Development team

From the Star Citizen Wiki, the fidelity™ encyclopedia

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

CIG Los Angeles Team Photo 2018

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

Cloud Imperium Games Texas, LLC

CIG Austin Team Photo 2018

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

Cloud Imperium Games Ltd.

Foundry 42 Wilmslow Team Photo 2018

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

Cloud Imperium Games Ltd.

Foundry 42 Frankfurt Team Photo 2018

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

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 was initially referred to CIG by Behaviour Interactive to help work out website issues when it was overwhelmed when the crowdfunding started.[13] Turbulent works with Cloud Imperium Games to develop web platforms such as Spectrum, the Starmap,[14] Issue Council, the website.[15] and the launcher [16] 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.[1] They have been working with CIG since November 2012.[17][18] In 2019-12-03, CIG went through a mutual investment with Turbulent. Cloud Imperium UK Ltd. purchased 22,250 shares of Turbulent (25%) directly from their co-founders Marc Beaudet and Benoit Beausejour, and acquired two seats on the Turbulent board. Meanwhile, Turbulent founders Marc Beaudet and Benoit Beauséjourv each acquired 1,170 shares (2,340 combined) in Cloud Imperium UK Ltd.[19] In 2020-11-24, Turbulent announced that the company will open a Montreal game studio focusing on building star systems for Star Citizen. The studio will be directed by Benoit Beausejour (CTO and co-founder) and industry veterans Guillaume Voghel (Producer), Pierre-Luc Boulais (Art Director), and Louis Rousseau (Lead Game Designer).[20] As of 2020-04-05, Turbulent had 42 people and growing working on Star Citizen.[21] Cloud Imperium Games acquired Turbulent on 2023-07-02[22][1]. The CIG merger with Turbulent brings the headcount to 1110 at the time.[1]

Notable members

3Lateral

3Lateral works with Cloud Imperium Games on character faces in Star Citizen.[23]

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).[24]

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.[25][26][27]

Firesprite

Firesprite is contracted to Cloud Imperium Games in 2017-01-11.[28] 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.[29]

Honest PR

Honest PR is doing Public Relations work for Cloud Imperium Games since at least 2020.[30][31][32]

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.[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

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.[13]

CGBot

CGBot was responsible for the early concept arts and assets production for Star Citizen and Squadron 42.[13][44][45] It is run by an Art Director who used to work with Chris Roberts at Origin and Digital Anvil.[44]

Clear Angle Studios

Clear Angle Studio did head scanning for the DNA pool.[46]

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.[47]

Crytek

Crytek was the game engine developer of CryEngine, the base game engine for Star Engine before the switch to Amazon Lumberyard in 2016.[48] 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.[49]

IllFonic

IllFonic was responsible for the initial FPS module and the FPS components of the game.[50]

Massive Black

Massive Black did concept art and ship design for Star Citizen, including the design for the 300i in 2013.[51]

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.[52]

Rmory

Rmory was responsible for early weapon concept arts for Star Citizen and Squadron 42.[53][54]

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".[55][56]

The Imaginarium

The Imaginarium was responsible for the motion capture mainly for Squadron 42, but also for the Persistent Universe.[57]

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.[58] As of 2016 CIG the collaboration had ended and CIG was working on its own solution.[59]

Wyrmbyte

Wyrmbyte was responsible for early network engineering for the Persistent Universe in 2014.[60]

Virtuos

Virtuos was responsible for the early ship and prop assets in 2014.[54]

