The development team of Star Citizen consists of over a thousand people [1] working on making the game a reality in a distributed development process. From the west coast of the United States to Frankfurt, Germany, highly-skilled, passionate people toil, making breath-taking progress all the time. On top of Cloud Imperium Games' in-house studios, many contractors and partners have contributed into the project.
In 2020-12, CIG had a total of 695 staff. 512 of whom were developers.[2] As of July 2023, 1100 CIG staff are working on Star Citizen, not counting third party partners.[1]
Studios
Cloud Imperium Games, LLC
Located in sunny Los Angeles, California, CIG LA is Cloud Imperium's flagship studio. Home to Chris Roberts and much of the company's leadership, CIG LA represents a cross-section of the company and includes the ship development pipeline, technical designers, high level engineering, community, marketing and more.[3]
Notable members
- Mark Abent - Lead Gameplay Programmer
- Elwin Bachiller - Associate Vehicle Art Director
- Sandi Gardiner - Vice President of Marketing
- Jared Huckaby - Creative Content Lead
- Chris Roberts - Chairman & CEO
- Forrest Stephan - Principal Technical Artist
- Eric Kieron Davis - Chief People Officer
- Kirk Tome - Lead Systems Designer
- Steven Hosmer - Senior Systems Designer
Former notable members
- Todd Papy - Star Citizen Live Director
- Pete Mackay - Senior Designer
- Ben Lesnick - Director of Community Engagement and Content Strategy
- John Pritchett - Senior Physics Programmer
- Josh Herman - Character Art Director
- Justin Wentz - Concept Artist
Cloud Imperium Games Texas, LLC
The team at Cloud Imperium Games Texas' Austin studio (Bee Cave, Texas) is responsible for making the Star Citizen persistent universe. The DevOps team is also located in Austin, keeping servers running and building out the infrastructure needed for Star Citizen.[4]
As of 2018-02-16, CIG Austin has a total of 71 staff working on Star Citizen.[5]
Notable members
- Tony Zurovec - Director of Persistent Universe
- Chris Smith - Lead Vehicle Artist
- Sean Tracy - Senior Director, Tools and Tech Content
Former notable members
- Rob Reininger - Assistant Director of Systemic Gameplay and Services
- Elijah McNeal - Concept Artist
Cloud Imperium Games Ltd.
Formerly known as Foundry 42, Ltd. The heart of Manchester, England is also the heart of Star Citizen's Squadron 42 single player game. This fully-equipped development team is responsible for creating a unique cinematic experience in the Star Citizen world.[6]
As of 2018-02-16, F42 Manchester[7] had a total of 234 staff working on Star Citizen.[5] In 2021 CIG announced the future opening of a new studio in Manchester Goods Yard, in the Enterprise City district.[8] In early 2024, a relocation of staff to the Manchester studio took place, bringing the number of CIG staff there to 600.[9][10]
Notable members
- Erin Roberts - Studio Director & Global Head of Production
- Zane Bien - Global UI Creative Director
- Derek Senior - Programming Director
- Nick Elms - Creative Director
- Nathan Dearsley - Squadron 42 Art Director
- Phil Meller - Lead Designer
- Mike Snowden - VFX Director
- Alistair Brown - Senior Technical Director, Graphics and Procedural Technology
- John Crewe - Vehicle Director
- Zoe Collier - Senior Producer
- Ben Parr - Lead Producer
- Jens Lind - Engineering Director
- Clive Johnson - Technical Director Network Programming
- Robert Johnson - Live Engineering Director
- Will Weissbaum - Assistant Narrative Director
- Dave Haddock - Narrative Director
- Steve Bender - Senior Animation Director
Former notable members
- Paul Jones - Art Director
- Joe Neville - Principal Vehicle Artist
- Corentin Billemont - Systems Designer
- Lee Banyard - Audio Director
- Simon Vickers - Lead Level Designer
- Steve Turberfield - Senior Technical Designer
- Ricky Jutley - Lead Producer
Cloud Imperium Games Ltd.
