{"data":{"id":14414,"title":"Letter from the Chairman","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/comm-link\/transmission\/14414-Letter-From-The-Chairman","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-links\/14414","api_public_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/comm-links\/14414","channel":"Transmission","category":"General","series":"From the Chairman","images":[{"id":2846,"name":"Screen-Shot-2014-12-19-At-53936-PM.png","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/media\/9nnpkam7lbz5ir\/source\/Screen-Shot-2014-12-19-At-53936-PM.png","alt":"","size":1555688,"mime_type":"image\/png","last_modified":"2014-12-19T22:44:38+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/2846","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/2846\/similar"},{"id":2847,"name":"315p_in_hangar.jpg","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/media\/bmx09urihw4ogr\/source\/315p_in_hangar.jpg","alt":"THEN: the Hangar Module in 2013","size":307999,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","last_modified":"2014-12-31T21:11:34+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/2847","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/2847\/similar"},{"id":2848,"name":"AC_1_0_Action_Shot.jpg","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/media\/87ip9tbi5vbc5r\/source\/AC_1_0_Action_Shot.jpg","alt":"NOW: Arena Commander 1.0 in action; screenshot by PiteCZek","size":2163150,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","last_modified":"2015-01-01T00:56:05+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/2848","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/2848\/similar"},{"id":2849,"name":"FPS_Battle_Arena.jpg","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/media\/kxr00po6ijeenr\/source\/FPS_Battle_Arena.jpg","alt":"NEXT: The FPS Mode's Battle Arena","size":2335662,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","last_modified":"2014-12-31T21:17:06+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/2849","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/2849\/similar"}],"images_count":5,"translations":{"en_EN":"Greetings Citizens,\n2014 has been a huge year for Star Citizen.\n\nWe launched Arena Commander v0.8 in June and since then we\u2019ve shown the ambition of the First Person Universe we are building with a prototype of multi crew ship combat, the scale and detail of the planet side environments and demonstrated the visceral action of the First Person Combat that players will experience in Star Citizen.\n\nWe\u2019ve delivered 23 updates to Star Citizen \/ Arena Commander, four of them being major feature updates (v0.8. v0.9, v0.9.2) with the last one being the largest, Arena Commander v1.0, with fifteen new ships for backers to fly (all the Aurora and Hornet variants, Mustang family, Base Avenger and Cutlass Black) as well as significant gameplay additions like the signature system and social features like the first version of the lobby system allowing you to join up with your friends.\n\nStar Citizen\u2019s backers downloaded 13.7 PETABYTES of data from Star Citizen\u2019s CDN during 2014 up from just ONE Petabyte in 2013. The community logged over two million sessions and one million hours playing Arena Commander which has been split approximately 80% single player and 20% multiplayer\n\nCloud Imperium\u2019s staff \u2013 which is solely dedicated to making Star Citizen \u2013 has grown from 70 employees last Christmas to 180 today, spread around four internal locations; Santa Monica, Austin, Manchester, UK and a nascent office in Germany that we will be sharing details about in the coming year.\n\nWe have an additional 120 developers working on the game spread between our partners at Behaviour, Illfonic, Turbulent, outsource companies and individual contractors.\n\nThe number of Star Citizens doubled in 2014, which helped the project to raise $33M in additional funding, bringing the total raised since October 10th 2012 to just over $68.5M.\n\nAll of this allows us to build Star Citizen to a level of ambition that no publisher would dare to reach for on a PC\u2026 let alone a Space Sim!