a long history of events leading to the first refund (which i am not allowed to go into detail as this would produce a warning from our moderators). An even longer story about this post and gaming sites (which i am not allowed to go into detail for the same reasons).
many months of Arena Commander availability for the guy in the second example (if its even true)
and just like David Braben refuses to refund people in Elite:Dangerous if they have been actively playing for a while pre-launch, the same may apply here.
Which is the main difference between his two examples.
Not that there is even a basis to claim a refund ... previous refunds from CIG were on a voluntary basis and they said so
And lets ignore the fact that his post has nothing to do with Star Citizen crowdfunding milestones - he is just abusing a sticky thread because his other post and thread about it was locked.
Interesting reply by developer Ben Lesnick on the speed of development and the early phases (pre-Kickstarter) of Star Citizen design. Why Star Citizen development is like a rollercoaster ;-)
"I will write off anything from these videos are "pre-rendered" and not real game play. But the video showed that more work went into this game to get the ships we say into good enough of a condition to show the world.
What does this mean? The game was in development before those videos were created. Per CR the game was originally provatly funded and he went to crowed funding to raise capital to show other investors this is a viable game and one people will buy into. To his surprise, it went very well. It went so well he was able to pay off the initial investors and has not needed a traditional investor since.
This game/world has been in development for longer than 18 months. Just from when they showed the videos in Kickstarter that puts it at 27 months. I do not know how much time was put into development before this.
I know I am impatient and whatever you would like to call me. I am fine with that.
Ok... this is my questions for this. A fair amount of time has passed since and do we have 27 months worth of growth? I am not a developer and I am asking because I do not know."
- - - - -
Ben Lesnick replied:
"One important note: the footage you see in the trailer is in-engine, not pre-rendered! Chris put together a live Star Citizen demo for the announcement at GDC Next. Chris created the Squadron 42 demo by himself over the course of a year or so, with support from his old friends where needed (especially for the art, as the demo needed three ship exterior models, internals for the Bengal and one cockpit.)
This was not a game, or even something that would become a game - it was a proof of concept to show investors (and then the public) that the CryEngine could be adopted for the game we wanted to make. There was no privately funded game development period with different investors. We had investors lined up to support the project IF we could hit the crowd funding goals... but not before. There were no development studios or producers or schedules or network engineers or 3D artists or anything of that nature working on Star Citizen before the end of the campaign in November, 2012.
As for the overall speed of development today - we'll always do our best to show you how it's going. To be honest, I came in thinking exactly the same thing: how are we going to do these ten thousand things and finish what we've promised? Martin Galway explained it to me best: making a game is a lot like a roller coaster... it feels like you're going up and up and up forever, seeming to have a minimal return. But that's because the first half of the experience is building the systems that let the ride down happen. There's a point in the development cycle where we hit the top and suddenly you see how the production team has plotted all the pieces to start coming together. I think we're near the top of the coaster now - for the first time, I can look at the pieces and absolutely understand how Star Citizen happens."
Its no longer called Stretch goal, but for the holidays we backers got two hangar deco items:
a) X-Mas holiday wreath (quite big, on the hangar wall)
b) Mustang starter ship models in a display case (i got the Mustang Alpha and Gamma)
Have fun
I wish they would add some X-Mas music like Star Conflict does, last year they had jingle bells and fireworks running in a loop it was crazy but strangely entertaining
68 M$ reached .... and more than 700.000 backers by the end of the year.
Several tenthousand new backers per month ....
seems like the campaign is growing in momentum, despite anything some naysayers post on forums.
Have fun
I really hope they succeed with something great.. I think this might, to me, be the last hope for the MMORPG genre. It's not like we are getting any younger by the years :P
I really hope they succeed with something great.. I think this might, to me, be the last hope for the MMORPG genre. It's not like we are getting any younger by the years :P
Just imagine what will happen to the mmorpg genre when the computer game generation hits the homes of the elderly ;-)
People with too much time and minimal need for sleep or food .... just imagine those hard-core-raid leader grannies in their 80ies screaming into their Teamspeak mikes on how much those newbs suck when they pulled another add-group at the wrong time ;-)
and no more stretch goals because some naysayers conplained about feature creep, or asked stupid questions like does a ship cost 1 million to make. Great well done, no more complimentary hangar goodies either because people asked other stupid questions like does a space plant cost 1 million dollars to make.
Ya heaven forbid backers actually wanting improved, expanded and functional game systems with every new million instead of freebies. CU said "hey we'll hire a sound tech to improve the game for everyone" instead of "here's a bonus house we'll make one dude make for $500,000."
Stop blaming players for SC smartening up. The developers themselves recognize stretch goals can't go on forever with nothing more than investor incentives. Actual fucking content pertaining the the core game comes in handy at some point.
