The future of the Video Game technology
(1st Part)
Versión en Español aqui!
Caution: For now my English is not very good. I'm learning so, please, be comprehensive ;)
Hi Steemians, I hope you are having a great time, welcome to my first Steemit theme and with that I wish to present you with a videogame in development that is breaking some of the most complex and challenging technological barriers in the world of videogames, barriers that Until now, we were ruined by the experience and the sense of adventure that some title could offer us in front of the TV or the PC screen.
This video game is Star Citizen
Before mentioning the different challenges assumed and the milestones that are being achieved in the form of new technologies, I would like to explain to you what is "Star Citizen", how its proposal arises and why its importance for the future of the videogames.
Star Citizen was born as a videogame that aims to revive the genre of Space Simulators, a genre that was unfortunately forgotten by a video game industry (EA, Activision, Ubisoft, etc ...) that today it tends to choose to develop simpler/casual games, easier to make and sell. The Space Simulators or "SpaceSims" had their golden age during the decade of the 90's and their proposal was to simulate the operation and the piloting of vehicles characteristic of the science fiction of the as immersive as possible, which allowed us "sit" front the controls of, for example, a X-Wing spaceship belonging to the universe of the Star Wars films or place us inside the cabin of any spacecraft has been imagined in a endless list of TV series, novels and movies belonging to the world of Sci-Fi.
Video games as such also delivered their contribution at that time bringing to the world great works of science fiction as the Wing Commander saga and new SpaceSims as the Privateer, Starlancer and Freelancer, videogames that transported us to universes where we could venture on trips through the cosmos and participate in fierce interplanetary clashes. These Space Simulators were developed by a creative called Chris Roberts, a very talented video game developer and programmer whose expertise is back with the development of what could be his masterpiece, the Star Citizen.
Chris Roberts, video game developer and creator of digital universes
The development of Star Citizen begins in the most humble way, being born as an independent video game (indie) for PC, which Chris Roberts together with half a dozen creatives officially announce their development during the year 2012 investing money from their own pocket, a situation that although at first seemed like a great inconvenience allowed to have a TOTAL creative freedom, keeping the game away from the major brands of the sector and its current development/sales policies and always having as its goal the emphasis for achieving the best of the best that the PC hardware muscle could offer us.
The scope and limitations of this development were to change at the end of that same year, thanks to the existence of the Crowdfunding tool (collective financing) and to pages like Kickstarter. The nascent company of Chris Roberts, Cloud Imperium Games, managed to annex the funds to develop Star Citizen a greater amount of money from the hand of the players themselves, turning them into investors as well as clients. Initially an amount of around 23 million dollars was calculated to develop a very basic version of what is today Star Citizen, this would be an adventure in the style of Wing Commander (with its plot and characters) adding to in turn a small multiplayer section, however at that time nobody could foresee the great avalanche of players that would join the project, these in search of a more sophisticated game experience than usual or to relive the former glory of the SpaceSims, something that more than to reach the goal of 23 million made Star Citizen broke consecutively with all the records as the video game with the largest collective funding in history.
One of the Cloud Imperium Games teams celebrating another year of successful development
Today Star Citizen is a development still in production being exponentially bigger, more complex and much more ambitious than its original proposal of 2012, which although obviously requires a longer development time this is offset by major improvements and several advantages for the benefit of the player community.
Advantages such as obtaining a superior product in all aspects: Graphic, physical, AI, animations, immersion and in the rest of the sections. A videogame developed independently but with quality levels that can perfectly compete and even exceed that of any AAA development of the traditional industry.
Situation that has allowed these developers to investigate and integrate in Star Citizen many of the innovative technologies that will revolutionize the world of the video games.