\n\nWhen looking back at how far Star Citizen and its community has come in just two short years I am always amazed. What is the secret of the project\u2019s support?\n\nPeople that just read headlines wonder why; why have we raised so much money, why do people still contribute money to Star Citizen, why are people so excited?\n\nLike many things Star Citizen isn\u2019t easy to understand with a cursory glance. Star Citizen doesn\u2019t easily fit in a familiar box like most games you\u2019ll buy from a major publisher.\n\nIt\u2019s something I\u2019ve been reflecting on, especially as I have a couple of talks coming up with BAFTA in Los Angeles and at DICE in Las Vegas. What makes Star Citizen defy so many conventions? What continues to propel Star Citizen every month despite the game still being in development?\n\nNumbers are always easy to focus and make nice headlines but they don\u2019t tell the real story of why Star Citizen has gotten to where it is.\n\nStar Citizen would be nothing without its real trump card \u2013\n\nThe most engaged community in gaming!\n\nIt\u2019s easy to say Star Citizen is a community focused game but it\u2019s so much more than that. Very early in the project I made a decision to go beyond the traditional alpha model and share functionality of the game as we built it, updating and involving the community every step of the way. It is one thing to share updates but it\u2019s a whole other level of engagement to share incremental builds with subsets of functionality of the final game to get hands on feedback.\n\nWe actively solicit and listen to feedback on the numerous patches (which we deliver on average twice a month). We have multiple video shows each week discussing the game, giving behind the scenes glimpses and highlighting community contributions. We give more detailed monthly updates to our backers on the game\u2019s progress than I ever gave any publisher I was making a game for!\n\nAnyone that first installed the Hangar module back in August 2013, then played Arena Commander v0.8 in June and has now has Arena Commander v1.0 on their drive can attest to the progress that has been made, how feedback from the community affects the updates and how things slowly but steadily get better and more polished.\n\nAre we done? No! We have a long way to go! No one at CIG is resting on their laurels but it it\u2019s this PARTNERSHIP with all of YOU, the community that is enabling a game of this ambition to be made. You are a community that contributes something much more valuable than funding for development. You contribute your time, your feedback, your ideas and your passion.\n\nAnd THIS is the secret of Star Citizen.\n\nIt\u2019s a project that is being built not just by 300 developers, but a project that is being built by hundreds of thousands of gamers that love PC games, that love space games and want to see a game made RIGHT, one that has such depth and ambition that they can see themselves happily adventuring for years to come.\n\nThis is a model I and the rest of the team at CIG have happily embraced. I have never had so much fun building a game and if you asked any Star Citizen developer they will probably agree with me. We love the process of creating this game lock step with all of you out there. We are continually amazed by the creativity and enthusiasm of the community. How within hours of a patch going up we can watch streams of people playing. The team is constantly passing around fan videos where we see something surprising; whether it\u2019s a bit of skill, an exploit we didn\u2019t see or just a piece that sums up Star Citizen better than we could. The original \u201cImagine\u201d trailer by Kieran (years1hundred on YouTube) was a great example, but there\u2019s other amazing stuff out there; DeVall\u2019s \u201cHype Citizen\u201d trailer, Corporation Incorporated \/ Fiendish Feather\u2019s videos of Scavenging on a wrecked Constellation, a Search and Rescue mission or just showcasing the Mustang Variants is just a small sampling of what our community is capable of.