‘Star Citizen’ crosses the $35 million mark in crowdfunding

By Adam Rosenberg December 24, 2013

star citizen crosses 35 million mark crowdfunding 01 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Kickstarter is for suckers, apparently.* Everyone should just follow Chris Roberts’ lead and do the independent crowd-funding thing, as Star Citizen, the Wing Commander creator’s spiritual successor to the beloved space combat sim series, has officially crossed the $35 million mark. All of that money amounts to a giant pre-order pledge, as fans have stepped up to purchase content packages for a game that doesn’t exist yet.

It’s coming along though! Roberts gives a “state of the game” address of sorts in his latest post on Star Citizen‘s official website, thanking fans for their record-breaking contributions. As he notes, the $35 million figure has “broken every record there is in crowd-funding – and not just for games – for any type of project!” It’s a tremendous feat.

Star Citizen‘s crowd-funding campaign just over a year ago, in October 2012, with the main initiative hosted on the game’s website while a supplementary Kickstarter was launched. While that was good for a not-inconsequential $2.1 million in funding, Roberts and his Cloud Imperium Games likely launched the Kickstarter with an eye toward helping to spread awareness of Star Citizen as well. The crowdsourced funding platform was a topic of much discussion in late-2012, and “new space sim from the creator of Wing Commander heads to Kickstarter” immediately became a story worth talking about.

Crossing the $35 million marker means that the fan-voted Drake Herald spaceship will be added to the game. Star Citizen is an open-galaxy game with an emphasis on carving out your own story. Some might focus on combat, others on trading, and still others on more esoteric pursuits, such as cultivating a social presence. The Drake Herald offers players to take the role of what Roberts called an “information runner,” ferrying sensitive data around the galaxy to high-paying clients.

The next goal, marked for $37 million, will add the Tanga system to the finished game, a solar system tucked into the heart of a rectangle-shaped nebula. All of these goals are voted on by the fan community. You can find plenty more and help fund the game with a pre-order of your own at the official Star Citizen website.

*No, Kickstarter is not actually for suckers.

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Previously, Adam worked in the games press as a freelance writer and critic for a range of outlets, including Digital Trends…

Gaming

All Baobab Tree locations in Tales of Kenzera

Zau fights a dragon in Tales of Kenzera: Zau.

While it wasn't marketed as being a particularly punishing game, Tales of Kenzera: Zau is by no means easy. You will have plenty of environmental challenges that can instantly sap your life, and the enemies you face -- especially the bosses -- are no slouches. When you first begin, it will only take a couple of bad hits to send Zau to the land of the dead himself. Alongside the Trinkets you can unlock through hidden challenges around the map, there are also Baobab Trees where Zau can stop to reflect on his journey thus far, have a short dialogue with Kalunga, and get a small addition to his health bar. Like everything in the game, these trees aren't prohibitively hidden, but you could easily pass one by and have no idea where it was when trying to backtrack. These are all the Baobab Tree locations so you can max out your health bar.
All Baobab Tree locations
There are six Baobab Trees to find in Tales of Kenzera: Zau and each adds a small segment of health to your total. When you collect them all, you will roughly double your HP bar. Here are each of their locations in the rough order you should naturally find them in. Most can be picked up on your first time through that area.
Ikakaramba

This one is very hard to miss as it is directly on your critical path. If you do, you can fast travel to the nearby campfire to grab it.
The Great Cliffs

Gaming

All Fallout games, ranked

The courier in his nuclear gear and holding his gun in Fallout: New Vegas key art.

Who would've thought the post-apocalypse could be such a fun time? The Fallout franchise has taken the idea of a Mad Max-like future and not only made it into a wildly popular game franchise but also a hit TV series. The core franchise has been around since the late '90s, and yet we've had only a handful of mainline entries in the series since it was revived by Bethesda with Fallout 3. With Starfield in the rearview mirror and the next Elder Scrolls title currently being the dev team's focus, it could be close to another decade before we can set foot in the wasteland ourselves once again. What better time, then, to look back at the franchise and rank all the games from best to worst?

Fallout: New Vegas

Gaming

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble is as fun to watch as it is to play

Monkeys race one another in Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble.

I couldn’t tell you what the last Super Monkey Ball game I played was, but I can still talk your ear off about the series. That’s thanks to the speedrunning community that has formed around the franchise, making it into the most exciting game to watch when it's played at a high level. After spending close to a decade watching old games turned inside and out, I’m ready to finally dig into a new entry for myself.

Thankfully, I’m getting that chance on June 25 when Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble launches on Nintendo Switch. The latest entry in Sega’s precise platforming series comes loaded with content, from an adventure mode with 200 stages to multiple 16-player multiplayer modes. That’s all exciting, but my attention was on one question when I sat down to demo all of that last week: How fun will it be to watch players master it?