Chris Roberts has opened a Kickstarter page for backing his upcoming PC space combat and trading game Star Citizen. It has a goal of US$500,000 and will work alongside Star Citizen’s own crowdfunding system to reach the game’s US$2,000,000 goal. Those who have already backed the game through the Star Citizen website can pledge an additional US$5.00 through Kickstarter to receive an Electro Skin Hull Enhancement, which will allow players to “switch [their ships’] hull appearance at the flick of a switch,” and a special skin to show they’ve backed the game twice. Kickstarter pledges will be linked to their respective Star Citizen user accounts. As of this writing, Star Citizen has already collected over US$100,000 through Kickstarter on top of the US$1,055,252 already collected through the Star Citizen website.
Over one thousand fans indicated their desire to pledge via Kickstarter in a poll on the Star Citizen website. Furthermore, heavy traffic overwhelmed the Star Citizen web server toward the end of its October 10 unveiling at the 2012 Game Developers Conference Online, shutting it down for days. These factors impelled Roberts to open a Kickstarter page to please fans and to reduce the burden on the server.
For Roberts’ complete thoughts on using Kickstarter, read his latest blog post and watch his video message below. To learn more about Star Citizen, visit the official website and Kickstarter page.
