Cloud Imperium Games released an extensive video focusing on the storytelling included in the growing space simulator Star Citizen.
We hear from Narrative Director Dave Haddock and Assistant Narrative Director Will Weissbaum as they answer questions from the game’s fans about their work.
Star Citizen has taken a narrative-driven turn this year, as Cloud Imperium Games will be dedicated in 2025 to making the game more playable and delivering more content instead of adding more features.
Specifically, we hear about the two parallel storylines that are going on in the game, with the first being the battle for Pyro, and the second being the Regen Crisis.
While the developers are pretty careful not to spoil anything, the video does include some hints and teases about what’s to come. Speaking of that, we also hear that next Thursday we’ll take a look at the first ship that will be introduced at Invicts Launch Week, the Fleet-focused event that is coming soon.
Interestingly, the developers also mention that we’re likely going to get audio logs by the end of the year, and discuss the possibility of improving storytelling with NPC dialogue and more when the resources for that become available.
You can watch the video below. Incidentally, the game is still free to play until tomorrow, so if you want to try it, you still have about 24 hours before payment requirements come back.
If you’re unfamiliar with Star Citizen, it’s a crowdfunded project directed by Chris Roberts, whom you may know for his work on the beloved Wing Commander series. It’s a multiplayer sandbox space simulator that has been in development for over a decade and in alpha for several years. It’s available exclusively for PC and has just received update Alpha 4.1.
In the meantime, the crowdfunding total continues to grow, and it recently passed $806 million. To be precise, it’s currently at $806,765,071. The game also has
5,628,034 registered users, albeit not all of them are paying customers. Many simply create an account to enjoy the occasional free-to-play periods like the one that is currently ongoing.
Speaking of money, 2024 was the second-best year ever for Star Citizen’s crowdfunding campaign, missing the record only by roughly one million.
The single-player campaign titled Squadron 42 is also in active development, starring an exceptional cast of famous actors, including Mark Hamill, Henry Cavill, Gary Oldman, Liam Cunningham, Gillian Anderson, and more.
Since the project has been in development for over a decade, you can see how Squadron 42 has evolved since its first reveals.
Full disclosure: the author of this article has backed Star Citizen’s crowdfunding campaign.