Formerly known as Foundry 42, Ltd. Frankfurt, Germany is home to Cloud Imperium's latest internal development studio. Staffed with top CryEngine development experts, Foundry 42 Germany is responsible for developing the pioneering backend technologies.[11]
As of 2018-02-16, F42 Frankfurt has a total of 80 staff working on Star Citizen.[5]
Notable members
- Brian Chambers - Vice President of Development
- Chris Campbell - Assistant Lighting Director
- Francesco Roccucci - AI Director
- Hannes Appell - Director of Cinematics
- Christopher Bolte - Technical Director, Engine
Former notable members
- Tobias Wanke - Lead Weapons Artist
Cloud Imperium Games Ltd.
Formerly known as Foundry 42, Ltd. An official satellite studio of Foundry 42 Manchester, the Derby office is a small team looking after all aspects of the facial pipeline. From taking delivery of the Face Rigs from 3Lateral, implementing them in-game, taking all the face animation from Cubic Motion and also creating all the Facial animation for the PU that Cubic aren't doing.[12]
As of 2018-02-16, F42 Derby has a total of 15 staff working on Star Citizen.[5]
Current Partners
Turbulent
Turbulent has been working with CIG since November 2012.[13][14] They develop web platforms such as Spectrum, the Starmap,[15] Issue Council, the website,[16] and the launcher, [17] as well as the Concierge program, telemetry system, community Hub, Galactapedia and Roadmap, while being part of the CIG efforts on cloud services, Persistent Entity Streaming, and Server Meshing. [15][16][17][1]
In 2019 CIG went through a mutual investment with Turbulent.[18] In 2020, Turbulent announced that the company will open a Montreal game studio focusing on building star systems for Star Citizen.[19] Cloud Imperium Games acquired Turbulent on 2023-07-02[20][1]. The CIG merger with Turbulent brought the headcount to 1110 at the time.[1]
3Lateral
3Lateral works with Cloud Imperium Games on character faces in Star Citizen.[21]
Amazon
Amazon works with Cloud Imperium Games on the development of Amazon Lumberyard since 2015, which is what Star Engine based on. Amazon also provides game servers for Star Citizen on a cloud-based service called Amazon Web Services (AWS).[22]
Faceware Technologies
Faceware Technologies works with Cloud Imperium Games to develop the Face Over Internet Protocol (FOIP) feature that was built with Faceware's LiveSDK. A facial motion sensor specifically for Star Citizen was also in the works. However, since late 2018 no mention of the product has been made by either CIG or Faceware.[23][24][25]
Firesprite
Firesprite is contracted to Cloud Imperium Games in 2017-01-11.[26] On 2021-03-18, CIG and Firesprite publicly announced the collaboration on the PvP combined-arms multiplayer mode, “Theaters of War”, which has began in early 2019.[27]
Honest PR
Honest PR is doing Public Relations work for Cloud Imperium Games since at least 2020.[28][29][30]
Intel
Intel works with Cloud Imperium Games to promote the Optane series SSD for desktop users and workstations. They also sponsored hardware to CIG and also their conventions.[31]
One PR Studio
One PR Studio is a Public Relations organization that has been working with CIG since at least 2022 to 2024.[32][33]
Perforce
Cloud Imperium Games utilize Perforce Helix to support its DevOps.[34]
Tobii
Introduce official head and eye tracking support for the Tobii Eye Trackers.[35]
Versa Studios
Versa Studios does motion capture and has built the bespoke technical infrastucture to meet Cloud Imperium Games requirements.[36]
Gamerizon
Gamerizon developed the interactive 3D part of the front-end javascript client for the Starmap.[37]
As of July 2022 they are helping build Quantum.[38]
Other Partners
- David Ladyman - Editor at Incan Monkey God Studios (responsible for publications such as Jump Point)
- Geoff Zanelli - Composer for Squadron 42
