Derek Smart

[Scouse]

Looks like a lot of the gaming press probably owes him an apology.

I was just thinking to myself, I wonder what happened to Star Citizen eh?

Remember that shit? Well, apparently it's still ongoing.

I think Derek is probably spot on. Chris Roberts is a chancer who's conned a load of people out of a lot of money.

 

[Zarjazz]

What? Chris Roberts may promise more than is actually achievable and people are spending silly amounts of money on it but the latest playable Star Citizen builds have finally started to look coherent.

It's just like any other Early Access game. Wait for release and make a purchase decision then.

 

[Scouse]

You think it'll come out then? I mean, didn't it have a 2015 release date. Single player canned too?

 

[Zarjazz]

Single player isn't canned. Last I heard it was scheduled for a 2018 release.

 

[Scouse]

How many times does it get allowed to slide before someone goes 'scam'?

 

[Ormorof]

Like he said dont preorder dont pay for early access unless you are willing to risk getting burned

Havent really followed star citizen in a while but the article does make it seem very scammy (shady business practice at least)

Didn't pay then wont pay now

 

[Gwadien]

Wasn't Chris Roberts already rich before Star Citizen?

It's a bit like Mark Jacobs and Camelot Unchained - people claim he did it for the money however he was already a multi millionaire and he invested millions of his own money into it.

 

[Raven]

More chance of this making it to release than Camelot unchained, which seems to stalled completely.

Star Citizen has parts playable but its such a huge project it is bound to take time for tge finished article. They have perhaps been a little over ambitious but not out to scam.

The single player is a separate game to the multiplayer...although I am not entirely sure how it will work.

I don't pre-pay anything these days, certainly not crowd funding, I did stump up $50 for Camelot Unchained, first and last time though.

 

[ECA]

Derek Smart - the same guy who's space mmo isnt on steam anymore because it was worse than a teenagers bedroom project, and who's sole criticism of SC is because he's doing it better and give him money instead?

Here's a user video from 3.0 PTU.



Here's Dereks game which isn't on steam anymore.

 

[Raven]

Never heard of him until this thread but that shit looks hilarious.

Turns out he is a bit of a douchebag too, mates with Milo Yiannopoulos and co.

 

[Zarjazz]

Star Citizen has parts playable but its such a huge project it is bound to take time for the finished article. They have perhaps been a little over ambitious but not out to scam.

Yeah, that's what I've taken from it as well. Just going from a few million dollars funding request to a current $175 million giant it takes time (years) just to setup the staff and development studios required to make that kind of game, especially starting from scratch.

 

[Scouse]

Meh. Slated to release in 2014. Then 2015, no 2016. No definitely 2017.

Maybe end of 2018? Apparently they're producing content now. Maybe.

Five years and no playable product. Release something, then expand on it, maybe. But five years? I don't buy it.

Hoping that I'm way wrong. I wanted to buy in at the beginning but it's beginning to look like a much more expensive version of half life 3.

 

[Gwadien]

Meh. Slated to release in 2014. Then 2015, no 2016. No definitely 2017.

Maybe end of 2018? Apparently they're producing content now. Maybe.

Five years and no playable product. Release something, then expand on it, maybe. But five years? I don't buy it.

Hoping that I'm way wrong. I wanted to buy in at the beginning but it's beginning to look like a much more expensive version of half life 3.

People have played early access stuff.

It's all bullshit man - Early access games from indie companies just show how long it does take to develop a game from nothing; fucking ages. Everyone was told that when they bought into early-access.

I don't buy into this notion that they're somehow doing it to scam people - why would you employ a massive team just to fuck around and waste time? Makes little sense.

 

[Shagrat]

what would you prefer, they rush it out like no mans sky? that went well......

 

[Scouse]

what would you prefer, they rush it out like no mans sky? that went well......

They founded the company in 2010 and have more than 250 people working on it. It's nearly 2018...

Eight years and a shitload of funding is enough to be out of alpha. Smacks of poor management (not developers issues). There's rumours of family being hired in senior management roles rather than people who know how to get a job done.