\n\nSo when I read a press article that questions whether we can deliver all the promised features to keep everyone happy, or I see someone that can\u2019t fathom how Star Citizen can have such support and without doing any research jump to cynical conclusions I just smile.\n\nBecause with the community we have and the passionate and talented team of developers I can\u2019t imagine us \u201cflopping\u201d as a few bloggers have predicted. Not because we\u2019re better than everyone else, but because building a game this way, in total lock step with your community, means it\u2019s pretty hard to fail in the long run. Will we build everybody\u2019s dream game? Of course not, that would be impossible! But with this level of engagement and iteration I think we\u2019ll build something special that people can happily lose themselves in even if it doesn\u2019t have every feature they dreamed of.\n\nAnd it won\u2019t stop there.\n\nThe number one priority for team in building the Persistent Universe is how players themselves can affect the universe. We\u2019re building a game that will be just as community driven once the game is \u201cfinished\u201d. It\u2019s why we\u2019ve built organization support into the web site, why we\u2019re expanding it this coming year with private forums and blogs and starting to layer in the organization support in the game itself.\n\nStar Citizen isn\u2019t a sprint, it isn\u2019t even a marathon. There is no final finish line the way you would have with a traditional retail game. Star Citizen is a way of life for as long as the community is engaged by it.\n\nMy 100% focus, and the rest of the team is to make sure all of you are continually engaged. Not just by the \u201cfinished\u201d game (if you can ever call anything in Star Citizen finished) but by the development process, the early builds of the game, by the discussion and feedback loop.\n\nAnd this is what I tell my friends in the industry that have no idea how we\u2019ve managed to do what we do. You have to throw away the old approaches to how you develop, how you share and how you engage your community.\n\nOr in Silas Koerner\u2019s words, \u201cDare to challenge the expectation of what has come before. To embrace the unique. To put everything on the line. Only when you risk everything can we discover something truly special\u201d\n\nEVERYONE, both the development team and all of you are dedicated to making Star Citizen something special. If we don\u2019t get a feature perfect the first time we will continue to refine and improve.\n\nAnd that is what will make Star Citizen different than most other publisher backed games. We have the willpower and patience. Our stakeholders just have one goal in mind\u2026\n\nMake the Best Damn Space Sim Ever!\n\nSo here\u2019s a big THANK YOU for everyone\u2019s support, patience and enthusiasm in 2014 and here\u2019s to looking forward to continuing to make history together in 2015.\n\nThis coming year will be an even bigger year than 2014 \u2013 the FPS module will go live to backers, we will be giving our first drops of the Persistent universe, starting with the Planetside social module, the multi-crew Arena Commander and the first Episode of Squadron 42.\n\n2015 is where the game will be shaped. And it will be shaped with your input. So get in the game and let us know what works and what doesn\u2019t for you!\n\nIt\u2019s going to be a lot of work, but also a lot of fun and I couldn\u2019t imagine doing it with a better group of people than group of developers working on the game and the amazing Star Citizen community.\n\n== Chris Roberts","de_DE":"Gr\u00fc\u00dfe B\u00fcrger,\n2014 war ein gro\u00dfes Jahr f\u00fcr Star Citizen.\n\nWir haben Arena Commander v0.8 im Juni gestartet und seitdem haben wir den Ehrgeiz des First Person Universe, das wir bauen, mit einem Prototyp eines Kampfes mit mehreren Mannschaftsschiffen, dem Ausma\u00df und den Details der planetarischen Seitenumgebungen gezeigt und die viszerale Wirkung des First Person Combat demonstriert, die Spieler in Star Citizen erleben werden.