- Jan Urschel - Freelance Concept Artist at Hendrix Design
- Pedro Macedo Camacho - Lead Composer for Star Citizen
Past Partners
Advanced Micro Devices
AMD partnered with CIG to promote their Radeon™ R9 or R7 Series graphics cards with Mustang Omega, as a part of the AMD Never Settle Space Edition promotion.[39]
Airship Images
Airship Images is specialized in character arts and worked on characters, hairstyles and R&D tasks for CIG in the years 2016/2017.[40]
Atomahawk Design
Atomahawk design did concept art for Foundry42.[41]
Behaviour Interactive
Behaviour Interactive (BHVR) is responsible for art production for Star Citizen since 2012-12-12.[42][43] It was Behaviour Interactive that referred Turbulent to CIG to help work out website issues.[44]
CGBot
CGBot was responsible for the early concept arts and assets production for Star Citizen and Squadron 42.[44][45][46] It is run by an Art Director who used to work with Chris Roberts at Origin and Digital Anvil.[45]
Clear Angle Studios
Clear Angle Studio did head scanning for the DNA pool.[47]
Confetti SpecialFX
Confetti SpecialFX are a thinktank for advanced graphics technology that worked on a capital ship damage system and nebula effects for Star Citizen between the end of 2013 and end of 2014.[48]
Crytek
Crytek was the game engine developer of CryEngine, the base game engine for Star Engine before the switch to Amazon Lumberyard in 2016.[49] In 2017-12, Crytek filed a lawsuit against CIG on breach of the game license agreement (GLA). The case was dismissed with prejudice in March 2020.[50]
IllFonic
IllFonic was responsible for the initial FPS module and the FPS components of the game.[51]
Massive Black
Massive Black did concept art and ship design for Star Citizen, including the design of the 300i by Kemp Remillard in 2013.[52]
Mercuna
Mercuna is a developer of AI navigation middleware tasked with dogfighting AI and 3D pathfinding in a dynamic environment for Star Citizen.[53]
metricminds
metricminds is a animation studio specialising in cutscenes, they aided CIG with the Freelancer commercial.[54]
Moon Collider
Moon Collider was responsible for the Kythera AI development prior to the development of Subsumption. CIG started working with Moon Collider in Spring 2013.[55]
Rmory
Rmory was responsible for early weapon concept arts for Star Citizen and Squadron 42.[56][57]
Streamline Studios
Streamline Studios worked on Squadron 42 art assets, such as the Vanduul ship models in 2014 and 2015, a number of their assets were leaked to the public in 2015 as part of the "Lando Leak".[58][59]
The Imaginarium
The Imaginarium was responsible for the motion capture mainly for Squadron 42, but also for the Persistent Universe.[60]
Warhorse Studios
Warhose Studios, makers of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, proceeded to a sharing of Cryengine technologies and knowledge in 2014. On its end, CIG was particularly interested in the layering of cloth.[61] As of 2016 CIG the collaboration had ended and CIG was working on its own solution.[62]
Wyrmbyte
Wyrmbyte was responsible for early network engineering for the Persistent Universe in 2014.[63]
Virtuos
Virtuos was responsible for the early ship and prop assets in 2014.[57]
voidALPHA
voidALPHA was responsible for environment art till the end of 2015.[64]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4
- ↑ Cloud Imperium Financials for 2020
- ↑ Los Angeles Office on Cloud Imperium Games
- ↑ Austin Office on Cloud Imperium Games
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Star Citizen and Squadron 42 Staff Grows to 475 Employees Working on the Game
- ↑ Manchester Office on Cloud Imperium Games, cloudimperiumgames.com, archived
- ↑ Hub Crawl Hero - Fireside Chat with Carl Jones - Cloud Imperium Games: "Why Manchester?", YouTube, 23 May 2023