Comparative image: On the left the ship Hornet of the year 2012 Vs The new Hornet on the right
Thanks to the enormous support from the community, the proposal has evolved to be TWO videogames in simultaneous development. The first, keeping the name of Star Citizen is an MMO (A Massive Multiplayer title) which in addition to the experience of SpaceSim also integrates a First Person Shooter gameplay (FPS) allowing us the ability to "release the controls of the ship", get up from the flight seat and walk inside (or outside) of our spacecraft to explore a myriad of places ranging from gigantic capital ships, space stations, asteroids, moons, planets and even settlements or large cities full of hundreds of game characters (AI) and other players who injected life into this place with their activities.
The ArcCorp Megacity in action, with a marked Cyberpunk style and full of AI characters
The other videogame in development becomes the spiritual successor of Wing Commander, this is called "Squadron 42" and besides integrating the technologies and the playability of the MMO will also allow us to guide a plot through actions and dialogues with the characters of the game, very much like RPG videogames (Something like a Mass Effect). This counting with a cast of actors ranging from Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker, Star Wars), Gary Oldman (Commissioner Gordon, Batman Trilogy), Gillian Anderson (Agent Scully, X-Files), among other great luminaries of the movies which have been "digitalized" and will interpret the characters that we will meet during our adventure.
Part of the cast of 42 Squadron
A small sample of the gameplay in Squadron 42 with Mark Hamill in full performance
Another benefit of this project is that we participate as players in the birth and growth of a new video game developer, Cloud Imperium Games, which has demonstrated a total commitment to deliver the best of the best for its development. No traps or downgrades, in fact always delivering "Upgrades", a company that in addition to its work is setting the example before the rest of the indies developers as to how to take forward a project that is independent and very ambitious to at the same time, demonstrating that if it is possible to aspire to develop a great Superproduction without necessarily having to depend on or sell himself to the big companies in the sector.
Finally, as players and as a community we have the ability to follow closely this development from day 0, which is totally open and transparent to us, in addition to this we have the privilege of participating in decision making ranging from the design of ships and other elements of the game up to the way in which the project advances and evolves. We also have access to the Alpha in development of Star Citizen, which is like the "embryo" of this game and which allows us to go testing and enjoying its playable mechanics while the creatives are adding them and this at the same time that they take note of the problems and possible improvements to the experience In-Game.
Trailer of the Alpha 3.0 update and each of its playable sections
In summary, Star Citizen has evolved today to something that goes far beyond a SpaceSim, it could be classified as a "Sci-Fi Universe Simulator", the gameplay will be mainly in 1st person, this to achieve the greatest possible immersion both on foot and in front of the controls of a spaceship, however we can alternate a camera in 3rd person to be able to contemplate our characters, vehicles and ships. With Star Citizen we can do endless activities in the company of friends or alone, we can explore, mine resources, compete in races, be a space truck driver, a smuggler, a pirate or a bounty hunter. We can do business with our allies or take the war to our adversaries both on the surface of the planets and in space, this among many other activities that are in gestation.
Cloud Imperium Games besides developing Star Citizen has also supported other companies or groups of creatives with their respective developments, an example of this is Warhorse Studios with its game Kingdom Come: Deliverance a which were shared new programming methods and innovative software tools very useful to facilitate the creation of their video game. It's thanks to this spirit to support the development of new videogames and to share with the public all the technical advances that are achieved in the construction of Star Citizen for which this development turns out to be something very special and important to the world of Videogames in general, this is because like 20 years ago a videogame like the Quake of idSoftware revolutionized ALL taking videogames to the next level Star Citizen en nowadays it is also doing it, preparing the way to take videogames to their next evolution and advance to levels never before imagined.
This year has been very important to the development and now accelerates towards its GOLD version
Star Citizen already has many technologies that I will reveal in the next issues that I will be publishing in Steemit. To give you a preview I can tell you that will have Artificial Intelligence as never seen in video games, an AI that aims to give realism and "naturalness" to its characters with the aim of being almost indistinguishable of their "equivalents" of the real world. It also has a technology that generates a vast universe that also allows us to travel to all places in a clean manner without loading screens presents truly interesting places with a high level of detail and activities to perform, this combining intelligently the idea of playability in an open world but with a persistent sense of adventure that never bores or discourages the player.