\n\nWir haben 23 Updates f\u00fcr Star Citizen \/ Arena Commander geliefert, von denen vier wichtige Feature-Updates sind (v0.8. v0.9, v0.9.2), wobei das letzte das gr\u00f6\u00dfte ist, Arena Commander v1.0, mit f\u00fcnfzehn neuen Schiffen f\u00fcr Flugbegleiter (alle Aurora- und Hornet-Varianten, Mustang-Familie, Base Avenger und Cutlass Black) sowie wichtige Gameplay-Erweiterungen wie das Signatursystem und soziale Features wie die erste Version des Lobby-Systems, die es Ihnen erm\u00f6glichen, mit Ihren Freunden zusammenzuarbeiten.\n\nDie Geldgeber von Star Citizen luden 13.7 PETABYTES von Daten aus dem Star Citizen's CDN im Jahr 2014 herunter, von nur EINEM Petabyte im Jahr 2013. Die Community verzeichnete \u00fcber zwei Millionen Sessions und eine Million Stunden Spielzeit mit dem Arena Commander, der zu etwa 80% aus Einzelspielern und zu 20% aus Multiplayern besteht.\n\nDie Belegschaft von Cloud Imperium - die sich ausschlie\u00dflich der Herstellung von Star Citizen widmet - ist von 70 Mitarbeitern zu Weihnachten auf 180 Mitarbeiter angewachsen, die sich auf vier interne Standorte verteilen: Santa Monica, Austin, Manchester, Gro\u00dfbritannien und ein in Gr\u00fcndung befindliches B\u00fcro in Deutschland, \u00fcber das wir im kommenden Jahr berichten werden.\n\nWir haben weitere 120 Entwickler, die an der Verbreitung des Spiels zwischen unseren Partnern bei Behaviour, Illfonic, Turbulent, Outsource-Unternehmen und einzelnen Auftragnehmern arbeiten.\n\nDie Zahl der Sternenb\u00fcrger verdoppelte sich 2014, was dem Projekt half, zus\u00e4tzliche Mittel in H\u00f6he von 33 Millionen Dollar aufzubringen, so dass die seit dem 10. Oktober 2012 aufgenommene Summe nun etwas \u00fcber 68,5 Millionen Dollar betr\u00e4gt.\n\nAll dies erm\u00f6glicht es uns, Star Citizen so ambitioniert zu bauen, wie es kein Verlag auf einem PC wagen w\u00fcrde.... geschweige denn eine Space Sim!\n\nWenn ich zur\u00fcckblicke, wie weit Star Citizen und seine Gemeinschaft in nur zwei kurzen Jahren gekommen sind, bin ich immer wieder erstaunt. Worin besteht das Geheimnis der Unterst\u00fctzung des Projekts?\n\nLeute, die nur Schlagzeilen lesen, fragen sich, warum; warum haben wir so viel Geld gesammelt, warum spenden die Leute immer noch Geld f\u00fcr Star Citizen, warum sind die Leute so begeistert?\n\nWie so vieles ist Star Citizen nicht mit einem fl\u00fcchtigen Blick leicht zu verstehen. Star Citizen passt nicht so leicht in eine vertraute Box wie die meisten Spiele, die Sie bei einem gro\u00dfen Publisher kaufen werden.\n\nEs ist etwas, wor\u00fcber ich nachgedacht habe, zumal ich ein paar Gespr\u00e4che \u00fcber BAFTA in Los Angeles und bei DICE in Las Vegas habe. Warum widersetzt sich Star Citizen so vielen Konventionen? Was treibt Star Citizen weiterhin jeden Monat an, obwohl sich das Spiel noch in der Entwicklung befindet?\n\nZahlen sind immer leicht zu fokussieren und machen sch\u00f6ne Schlagzeilen, aber sie erz\u00e4hlen nicht die wahre Geschichte, warum Star Citizen dorthin gelangt ist, wo es ist.\n\nStar Citizen w\u00e4re nichts ohne seine wahre Trumpfkarte -\n\nDie engagierteste Community im Bereich Gaming!\n\nEs ist einfach zu sagen, dass Star Citizen ein gemeindeorientiertes Spiel ist, aber es ist so viel mehr als das. Sehr fr\u00fch im Projekt traf ich die Entscheidung, \u00fcber das traditionelle Alpha-Modell hinauszugehen und die Funktionalit\u00e4t des Spiels zu teilen, w\u00e4hrend wir es entwickelten, indem ich die Community in jedem Schritt des Projekts aktualisierte und einbezog. Es ist eine Sache, Updates zu teilen, aber es ist eine ganz andere Ebene des Engagements, inkrementelle Builds mit Teilbereichen der Funktionalit\u00e4t des letzten Spiels zu teilen, um Feedback zu erhalten.\n\nWir holen aktiv Feedback zu den zahlreichen Patches ein und h\u00f6ren zu (die wir durchschnittlich zweimal im Monat liefern). Wir haben jede Woche mehrere Videovorf\u00fchrungen, in denen wir das Spiel diskutieren, Einblicke hinter die Kulissen geben und Beitr\u00e4ge der Community hervorheben. Wir geben unseren Geldgebern monatlich detailliertere Informationen \u00fcber den Fortschritt des Spiels, als ich es je einem Verlag gegeben habe, f\u00fcr den ich ein Spiel gemacht habe!