David Braben launches kickstarter for new Elite game!!

So this one is for us oldies. David Braben has launched a kickstarter for a new Elite game, Elite: Dangerous. Here are all the details from Edge

Frontier Developments has launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the next game in that most cherished of space-trading series, Elite: Dangerous.

The game will follow on from the two Frontier games, Elite II and Close Encounters, and aims to combine the feel of the first Elite with the greater scope than the later games – and multiplayer. Frontier Developments is looking to raise £1,250,000.

Along with the “gorgeous” graphics and improved physics that today’s hardware allows, Frontier Developments also wants to “push the way networking works” and go further with procedural generation, presumably from star systems right down to planet surfaces. You can see the first concept art below.

“Elite: Dangerous is the game I have wanted Frontier to make for a very long time,” writes Braben on the Kickstarter page. “The next game in the Elite series – an amazing space epic with stunning visuals, incredible gameplay and breath-taking scope, but this time you can play with your friends too.

“I want a game that feels more like the original ‘Elite’ to fly, and with more rapid travel (to allow for the multi-player nature of the game) – so you travel quickly using local ‘hyperspace’ travel rather than by fast-forwarding time – but with the rich galaxy of Frontier – and more, so much more.”

As pitches go, it’s irresistible.

Just as in previous games in the series, players will begin the game with a basic ship and a small sum of Credits, and can then choose trade, pirate, bounty-hunt, salvage or simply explore.

The game won’t be massively multiplayer like Eve, but will allow you to tailor who you encounter during play – limiting it to only online friends, for instance. Players in the game will be part of a “secret ‘Elite’ group of space-farers”.

Frontier Developments intends to release the game for PC in March 2014. At the higher range of donations – starting from £500 – backers will have space stations, planets or star systems named after them, while a £5,000 pledge will net you dinner with the Braben and the team in Cambridge. At the time of writing, two backers have already reserved their place.

“Right at the start, Ian (Bell) and I took that risk when making the first Elite amidst cries that it needed three lives and a score – but we took the risk that others wanted what we wanted – and the result was a great success,” Braben continues.

“If Elite: Dangerous is something you also want, then let’s all take that risk together and help make the fantastic freedom of the Elite series return to our screens, in current state-of-the-art glory!”

http://www.edge-online.com/news/elite-dangerous-kickstarter-campaign-launched-by-brabens-frontier-developments/

I had to look it up. But after looking it up, I remember trying to play Elite, and never figuring it out.

I lost a large chunk of my early teens to Frontier Elite 2 on the Amiga. How they fitted that game on to 1 disk I'll never know. The manual that came with it was vast thought. Would love to see this get funded though I suspect this is more about gauging public demand than actual financing.

I played the living shit out of Elite on the Amiga. One of my fondest memories of gaming. But.. that is history. It's a very simple game by today's standards. Just remaking Elite with multiplayer and some newish graphics techniques will not cut it.

I looked at the kickstarter he put up and I'm not buying the pitch. It's a poor sales pitch. I don't believe 1.25mil brit-bucks is going to produce much of a fun game. I don't see anything concrete as far as a prototype or a clear definition of what they hope to achieve. I don't see a team with enough talent to pull off a fun game built mostly from procedural content.

He can throw Procedural Content around all he wants but it's no silver bullet and it's difficult to do. They needed to show video demos of their procedural tech upfront to sell this point. A block of text with no specifics is a poor joke. They say they have procedural tech they've been "cultivating through the years" but I don't believe them. I don't believe they have operational tech right now that produces anything worth showing, or even anything close to it. I don't believe them because they didn't show it.

Mark my words this will end poorly for Frontier and all the kickstarter backers.

$31 +/- USD for a download of the game is too high, I have no idea what I'm buying not even a screen shot or concept art.

I'll easily throw $10 at a kickstarter that is novel, much more if it has a good pitch, but this is neither right now.