I really hope it comes out and is amazing. But first and foremost it's about time it came out.

 

[Raven]

That would be brother in law, Erin Roberts, who has worked in the industry since 1986, including working on Wing Commander, etc. Why wouldn't he hire someone he knows, has worked with extensively in the past yadda yadda?

Erin D. Roberts Video Game Credits and Biography - MobyGames

And "wife"

Sandi Gardiner - IMDb

One of the most successful marketing bods in the history of crowd sourcing.

Honestly, sources, use them, you absolute spacker.

I see where you went wrong though, you read some random thread on a random forum on the internet and got yourself all cross and emotional...as per.

in before omg don't call me names, you big meanie, omg /sadfaceextremey2k

 

[Scouse]

Eight years...

Eight. And counting.

Not saying it's not going to happen. But something's wrong if you can't punt a game out of the door in eight years.

 

[Raven]

Yes, because you would obviously do a much better job, obviously.

lol

Edit. Not sure where your calculator was made tho, because mine does 2017-2012 (2012 being the year the kickstarter was launched) as 5 years, not 8....but whatevs

Anyway, back you go. tatas.

 

[Scouse]

Company was founded in 2010, so work had commenced before the kickstarter (as is usual). I've also said that I'd love it to come out. I'd be first in queue to buy it if it did come out and was stable and not shit.

Don't know why you've gone all fanboi over me pointing out that it's definitely stuck in development hell. Eight years and 250+ staff is the very definition of it.

It's almost like the modern day Daikatana at the moment.

 

[Zarjazz]

You do know it takes 3 - 4 years to develop most modern triple A titles these days and thats with existing development studios and in-house game engines already in place?

I remember they wasted the first year trying to get the Crytek engine to work for a space game, something it wasn't designed for. In the end they bought the original Crytek studio to fix it!

 

[Job]

Unchained still looks very much alive.

 

[Scouse]

I get it @Zarjazz. Absolutely I do. But it's a clusterfuck at 8 years. The Crytek thing is a good example - they didn't do their due diligence on what the engine was capable of but went and bought it in and lost a year. Like they rushed headlong into it and threw a load of cash at it to solve their problems.

I almost like it from an enthusiasm point of view but that smacks of bad decision making processes and procedures.

Like I said, nobody will be more pleased than me if the game comes out and blows us all away. But at the moment they've nothing concrete to show for the same amount of development time between the original Doom in 1993 and Tribes 2 in 2001 and we all know how much had changed in that timeframe.

 

[Moriath]

Star Citizen game makers being sued

 

[Ormorof]

Yeah seems like they are making dumb decisions

For that much money dont get why they are not just developing the engine themselves

 

[Scouse]

Star Citizen game makers being sued

Smart move at last. Amazon won't want a high-profile failure on their hands and will not just help out with AWS scaling and the like but with project and technological expertise I bet...

 

[Raven]

Its a pretty low end legal fight by a company that is literally about to go out of business. Nothing to see here.

They are basically saying that the Homeworld chaps used their engine on 2 games, rather than 1.

It will likely just be a case of stump up some more royalties, end of.

Also, interesting little factoid from the article.

"Development of Star Citizen began in 2012 and since then it has raised more than $170m (£126m) in crowdsourced funds from fans keen to play the ambitious space trading and combat game."

That also looks very much unlike 2009, the numbers are all different.

 

[Gwadien]

I don't understand Crytek, they released Crysis like 10 years ago which was frankly amazing and way ahead of its time, yet it was essentially singleplayer only.

Since then, they've done pretty much fuck all.

 

[Zarjazz]

I don't understand Crytek, they released Crysis like 10 years ago which was frankly amazing and way ahead of its time, yet it was essentially singleplayer only.

Since then, they've done pretty much fuck all.

They knew how to make a good graphics engine but not how to run a business. After Crysis they expanded too rapidly, made a load of shits games, lost money and had to sell most of their assets.

 

[Raven]

...and have now since watched too many "where there is blame there is a claim" adverts. And decided they should sue the hand that will eventually feed them.

 

[Scouse]

Depends what was in the contract they had with Mr Roberts.