\n\nJeder, der das Hangarmodul bereits im August 2013 installiert hat, dann im Juni Arena Commander v0.8 gespielt hat und nun Arena Commander v1.0 auf seiner Festplatte hat, kann bezeugen, welche Fortschritte gemacht wurden, wie sich das Feedback der Community auf die Updates auswirkt und wie die Dinge langsam, aber stetig besser und ausgefeilter werden.\n\nSind wir fertig? Nein! Wir haben noch einen langen Weg vor uns! Niemand bei der CIG ruht sich auf seinen Lorbeeren aus, aber es ist diese PARTNERSCHAFT mit euch allen, die Gemeinschaft, die es erm\u00f6glicht, ein Spiel mit diesem Anspruch zu machen. Ihr seid eine Gemeinschaft, die etwas viel Wertvolleres beitr\u00e4gt als die Finanzierung der Entwicklung. Du bringst deine Zeit, dein Feedback, deine Ideen und deine Leidenschaft ein.\n\nUnd das ist das Geheimnis von Star Citizen.\n\nEs ist ein Projekt, das nicht nur von 300 Entwicklern gebaut wird, sondern von Hunderttausenden von Spielern, die PC-Spiele lieben, die Weltraumspiele lieben und ein Spiel RECHTS sehen wollen, das eine solche Tiefe und Ambition hat, dass sie sich selbst gl\u00fccklich sehen k\u00f6nnen, f\u00fcr die kommenden Jahre Abenteuer zu erleben.\n\nDies ist ein Modell, das ich und der Rest des Teams der CIG gerne angenommen haben. Ich hatte noch nie so viel Spa\u00df daran, ein Spiel zu bauen, und wenn du einen Star Citizen-Entwickler fragst, wird er wahrscheinlich mit mir \u00fcbereinstimmen. Wir lieben den Prozess der Erstellung dieses Spiel Sperre Schritt mit allen von Ihnen da drau\u00dfen. Wir sind immer wieder erstaunt \u00fcber die Kreativit\u00e4t und Begeisterung der Community. Wie innerhalb von Stunden nach einem Patch, der hochgeht, wir Str\u00f6me von Menschen beobachten k\u00f6nnen, die spielen. Das Team geht st\u00e4ndig durch Fan-Videos, wo wir etwas \u00dcberraschendes sehen; sei es ein bisschen Geschicklichkeit, eine Leistung, die wir nicht gesehen haben, oder einfach nur ein St\u00fcck, das Star Citizen besser zusammenfasst, als wir es konnten. Der originale \"Imagine\"-Trailer von Kieran (jahrelang1hundert auf YouTube) war ein gro\u00dfartiges Beispiel, aber es gibt noch andere erstaunliche Dinge; DeValls \"Hype Citizen\"-Trailer, Corporation Incorporated \/ Fiendish Feathers Videos von Scavenging on a wrecked Constellation, a Search and Rescue mission or just showcasing the Mustang Variants ist nur eine kleine Auswahl dessen, wozu unsere Community f\u00e4hig ist.\n\nWenn ich also einen Presseartikel lese, der fragt, ob wir alle versprochenen Funktionen liefern k\u00f6nnen, um alle gl\u00fccklich zu machen, oder ich sehe jemanden, der nicht begreifen kann, wie Star Citizen eine solche Unterst\u00fctzung haben kann, und ohne irgendwelche Forschungsarbeiten zu zynischen Schlussfolgerungen zu machen, l\u00e4chle ich einfach.\n\nDenn mit der Community, die wir haben, und dem leidenschaftlichen und talentierten Team von Entwicklern kann ich mir nicht vorstellen, dass wir \"versagen\", wie es einige Blogger vorhergesagt haben. Nicht, weil wir besser sind als alle anderen, sondern weil das Erstellen eines Spiels auf diese Weise, im Total Lock Step mit deiner Community, bedeutet, dass es ziemlich schwer ist, auf lange Sicht zu scheitern. Werden wir das Traumspiel f\u00fcr alle bauen? Nat\u00fcrlich nicht, das w\u00e4re unm\u00f6glich! Aber mit diesem Grad an Engagement und Iteration denke ich, dass wir etwas Besonderes bauen werden, in dem sich die Menschen gerne verlieren k\u00f6nnen, auch wenn es nicht alle Funktionen gibt, von denen sie getr\u00e4umt haben.\n\nUnd das wird noch lange nicht aufh\u00f6ren.\n\nDie oberste Priorit\u00e4t f\u00fcr das Team beim Aufbau des Persistent Universe ist, wie die Spieler selbst das Universum beeinflussen k\u00f6nnen. Wir bauen ein Spiel, das genauso Community-getrieben sein wird, wenn das Spiel \"beendet\" ist. Deshalb haben wir Organisationssupport in die Website integriert, warum erweitern wir ihn im kommenden Jahr mit privaten Foren und Blogs und beginnen, den Organisationssupport im Spiel selbst einzubinden.