- ↑ Cloud Imperium Games to Open New Videogame Development Studio in Manchester, UK, in 2022, cloudimperiumgames.com, Nov 9, 2021
- ↑
- ↑ Some Star Citizen devs reportedly laid off as Cloud Imperium restructures, videogameschronicle.com, 28th Feb 2024
- ↑ Frankfurt Office on Cloud Imperium Games
- ↑ Development comments on Foundry 42 Derby
- ↑ "We started this i think it was end of novenber 2012", Benoît Beauséjour, Star Citizen Live: Gettin' Turbulent, Mar 10, 2023
- ↑ Turbulent - Case Studies: Star Citizen
- ↑ 15.0 15.1
- ↑ 16.0 16.1
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 [Replay] Un développeur Star Citizen sur la chaîne ! #1 Interview in French with a Turbulent technical artist
- ↑ Cloud Imperium & Turbulent Extend Their Long-Running Partnership Through Mutual Investment
- ↑ Turbulent creates new game development studio in montreal to make worlds for Star Citizen
- ↑ Turbulent rejoint Cloud Imperium Games, Benoit et Marc, Medium.com, 2023-07-13
- ↑
- ↑
- ↑ Faceware: "Our soon-to-be-released facial motion sensor enables #StarCitizen players’ facial expressions to be translated onto their avatars’ face", Twitter, 26 Aug 2017
- ↑ Cloud Imperium Games and Faceware Bring Real-Time Character-to-Character Chat to Star Citizen, Archived at archive.org January 18 2019
- ↑
- ↑ Get to know Firesprite, a new CIG contractor. on Reddit
- ↑ UK-based Developer’s Key Role in Development of Star Citizen Combined Arms Multiplayer Mode Confirmed Ahead of Community Playtest
- ↑ Press Contact, Cloud Imperium Games to Open New Videogame Development Studio in Manchester, UK, gamedeveloper.com, November 10, 2021
- ↑ "Honest PR working with lovely folks like CI Games Chucklefish, Cloud Imperium, Newfangled Games, Paradox Tectonic and Phoenix Labs", @charreynoldson, Twitter, Feb 9, 2024
- ↑ "The Intergalactic Aerospace Expo is the biggest Star Citizen event of the year!", @honestvideogame, Twitter, Nov 21, 2020
- ↑ Blazing-Fast Gaming with Intel's First Client Optane SSD
- ↑ "Calling all citizens! The Esperia Prowler has landed in #StarCitizen!", @ONEPRStudio, Twitter, May 1, 2020
- ↑ "Foundation Festival returns to #StarCitizen!", @ONEPRStudio, twitter, Jul 12, 2024
- ↑ Case Study: Cloud Imperium Games on Perforce
- ↑
- ↑ VERSA launches Motion Capture Studio in Manchester, televisual.com, 21.09.23
- ↑ Gamerizon worked with Turbulent and Cloud Imperium to produce the Web Starmap for Star Citizen. Our contribution was the development of the interactive 3D part of the front-end javascript client.
- ↑ Star Citizen Live: All About 3.17.2
- ↑ AMD Never Settle Space Edition promotion, Archived 2014-09-06
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ Star Citizen Portfolio
- ↑ BHVR Portfolio - Star Citizen. Archived 2018-01-24
- ↑ Behaviour Interactive teams with Cloud Imperium to help create new space sim game with legendary designer Chris Roberts. Archived 2015-05-19
- ↑ 44.0 44.1 Star Citizen Live: Meet the Devs - Publishing and Corporate Technology, Star Citizen, YouTube, 9 February 2024
- ↑ 45.0 45.1 SGJ Podcast #04: Chris. Freaking. Roberts., Space Game Junkie, 03/12/2013
- ↑ CGBot Portfolio - Star Citizen
- ↑ CitizenCon 2953: Character Advancement, Star Citizen, YouTube, 25 oct. 2023
- ↑ Confetti SpecialFX Star Citizen work
- ↑
- ↑ Crytek CIG lawsuit documents
- ↑ IllFonic Portfolio - Star Citizen
- ↑ Star Citizen among other portfolio work
- ↑ The origins of Mercuna, mercuna.com, 21 February 2017
- ↑
- ↑ Moon Collider Case Studies - Star Citizen
- ↑ Rmory Portfolio - Star Citizen
- ↑ 57.0 57.1
- ↑ Star Citizen, Streamline Studios, Artsation
- ↑ Streamline Studios post about the Vanduul Void Bomber
- ↑
- ↑ Welcome Star Citizens!, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Kickstarter, 18 février 2014
- ↑ Reverse the Verse: January 29th, 2016, Star Citizen, YouTube
- ↑
- ↑ voidALPHA's tweet on departure of SC