voidALPHA

voidALPHA was responsible for environment art till the end of 2015.[61]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Turbulent Joins Cloud Imperium Games. Transmission - Comm-Link. Retrieved 2023-07-13
  2. Cloud Imperium Financials for 2020
  3. Los Angeles Office on Cloud Imperium Games
  4. Austin Office on Cloud Imperium Games
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Star Citizen and Squadron 42 Staff Grows to 475 Employees Working on the Game
  6. Manchester Office on Cloud Imperium Games, cloudimperiumgames.com, archived
  7. Hub Crawl Hero - Fireside Chat with Carl Jones - Cloud Imperium Games: "Why Manchester?", YouTube, 23 May 2023
  8. Cloud Imperium Games to Open New Videogame Development Studio in Manchester, UK, in 2022, cloudimperiumgames.com, Nov 9, 2021
  9. Letter from the Chairman. Transmission - Comm-Link. Retrieved 2024-03-14
  10. Some Star Citizen devs reportedly laid off as Cloud Imperium restructures, videogameschronicle.com, 28th Feb 2024
  11. Frankfurt Office on Cloud Imperium Games
  12. Development comments on Foundry 42 Derby
  13. 13.0 13.1 13.2 Star Citizen Live: Meet the Devs - Publishing and Corporate Technology, Star Citizen, YouTube, 9 February 2024
  14. David Ladyman, "The Starmap Team". Jump Point. Vol. 03 no. 12. pp.52–65.
  15. David Ladyman, "Website Revamp: Turbulent". Jump Point. Vol. 03 no. 06. pp.32–40.
  16. [Replay] Un développeur Star Citizen sur la chaîne ! #1 Interview in French with a Turbulent technical artist
  17. "We started this i think it was end of novenber 2012", Benoît Beauséjour, Star Citizen Live: Gettin' Turbulent, Mar 10, 2023
  18. Turbulent - Case Studies: Star Citizen
  19. Cloud Imperium & Turbulent Extend Their Long-Running Partnership Through Mutual Investment
  20. Turbulent creates new game development studio in montreal to make worlds for Star Citizen ​​​​​​
  21. How many staff work at the Montreal Studio? Sandi Roberts Twitter
  22. Turbulent rejoint Cloud Imperium Games, Benoit et Marc, Medium.com, 2023-07-13
  23. Monthly Studio Report: January 2017. Transmission - Comm-Link
  24. Star Citizen and Squadron 42 Utilize Amazon Lumberyard Game Engine. Press - Comm-Link
  25. 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
  26. Cloud Imperium Games and Faceware Bring Real-Time Character-to-Character Chat to Star Citizen, Archived at archive.org January 18 2019
  27. Faceware Technologies Announcement. Transmission - Comm-Link
  28. Get to know Firesprite, a new CIG contractor. on Reddit
  29. UK-based Developer’s Key Role in Development of Star Citizen Combined Arms Multiplayer Mode Confirmed Ahead of Community Playtest
  30. Press Contact, Cloud Imperium Games to Open New Videogame Development Studio in Manchester, UK, gamedeveloper.com, November 10, 2021
  31. "Honest PR working with lovely folks like CI Games Chucklefish, Cloud Imperium, Newfangled Games, Paradox Tectonic and Phoenix Labs", @charreynoldson, Twitter, Feb 9, 2024
  32. "The Intergalactic Aerospace Expo is the biggest Star Citizen event of the year!", @honestvideogame, Twitter, Nov 21, 2020
  33. Blazing-Fast Gaming with Intel's First Client Optane SSD
  34. Case Study: Cloud Imperium Games on Perforce
  35. Tobii Eye Tracker 5. Transmission - Comm-Link. Retrieved 2020-12-22
  36. VERSA launches Motion Capture Studio in Manchester, televisual.com, 21.09.23
  37. 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.
  38. Star Citizen Live: All About 3.17.2
  39. AMD Never Settle Space Edition promotion, Archived 2014-09-06
  40. [1]
  41. Star Citizen Portfolio
  42. BHVR Portfolio - Star Citizen. Archived 2018-01-24
  43. Behaviour Interactive teams with Cloud Imperium to help create new space sim game with legendary designer Chris Roberts. Archived 2015-05-19
  44. 44.0 44.1 SGJ Podcast #04: Chris. Freaking. Roberts., Space Game Junkie, 03/12/2013
  45. CGBot Portfolio - Star Citizen
  46. CitizenCon 2953: Character Advancement, Star Citizen, YouTube, 25 oct. 2023
  47. Confetti SpecialFX Star Citizen work
  48. RSInotext.svg Clarification by Chris Roberts on the switch to Lumberyard
  49. Crytek CIG lawsuit documents
  50. IllFonic Portfolio - Star Citizen
  51. Star Citizen among other portfolio work
  52. Moon Collider Case Studies - Star Citizen
  53. Rmory Portfolio - Star Citizen
  54. 54.0 54.1 Monthly Report: July 2014. Transmission - Comm-Link
  55. Star Citizen, Streamline Studios, Artsation
  56. Streamline Studios post about the Vanduul Void Bomber
  57. Inside CIG: Imaginarium. Engineering - Comm-Link
  58. Welcome Star Citizens!, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Kickstarter, 18 février 2014
  59. Reverse the Verse: January 29th, 2016, Star Citizen, YouTube
  60. Monthly Studio Report: April 2015. Transmission - Comm-Link
  61. voidALPHA's tweet on departure of SC
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