I managed to get my 1k Refundend due to the fact that i will no longer support a game that needs 1 mil to make a carrier..nor a team that is so money hungry and far from transperent in their development.
The entire team including sandi is not trustworthy and i do not belive in the project.
You can flame me all you want..but i do not trust the developers nor their goals. This game has promised to much...and has so much support that my 1k will not make a difference..
When my money gets into my account i will donate the cash to Project Gorgon..as i feel that the money is well spent on that indie studio.
The fact that they gave you your money back speaks well for them,as actions do indeed speak louder than words alone in most instances
There is an unofficial rule of thumb ... money in a crowdfunded project is equivalent to about twice that amount in projects from a big publisher. Because the publishers waste a big amount of money for marketing and administration.
So the (currently) 70 million of CIG would be roughly comparable to a 140 million project of EA or Ubisoft.
You may have already noticed that we have added a small flair item gift to every current Star Citizen backer’s account and Hangar: an animated space globe in honor of 2015! What is a Space Globe? Space globes are a long-lived, centennial human new year’s tradition. Each year, Rosemont Imports creates a limited edition collection of Premium Space Globes ornaments to collect. Health, prosperity and plentiful bounty hunting; space globes are supposed to bring good luck in the new year!
Everyone has been given one of three globes, awarded randomly, displaying one of the most recent additions to Star Citizen’s fleet. As part of their monthly flair program, development subscribers will also receive additional Space Globes that fill out the set: one more for Centurions and two for Imperators. You can learn more about subscribing here.
2015 is going to be a huge year for Star Citizen, and we wanted to provide a small gift in honor of that fact. Enjoy your Space Globe!"
Have fun
PS:
When you activate it it looks a bit like the Plasma Globes you can have at home ("Glorious Moments" - very nice IMHO) or an evading spaceship with beams and explosions narrowly missing the ship ("Evading skills").
Comments
Deja vu.
What he is not telling :
And lets ignore the fact that his post has nothing to do with Star Citizen crowdfunding milestones - he is just abusing a sticky thread because his other post and thread about it was locked.
Have fun
Yes!!!!
Cool number
Interesting reply by developer Ben Lesnick on the speed of development and the early phases (pre-Kickstarter) of Star Citizen design. Why Star Citizen development is like a rollercoaster ;-)
https://forums.robertsspaceindustries.com/discussion/comment/4053421/#Comment_4053421
"Walker" said:
"I will write off anything from these videos are "pre-rendered" and not real game play. But the video showed that more work went into this game to get the ships we say into good enough of a condition to show the world.
What does this mean? The game was in development before those videos were created. Per CR the game was originally provatly funded and he went to crowed funding to raise capital to show other investors this is a viable game and one people will buy into. To his surprise, it went very well. It went so well he was able to pay off the initial investors and has not needed a traditional investor since.
This game/world has been in development for longer than 18 months. Just from when they showed the videos in Kickstarter that puts it at 27 months. I do not know how much time was put into development before this.
I know I am impatient and whatever you would like to call me. I am fine with that.
Ok... this is my questions for this. A fair amount of time has passed since and do we have 27 months worth of growth? I am not a developer and I am asking because I do not know."
- - - - -
Ben Lesnick replied:
"One important note: the footage you see in the trailer is in-engine, not pre-rendered! Chris put together a live Star Citizen demo for the announcement at GDC Next. Chris created the Squadron 42 demo by himself over the course of a year or so, with support from his old friends where needed (especially for the art, as the demo needed three ship exterior models, internals for the Bengal and one cockpit.)
This was not a game, or even something that would become a game - it was a proof of concept to show investors (and then the public) that the CryEngine could be adopted for the game we wanted to make. There was no privately funded game development period with different investors. We had investors lined up to support the project IF we could hit the crowd funding goals... but not before. There were no development studios or producers or schedules or network engineers or 3D artists or anything of that nature working on Star Citizen before the end of the campaign in November, 2012.
As for the overall speed of development today - we'll always do our best to show you how it's going. To be honest, I came in thinking exactly the same thing: how are we going to do these ten thousand things and finish what we've promised? Martin Galway explained it to me best: making a game is a lot like a roller coaster... it feels like you're going up and up and up forever, seeming to have a minimal return. But that's because the first half of the experience is building the systems that let the ride down happen. There's a point in the development cycle where we hit the top and suddenly you see how the production team has plotted all the pieces to start coming together. I think we're near the top of the coaster now - for the first time, I can look at the pieces and absolutely understand how Star Citizen happens."
Have fun
Its no longer called Stretch goal, but for the holidays we backers got two hangar deco items:
a) X-Mas holiday wreath (quite big, on the hangar wall)
b) Mustang starter ship models in a display case (i got the Mustang Alpha and Gamma)
Have fun
I wish they would add some X-Mas music like Star Conflict does, last year they had jingle bells and fireworks running in a loop it was crazy but strangely entertaining
Universe testing is about to start soon.
