us working out of our bedrooms, to large modern day, multi-discipline teams. We know exactly how much work it takes to deliver a top-notch experience. Members of the team have been key contributors in the creation of many of today’s AAA games. Not to mention we are led by Chris Roberts, the father of the modern space opera! Chris has been pushing the boundaries of what PC games can do for over twenty years with titles like Wing Commander and Freelancer… and now he’s back to the games industry with a clear, unparalleled vision on which to build his next world.

Why Not Kickstarter? We love Kickstarter. We’ve backed projects on their site and believe

everyone in the development community owes a debt to Kickstarter for putting crowd funding on the map, and making it legitimate. But for us the ultimate goal of crowd funding is about connecting the “crowd” directly with the creators with as little friction as possible. By building a crowd funding component directly into our site we can insure everyone who wants to back the game can – we provide multiple payment options to make sure that wherever in the world you are there is an option that can work for you. It means you just have one destination to support the project, read updates, and most importantly participate with other members of the community! All on a site that’s designed around the game universe being created, providing the least friction possible. Kickstarter, as great as it is, can’t deliver this experience, which is why we’ve decided to go it alone.

What If You Don’t Raise Enough Money? We are encouraged by the overwhelming response to our “underground” launch site with over 20,000 registered users that we will reach, and hopefully exceed our minimum goal. We also believe that the response to our crowd funding campaign will cause certain fans and investors to step up with additional funding. Nonetheless, we are offering you the option to have your money refunded (less processing fees), should we really not reach our minimum goal. Or you may leave it in so that we can use it for additional fund raising or to continue working on the game at a reduced level.

What’s Your Online Revenue Model? Not a subscription but not free-to-play; rather a hybrid of these two business models. Much like ArenaNet’s Guild Wars 2, you will purchase the PC game and pay no recurring subscription charges. Your purchase of the game will allow you to play in the universe for free, forever! The game will offer a variety of virtual items for purchase with in-game credits allowing you to spend money on items that offer more ways to express yourself, provide convenience, and customize your experience. But the cardinal rule regarding “in-game purchases” is: Players who spend money purchasing in-game credits will have no advantage over players who spend time! Everything is bought with in-game credits. These purchases won’t offer any advantage over someone who puts in the “game-time” to earn the same amount of credits. You might ask, why have “in-game” purchases at all? This allows us the resources to support the game on an ongoing basis as well as continually add content.

Will The Servers Be Public Or Private? There will be public servers that we host for the main universe/game. The universe is going to be a persistent living entity, where your actions, (discovering a jump point and successfully navigating its jump for the first time, designing a ship for sale in the online shops, winning a key in-game battle etc.), will be woven into the history and lore of the game. We really want the universe to be shaped, both by your actions and created user content… to really embrace the passion and creativity of the core fans. A central server system for the persistent universe will be required to assure security, prevent cheating and other bad behavior. We also plan to provide a version that allows private servers similar to Freelancer to be maintained and run by the pilot communities. These would support single and multiplayer space combat battles where teams could hone their skills without having to use the public servers.

How does Citizenship factor into the game? Even though there are other alien races, we’re beginning with the human side of it. The Star Citizen universe has evolved into a futuristic version of the Roman Empire. We thought it would be very interesting to have Citizenship be something that you don’t automatically receive. It’s something you have to earn through civic duty or military service. It’s a way to create a class system, which creates the potential for conflict among various groups and players. We wanted to put a lot of social ideas in the universe. Since the universe is dynamic, it will create some divisions and factions. For example, it is a perfectly valid choice not to be a Citizen but we wanted to include all these social divisions so players will gravitate to one or the other much like the real world operates.