Game Development Giant

In any case, "Star Citizen" is an aloof figure and a legend in the crowdfunding world.

Jester wants to build such a game crowdfunding website, and he definitely wants to have such a fundraising legend appear on his own crowdfunding website one day.

In fact, the reason why it is called "solitary" is that, on the one hand, "Star Citizen" has received more than 80 million US dollars through crowdfunding so far, and on the other hand, because this work does not completely rely on the kickstarter platform. ——The fundraising amount for this project on ks is only US$2 million.

Other sources of funding for "Star Citizen" mainly come from the crowdfunding channels established by the game website itself - in addition to donations, funds are also raised through the purchase of pre-experience content. Please note that this is fundamentally different from the early-access project on Steam: Star Citizen still does not have highly completed game content, and it cannot even be regarded as a "semi-finished product". The content that players can play after purchasing is actually very limited - however , "Star Citizen" still relies on this model to raise an amount that sounds almost incredible.

Maybe many people don't have a clear understanding of what $80 million represents in the game development world.

The development and publicity costs of gta5 are US$260 million, of which publicity accounts for almost half, and development costs are also almost half. In other words, US$80 million can completely produce a gta5-level game.

Jester has no intention of deeply analyzing the reasons for its success - as a successful example, it does not conform to common sense and has basically no reference value for imitation.

If Obsidian and Inxile-Entertainment represent the magical, DND-style emotional model from trpg, then Star Citizen represents another routine, about the future, space and the sea of ​​stars - needless to say, this kind of Feelings are not only as deep, accumulated and derived from instinct as the former, but they also have advantages that "trpg feelings" do not have: it is less difficult and obscure, and more simple, direct and intense.

You can even say it bluntly.

The theme of Stars and Sea. In the future, whether Westerners or Easterners, whether they receive Western education, Western culture or Eastern education, Eastern culture, Americans, Europeans, Japanese, or Chinese, all can join in without any pressure. A theme.

This is also the theme type of a game that Jester really wants to make in the future.

However, according to the current functions and technology, I am afraid that it is still far from being able to express what Jester wants to express, the distance and depth of the universe and starry sky.

In fact, it’s a pity that Jester hasn’t played this game. This game is also an interstellar-themed game. It's not that "Star Citizen" is becoming more and more popular and has more and more pitfalls, but Hellogames announced it at E3 in 2014, and conducted in-depth gameplay and details at E3 in 2015. That's an incredible game.

But it is a pity that this game was not officially released until Jester was reborn. It was only through E3 in 15 years that we roughly learned that it should be released in 16 years.

"No Man's Sky".

Although, I haven't played it yet. But Jester was still deeply attracted by the game from the designer's simple demonstration and description. It was really an incredible game.

The game "No Man's Sky" is different from traditional games in that it does not have a preset hero or story. It's more like "Minecraft". Terraria is somewhat similar, in that players create and define their own experiences in the game, and, in this game. The map is as big as the real universe, and there are at least 100 billion explorable planets in it.

You could spend your whole life playing and not be able to explore all the locations.

Each planet is formed randomly and no one is the same.

The areas of the planets are very large. You can stay on a planet for days. Experience its day and night. You can walk directly on it, or drive a spaceship through the sky.

Once you discover a planet, you can change its randomly generated name to whatever you want. The same goes for any creatures you find on top of it.

Although you can do whatever you want in the game, your actions will still have consequences. If you kill too many creatures or deplete a planet of valuable resources, your wanted level will rise, and the planet's sentinels will hunt you down.

The space police will also hunt you if you start a war in space. Be prepared to fight an army if you dare touch the police.

The game also doesn’t lack for an upgrade system that can drastically improve the game’s playability.

And, almost everything in it can be upgraded, including shields, ships, weapons, even your spacesuit, you name it.

This game can be said to have all the features common to all sandbox games.

Explore, trade and fight.

Of course, death also comes with punishment.

If you die in the game, any information you didn't save to "the-atlas" will be lost. The-atlas is a rectangular computer that records your progress and can be connected through beacons on the planet. It is what we often call archives in other games, but it is not exactly the same.

Of course, this game does not lack a manufacturing system. You can obtain blueprints through various methods in the game and then manufacture them into the items you need.

It's the same feature that all games of this era have.

Through the Internet, you can share everything you discover in this game with your friends. Even if the game is 'over', you don't need to worry at all. You can still do everything you want in this game. do, and be able to do.

If you choose a game as an example, probably "Ark: Survival Evolved" may be relatively similar.

The difference is that the background of the game "Ark" is an ancient society similar to the White Period or the Jurassic Period, while the background of the game "No Man's Sky" is the entire galaxy, or even the entire universe.

Jester loves "No Man's Sky" more than Star Citizen.

After all, one actually demonstrated it with a real machine, while the other just kept drawing castles in the air, and the difference could not be measured in miles.

In fact, the sea of ​​stars is not only Jester’s ultimate dream for the game, it is also the dream of many people.

As the majority of male gamers, whoever doesn’t have a romantic dream of traveling across the sea of ​​stars would be damned—sailing is simply the instinct of male humans, whether it’s on the sea, in the sky, or in the sky. In the deep space of man.

In addition to human instinct, or the addition of male hormones, the feelings of "Star Citizen" mainly come from its project initiator, Chris Roberts, who has developed many space war-themed games, including the prestigious "Galaxy Captain" and "Freelancer" - God, do you know how many old players clamor for a remake of "Freelancer" and a sequel to "Galaxy Captain" every year?

In the hearts of European and American players, he is not inferior to Keiji Inafune and Koji Igarashi.

By the way, "Galaxy Commander" is the pinnacle of overhead simulation shooting games - this series not only has many works but also has high quality, it is also the quality benchmark of "script flow" simulation shooting games at that time.

Of course, that wasn't the main point in Jester's mind.

The point is that "Galaxy Commander" has a derivative work: a game such as "Galaxy Commander: Privateer" produced in 1993.

This game is not the same as the original.

As its subtitle suggests, this work is about plunder and trade among the stars. There is no very clear main story, and the game mode is very free and casual. This game was widely praised by players due to its unique design concept, and its essence was continued by the follow-up "Free Lancer" - and this spirit became the soul of almost all similar games later, and the representative of the successor is "x" series, especially "x3: Reunion" is the most famous.

When "Star Citizen" first appeared, it was chosen as the sequel to "Galaxy Commander" - in fact, media reports at the time called it "Galaxy Commander: 42nd Wing", and later emphasized that it was "Galaxy Commander". "The identity of the spiritual sequel was renamed "Star Citizen: 42nd Wing". Finally, "42nd Wing" was continued as the code name for this single-player game project, and the game project itself was eventually named "Star Citizen".

Initially people were excited to see the project resurrected, but then what really stood out was Chris Roberts' terrifying ambition - his desire to do everything right. It perfectly reproduces everything about a space game, from what you can imagine to what you can't imagine.

His ambitions are even greater than what the producers of "No Man's Sky" want to do.

It can even be described with an inappropriate metaphor.

Chris Roberts wants to create a game that is impossible to complete in the current era, just like the sandbox RPG that Jester is making now. It is a game that completely subverts the concept of the video game industry.

If it succeeds, it will naturally become a legend. If it fails, it will not be a joke.

This is the courage to do something when you know it is impossible.

It is admirable.

Just like Yu Suzuki and his "Shenmue", it will definitely go down in history forever. (To be continued...)