"Hey Guys!
We will be putting up our Public Test Universe up soon and we need some help testing!"
https://forums.robertsspaceindustries.com/discussion/213720/ptu-coming-very-soon/p1
Have fun
UUpps, a milestone almost slipped by me ... 67,5 M$ as of now ...690.744 Star Citizens
no more stretch goal as has already been announced, but plenty of news and some X-mas deco.
Have fun
glad they got rid of stretch goals, now the critics need to think up something else than "feature creep"
68 M$ reached .... and more than 700.000 backers by the end of the year.
Several tenthousand new backers per month ....
seems like the campaign is growing in momentum, despite anything some naysayers post on forums.
Have fun
I really hope they succeed with something great.. I think this might, to me, be the last hope for the MMORPG genre. It's not like we are getting any younger by the years :P
Just imagine what will happen to the mmorpg genre when the computer game generation hits the homes of the elderly ;-)
People with too much time and minimal need for sleep or food .... just imagine those hard-core-raid leader grannies in their 80ies screaming into their Teamspeak mikes on how much those newbs suck when they pulled another add-group at the wrong time ;-)
Have fun
Sixty Eight Million $
68
and no more stretch goals because some naysayers conplained about feature creep, or asked stupid questions like does a ship cost 1 million to make. Great well done, no more complimentary hangar goodies either because people asked other stupid questions like does a space plant cost 1 million dollars to make.
you achieved:
congratulations!
Ya heaven forbid backers actually wanting improved, expanded and functional game systems with every new million instead of freebies. CU said "hey we'll hire a sound tech to improve the game for everyone" instead of "here's a bonus house we'll make one dude make for $500,000."
Stop blaming players for SC smartening up. The developers themselves recognize stretch goals can't go on forever with nothing more than investor incentives. Actual fucking content pertaining the the core game comes in handy at some point.
You stay sassy!
you really have no idea about big scope feature planning in game development don't you
Within the hour we will be at 69 million bucks in project budget and 716.639 Star Citizens !
And the team is back after the holidays and hard at work (check out the Star Citizen pictures on Facebook and Sandis Facebook page)
https://www.facebook.com/RobertsSpaceIndustries
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sandi-Gardiner/215475438505750
Have fun
Official Schedule as of 1/20/2015. Source is Chris Roberts' BAFTA Presentation.
More clarification from the presentation, FPS is slated for March, release is slated for latter part of 2016.
The fact that they gave you your money back speaks well for them,as actions do indeed speak louder than words alone in most instances
The scope of this game is huge ! I wonder can they even hope to do all they are attempting for less than say.. $200 mil.
(oops,sorry for the back to back posts, it wasn't intentional)
There is an unofficial rule of thumb ... money in a crowdfunded project is equivalent to about twice that amount in projects from a big publisher. Because the publishers waste a big amount of money for marketing and administration.
So the (currently) 70 million of CIG would be roughly comparable to a 140 million project of EA or Ubisoft.
Have fun
New flair item added to hangars ... one of three Space Globes.
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14446-Everyone-Gets-A-Space-Globe
"Greetings Citizens,
You may have already noticed that we have added a small flair item gift to every current Star Citizen backer’s account and Hangar: an animated space globe in honor of 2015! What is a Space Globe? Space globes are a long-lived, centennial human new year’s tradition. Each year, Rosemont Imports creates a limited edition collection of Premium Space Globes ornaments to collect. Health, prosperity and plentiful bounty hunting; space globes are supposed to bring good luck in the new year!
Everyone has been given one of three globes, awarded randomly, displaying one of the most recent additions to Star Citizen’s fleet. As part of their monthly flair program, development subscribers will also receive additional Space Globes that fill out the set: one more for Centurions and two for Imperators. You can learn more about subscribing here.
2015 is going to be a huge year for Star Citizen, and we wanted to provide a small gift in honor of that fact. Enjoy your Space Globe!"
GO US !
Star Citizen Backers just reached the 70 million dollar mark.
Number of Star Citizens is currently at 734.089.
Have fun
70 is good, looks like we´re entering the safe zone soon.
still a few months until 100 though, might take until end of 2015-
love me little snowglobe flair, the animation is adorable
Within the next hour Star Citizen Backers will reach the 71 million dollar mark
(which basically means it has already been reached, as the display on the homepage lags behind by one or two hours).
Number of Star Citizens is currently at 738.476.
Thats approx. 1100 new backers per day!
Have fun
very nice! only 29 million to go until a 3 digit budget
) but it should be managable until end of 2015
I think the next huge spike should come with the First person shooter module release.
Really can´t wait for Squadron 42 campaign Part I