2016 saw the release of two games that had been in development for more than 10 years and they both turned out better than I had personally feared. The writing has been on the wall for more than 2 decades that game development would continue to be more time consuming and costly as technology advanced, so I am not that we're seeing game cost at the scope of SC.
Video Game development is a iterative process- Sometimes entire systems needs to be scrapped or overhauled. It feels like a major waste of time, but it is what goes on behind closed doors in nearly any major production you can think of. During this game development backers get to be the investors, and they get an insight into the frustration of a creative studio(s) asking for more; more; more; more. It's easy to lament big publishers for shutting down promising games or backing "safe boring titles" like COD, but in the end they want to see a return investment of the money they put on the table. It's not even about the product for them. It's about
"where is my fucking money?"
The question of SCs development is (to me) really a question about trying to go all in and getting as close to the original vision as possible. The vision for Star Citizen is that they want to make a First Person Universe and with it comes a MMO world, a Space Sim, a MMOFPS and all the trappings that tie the game together. It's not been done before and because they are aiming for an almost absurd level of attention to detail.
Emblematic of this is how they've done First-Third Person switching. You'd think that would be easy, but since the game needs to accommodate for players seamless switching, and being visible from the cockpit and by other players, they couldn't do the "cheating" that other games have done. So the achieve this actual 1:1 transition between the animations in first and third person view, they've had to spend a lot of time, a lot of resources and a lot of money on doing something that the casual gamer will likely take for granted and not even realize. If you where on a budget from your investor, the investor would have said "No. You cannot do that. Find another solution. Fake it. We will not fund something like this" and the developer would have gone back to the drawing board trying to work a compromise or another solution. That is the difference between No Mans Sky and Star Citizen. Star Citizen doesn't have Sony to say "Stop. We're shipping this game in 2 months. No more."
I don't think SCs development is a feature creep scam meant to extort players. I'd be the shittiest idea for getting rich possible ever, considering their massive development team is burning through all the money just keeping things operational. If Chris Roberts fails to make this game a success he will not be laughing to the bank or have anything to show for it. I don't think there is a precedent to entertain thoughts along these lines.
That doesn't mean the games creative direction and project management cannot be criticiqued and discussed however. It boils down to if one believes that his vision should be reigned in or not.
I think there are arguments on both sides of the argument that are compelling, but in the end I just hope it will be a good game. I'm not a backer. I follow the game casually and only because of the controversy. Space Sims are not my thing so I've looked at if the Persistent MMO aspects have anything for me. I'm interested in seeing the game progress- and seeing the games vision take shape.
If the game becomes a good game, I think it would have incredible long legs (like Crysis) and because of its MMO aspect. I can see the appeal why people with a disposable income who love sci-fi would geek out of having a unique ship as an early backer that nobody else will have. The level of detail in them is astounding. It would be really fun to play the game for 10+ years with unique vehicles that truly nobody else has. Of course these ships take forever to make and it slows down the speed of development for everyone else.
SC is a very interesting project to follow. I am rooting for them! I like to see brave and ambitious games succeed and I think if they can nail it. If they can make it a functional game that ties all the game elements within in it together, then it could be great. It's still very rough, but many games only come together towards the end of development so we will have to see.
SC might very well be a 10-plus year project or more. It's possible. The size and scope of this project is so out of what anyone has ever tried to do before.
I hope its not a failure.
Also damn SWTOR is the most expensive game ever made? That game was trash imo lol. A WoW clone with SW skin. I hope star citizen fares better.
SWTOR got baited early on. Someone made a bad decision by choosing the HeroEngine. Contractors hyped the fuck out of it and marketed it well. Someone at EA and Bioware went ahead, and by the time they realized that this engine was garbage and a nightmare to work in, it was already too late. SWTOR is still paying for it today.
Another thing to remember is that games like SWTOR is massive. It really is KOTOR 3,4,5,6,7,8 and so on. You do not notice it because it's spread thin- You play one character class so you don't get the see the entire game of the other classes. This means that the game has to quadruple its resources to make it seem like it's a weighted game.
In hindsight it was a mistake to opt for this level of cut scene quality in a game- In a on-demand online game. Rigging, directing and executing and narrating and planning 3d cinematics with lots of complex threads is extremely time consuming- On top of everything else they have to do.
What Bioware should have done is gone for a more simple story execution- They could have had stylized 2D art cinematics with some form of inner narrator. That would have saved them a lot of money and a lot of trouble and it would have given them so much more time to focus on the gameplay aspects of running the game.
Despite this, the game is immensely popular. It's among the top 10-most profitible MMOs and many many people are still playing. I'm really surprised how well its doing. The new movies is a marketing campaign for the game giving it a second wind.