\n\nStar Citizen ist kein Sprint, es ist nicht einmal ein Marathon. Es gibt keine endg\u00fcltige Ziellinie, wie Sie sie bei einem traditionellen Retail-Spiel h\u00e4tten. Sternenb\u00fcrger ist eine Lebensweise, solange die Gemeinschaft sich f\u00fcr sie einsetzt.\n\nMein 100%iger Fokus und der Rest des Teams ist es, sicherzustellen, dass Sie alle st\u00e4ndig engagiert sind. Nicht nur durch das \"fertige\" Spiel (wenn man etwas in Star Citizen jemals fertig nennen kann), sondern durch den Entwicklungsprozess, die fr\u00fchen Builds des Spiels, durch die Diskussion und die Feedbackschleife.\n\nUnd das sage ich meinen Freunden in der Branche, die keine Ahnung haben, wie wir es geschafft haben, das zu tun, was wir tun. Du musst die alten Ans\u00e4tze wegwerfen, wie du dich entwickelst, wie du teilst und wie du deine Gemeinschaft engagierst.\n\nOder mit den Worten von Silas Koerner: \"Wage es, die Erwartung des Vorhergehenden in Frage zu stellen. Um das Einzigartige anzunehmen. Um alles auf die Reihe zu kriegen. Nur wenn man alles riskiert, k\u00f6nnen wir etwas ganz Besonderes entdecken\".\n\nJEDER, sowohl das Entwicklungsteam als auch Sie alle, sind bestrebt, Star Citizen zu etwas Besonderem zu machen. Wenn wir beim ersten Mal kein perfektes Feature bekommen, werden wir es weiter verfeinern und verbessern.\n\nUnd das ist es, was Star Citizen anders macht als die meisten anderen von Publishern unterst\u00fctzten Spiele. Wir haben die Willenskraft und Geduld. Unsere Stakeholder haben nur ein Ziel vor Augen......\n\nMache die beste verdammte Weltraumsimulation aller Zeiten!\n\nHier ist also ein gro\u00dfes Dankesch\u00f6n f\u00fcr die Unterst\u00fctzung, Geduld und Begeisterung aller im Jahr 2014 und hier ist die Freude, auch im Jahr 2015 gemeinsam Geschichte zu schreiben.\n\nDas kommende Jahr wird ein noch gr\u00f6\u00dferes Jahr als 2014 sein - das FPS-Modul wird an die Unterst\u00fctzer live gehen, wir werden unsere ersten Tropfen des Persistent Universums geben, beginnend mit dem Sozialmodul Planetside, dem Multi-Crew Arena Commander und der ersten Episode von Squadron 42.\n\n2015 ist der Zeitpunkt, an dem das Spiel gestaltet wird. Und es wird mit Ihrem Input gestaltet. Also steig ein und lass uns wissen, was funktioniert und was nicht f\u00fcr dich!\n\nEs wird eine Menge Arbeit, aber auch viel Spa\u00df machen und ich konnte mir nicht vorstellen, es mit einer besseren Gruppe von Leuten zu machen, als mit einer Gruppe von Entwicklern, die an dem Spiel arbeiten und der erstaunlichen Star Citizen-Community.\n\nChris Roberts","zh_CN":"Greetings Citizens,\n2014 has been a huge year for Star Citizen.\n\nWe launched Arena Commander v0.8 in June and since then we\u2019ve shown the ambition of the First Person Universe we are building with a prototype of multi crew ship combat, the scale and detail of the planet side environments and demonstrated the visceral action of the First Person Combat that players will experience in Star Citizen.\n\nWe\u2019ve delivered 23 updates to Star Citizen \/ Arena Commander, four of them being major feature updates (v0.8. v0.9, v0.9.2) with the last one being the largest, Arena Commander v1.0, with fifteen new ships for backers to fly (all the Aurora and Hornet variants, Mustang family, Base Avenger and Cutlass Black) as well as significant gameplay additions like the signature system and social features like the first version of the lobby system allowing you to join up with your friends.\n\nStar Citizen\u2019s backers downloaded 13.7 PETABYTES of data from Star Citizen\u2019s CDN during 2014 up from just ONE Petabyte in 2013. The community logged over two million sessions and one million hours playing Arena Commander which has been split approximately 80% single player and 20% multiplayer\n\nCloud Imperium\u2019s staff \u2013 which is solely dedicated to making Star Citizen \u2013 has grown from 70 employees last Christmas to 180 today, spread around four internal locations; Santa Monica, Austin, Manchester, UK and a nascent office in Germany that we will be sharing details about in the coming year.\n\nWe have an additional 120 developers working on the game spread between our partners at Behaviour, Illfonic, Turbulent, outsource companies and individual contractors.