Wing Commander creator Chris Roberts launched a new Kickstarter campaign today for his PC space simulation game Star Citizen, after eager supporters crashed the servers for his independently maintained crowdfunding website.
The server outage reportedly left thousands of would-be pledgers unable to donate, yet the company still managed to raise $1 million in one week. “It’s a testament to the willpower of our amazing fans,” said Roberts. “At a time when most would have given up, some dedicated fans kept trying to log on and eventually were able to get through and make a pledge. We appreciate all those efforts, and now with Kickstarter, we believe we have an answer for everyone.”
Star Citizen is a massively multiplayer online game that Roberts calls “a spiritual successor to games like Wing Commander and Privateer.” In a recent interview with GamesBeat, Roberts said he’s drawing inspiration from recent community-driven successes like Minecraft and Team Fortress 2 and will allow players to create and share spaceship modifications in a marketplace. He also plans to release lots of small updates over time.
“It will feel like things are happening and new events are occurring in the galaxy,” he said. “My goal is to make it feel alive and real to players. We will riff off the players’ own creations.”
Roberts hopes to raise a minimum of $2 million for Star Citizen.