After making his name with classic titles like Wing Commander and Privateer in the '90s, legendary game designer Chris Roberts left the industry to spend the last decade producing movies, including Lord of War, Lucky Number Slevin, and The Punisher. But today, Roberts announced he's coming back to gaming with Star Citizen. It's an ambitious space-faring MMO that he says will do nothing less than "change the way people perceive games for the PC and... breathe new life into space combat games."

While Star Citizen will be situated in a massively multiplayer sandbox world featuring frequent content updates, the game will also use a Wing Commander-style, offline single-player mode (take that, Diablo III) and support user-generated content and modding tools. With a setting described as "a futuristic version of the Roman Empire," Star Citizen will focus on the dynamic of "citizenship," which has to be earned through civic duty or military service in the game. Roberts writes on the game's newly launched website that he hopes this dynamic will create a tiered social structure where dedicated players can really distinguish themselves from casual players, and where different factions will be in conflict.

Roberts is far from humble about the graphical ambitions for the CryEngine 3-powered game. He says the game will feature "10 times the details of current AAA games." That means characters made up of 100,000 polygons and massive ships containing up to seven million-polygon models. A dynamic zooming system will allow a "range of scale never seen in a game," letting players focus on a kilometer-long carrier or a two-meter-tall character "without a load screen or loss of visual fidelity." The graphical fidelity will continue to scale up as you upgrade your computer components over the years as well: "This is why you’re a PC gamer—you love being on the cutting edge, not stuck in the past!" he writes.

The bold promises extend to the wider gameplay, which will include everything from massive, multiplayer ships that can launch smaller fighters, to an Eve Online-style supply-and-demand-based economy. "Star Citizen is meant to be everything you ever dreamed you could have in a Space-Sim, all in one glorious ever-evolving package," Roberts writes. "In recent years, game designers have stopped innovating and pushing the boundaries of what you can do in this genre. I plan on bringing that kind of development mentality back into PC gaming and space sims in particular."

The development team needs more money to make those bold promises a reality, though. They're seeking at least $2 million in crowdfunding through the Roberts Space Industries site to finish the game up. That money will be combined with established angel funding, personal monetary investment from the developers, and further VC investment that has been promised if the team can prove there is enough demand.

Roberts said he is going with crowdfunding, in part, because "venture capitalists only want to back mobile or social gaming startups." By publishing directly, using funds from gamers themselves, he hopes to prove that there is "a significant group of people that have always loved space games, and if given a quality one again will be happy to play it."

Officially announced today at GDC Online, the MMO has already been in production for a year. It will likely be two more before the game is complete, however. The first 200,000 backers who contribute at least $30 will be able to play an early alpha version of the game that should be ready next year. When the game is finally ready for a full release, it will be available as a one-time $60 purchase without a monthly fee, similar to Guild Wars 2. The business model will be supplemented by cosmetic and convenience-boosting in-game purchases, all of which will also be obtainable solely through free gameplay, for those who want to put in the time.

As effusive as Roberts and his team are about the Star Citizen's potential, they're equally effusive about the future of the PC as the right platform for Star Citizen. "The PC is the platform that allows the most innovation," Roberts writes on the site. "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."