\n\nThe number of Star Citizens doubled in 2014, which helped the project to raise $33M in additional funding, bringing the total raised since October 10th 2012 to just over $68.5M.\n\nAll of this allows us to build Star Citizen to a level of ambition that no publisher would dare to reach for on a PC\u2026 let alone a Space Sim!\n\nWhen looking back at how far Star Citizen and its community has come in just two short years I am always amazed. What is the secret of the project\u2019s support?\n\nPeople that just read headlines wonder why; why have we raised so much money, why do people still contribute money to Star Citizen, why are people so excited?\n\nLike many things Star Citizen isn\u2019t easy to understand with a cursory glance. Star Citizen doesn\u2019t easily fit in a familiar box like most games you\u2019ll buy from a major publisher.\n\nIt\u2019s something I\u2019ve been reflecting on, especially as I have a couple of talks coming up with BAFTA in Los Angeles and at DICE in Las Vegas. What makes Star Citizen defy so many conventions? What continues to propel Star Citizen every month despite the game still being in development?\n\nNumbers are always easy to focus and make nice headlines but they don\u2019t tell the real story of why Star Citizen has gotten to where it is.\n\nStar Citizen would be nothing without its real trump card \u2013\n\nThe most engaged community in gaming!\n\nIt\u2019s easy to say Star Citizen is a community focused game but it\u2019s so much more than that. Very early in the project I made a decision to go beyond the traditional alpha model and share functionality of the game as we built it, updating and involving the community every step of the way. It is one thing to share updates but it\u2019s a whole other level of engagement to share incremental builds with subsets of functionality of the final game to get hands on feedback.\n\nWe actively solicit and listen to feedback on the numerous patches (which we deliver on average twice a month). We have multiple video shows each week discussing the game, giving behind the scenes glimpses and highlighting community contributions. We give more detailed monthly updates to our backers on the game\u2019s progress than I ever gave any publisher I was making a game for!\n\nAnyone that first installed the Hangar module back in August 2013, then played Arena Commander v0.8 in June and has now has Arena Commander v1.0 on their drive can attest to the progress that has been made, how feedback from the community affects the updates and how things slowly but steadily get better and more polished.\n\nAre we done? No! We have a long way to go! No one at CIG is resting on their laurels but it it\u2019s this PARTNERSHIP with all of YOU, the community that is enabling a game of this ambition to be made. You are a community that contributes something much more valuable than funding for development. You contribute your time, your feedback, your ideas and your passion.\n\nAnd THIS is the secret of Star Citizen.\n\nIt\u2019s a project that is being built not just by 300 developers, but a project that is being built by hundreds of thousands of gamers that love PC games, that love space games and want to see a game made RIGHT, one that has such depth and ambition that they can see themselves happily adventuring for years to come.\n\nThis is a model I and the rest of the team at CIG have happily embraced. I have never had so much fun building a game and if you asked any Star Citizen developer they will probably agree with me. We love the process of creating this game lock step with all of you out there. We are continually amazed by the creativity and enthusiasm of the community. How within hours of a patch going up we can watch streams of people playing. The team is constantly passing around fan videos where we see something surprising; whether it\u2019s a bit of skill, an exploit we didn\u2019t see or just a piece that sums up Star Citizen better than we could. The original \u201cImagine\u201d trailer by Kieran (years1hundred on YouTube) was a great example, but there\u2019s other amazing stuff out there; DeVall\u2019s \u201cHype Citizen\u201d trailer, Corporation Incorporated \/ Fiendish Feather\u2019s videos of Scavenging on a wrecked Constellation, a Search and Rescue mission or just showcasing the Mustang Variants is just a small sampling of what our community is capable of.\n\nSo when I read a press article that questions whether we can deliver all the promised features to keep everyone happy, or I see someone that can\u2019t fathom how Star Citizen can have such support and without doing any research jump to cynical conclusions I just smile.\n\nBecause with the community we have and the passionate and talented team of developers I can\u2019t imagine us \u201cflopping\u201d as a few bloggers have predicted. Not because we\u2019re better than everyone else, but because building a game this way, in total lock step with your community, means it\u2019s pretty hard to fail in the long run. Will we build everybody\u2019s dream game? Of course not, that would be impossible! But with this level of engagement and iteration I think we\u2019ll build something special that people can happily lose themselves in even if it doesn\u2019t have every feature they dreamed of.\n\nAnd it won\u2019t stop there.\n\nThe number one priority for team in building the Persistent Universe is how players themselves can affect the universe. We\u2019re building a game that will be just as community driven once the game is \u201cfinished\u201d. It\u2019s why we\u2019ve built organization support into the web site, why we\u2019re expanding it this coming year with private forums and blogs and starting to layer in the organization support in the game itself.\n\nStar Citizen isn\u2019t a sprint, it isn\u2019t even a marathon. There is no final finish line the way you would have with a traditional retail game. Star Citizen is a way of life for as long as the community is engaged by it.\n\nMy 100% focus, and the rest of the team is to make sure all of you are continually engaged. Not just by the \u201cfinished\u201d game (if you can ever call anything in Star Citizen finished) but by the development process, the early builds of the game, by the discussion and feedback loop.\n\nAnd this is what I tell my friends in the industry that have no idea how we\u2019ve managed to do what we do. You have to throw away the old approaches to how you develop, how you share and how you engage your community.\n\nOr in Silas Koerner\u2019s words, \u201cDare to challenge the expectation of what has come before. To embrace the unique. To put everything on the line. Only when you risk everything can we discover something truly special\u201d\n\nEVERYONE, both the development team and all of you are dedicated to making Star Citizen something special. If we don\u2019t get a feature perfect the first time we will continue to refine and improve.\n\nAnd that is what will make Star Citizen different than most other publisher backed games. We have the willpower and patience. Our stakeholders just have one goal in mind\u2026\n\nMake the Best Damn Space Sim Ever!\n\nSo here\u2019s a big THANK YOU for everyone\u2019s support, patience and enthusiasm in 2014 and here\u2019s to looking forward to continuing to make history together in 2015.\n\nThis coming year will be an even bigger year than 2014 \u2013 the FPS module will go live to backers, we will be giving our first drops of the Persistent universe, starting with the Planetside social module, the multi-crew Arena Commander and the first Episode of Squadron 42.\n\n2015 is where the game will be shaped. And it will be shaped with your input. So get in the game and let us know what works and what doesn\u2019t for you!\n\nIt\u2019s going to be a lot of work, but also a lot of fun and I couldn\u2019t imagine doing it with a better group of people than group of developers working on the game and the amazing Star Citizen community.\n\n== Chris Roberts"},"links_count":5,"comment_count":511,"created_at":"2014-12-31T00:00:00+00:00","created_at_human":"11 years ago"},"meta":{"processed_at":"2026-05-08 20:08:54","valid_relations":["images","links"],"prev_id":14413,"next_id":14415}}