Jump Point is a bi-monthly digital magazine available to the community subscribers on the RSI website. It is currently edited by Martin Driver and provides additional information to Star Citizen's and Squadron 42's development through Behind-The-Scenes articles, interviews and Work-In-Progress art pieces mixed with in-lore articles and continuing short stories. Although the content is initially restricted to subscribers, CIG releases parts of older issues on the RSI website or as printed hardcover versions buyable through the online store.[1]
While most of the content is written by professionals, with rights being bought, some stories are commisioned from fans.[2] previous issues were edited by Ben Lesnick (June 2018 - June 2022) and freelancer David Ladyman (Dec 2012 - May 2018).
Ben Lesnisk and David Ladyman pushed hard for short stories early on but it was just too much work to keep continuity with external writers so early on. They had intended Jump Point to gradually become more fiction as development went on.[3]
Content
Creation
Towards the end of the original campaign, people wanted to know how they could keep following the project and how they could keep supporting it. Chris Roberts and Sandi Gardinier came up with the idea of the subscription program that would generate all sorts of community content and pay for itself and help the game without taking away from what folks had pledged to make development happen.
Ben Lesnick and Dave Haddock worked out a series of perks, including Jump Point which was supposed to be a 4-8 page newsletter. Chris Roberts wanted a magazine look.[4]
Pre-2018
The magazine usually consists of around 50-60 pages with up to 5 chapters. Nearly half of the pages are dedicated to a Work-In-Progress art showcase that focuses on the design process of a specific ship or location from concept to the (almost) final model. The other half contains a deeper look into certain parts of development via interviews and two in-lore articles giving background information on corporations, star systems or locations (later released e.g. as Galactic Guide Spectrum Dispatch). Each issue finishes with a multi-part short story contributed by an external or internal writer.[5]
Post-2018
In 2018, five years after the initial release of the magazine, it went through a major redesign led by Will Turner (Marketing Art Director). It was first featured in the first issue in 2018. The content emphasizes more on the game and its development rather than lore fiction from before. The previous "Work in Progress" section changed to narration from Ben Lesnick (Ship Pipeline Manager) instead of raw developer conversations. The new redesign also changed some section names and includes several new sections, including the "Galactapedia".[6]
Beginning with issue 06-06, David Ladyman retired as editor with Ben Lesnick as his replacement.[7]
Ben Lesnick remained editor for four years until issue 10-07 with Martin Driver taking over as editor.
Printed Hardcover Jump Point Volumes
CIG sold to date (October 2018) three limited hard-cover book versions (Jump Point Volume 1, Volume 2 and Volume 3) containing issues released in the first, second and third year of the subscriber program.[8]
No definitive statement was given by CIG whether a reprint of sold-out volumes is planned for the near future.
List of released Jump Point Issues
2013: Year One
In year one 13 Issues were published, for a full list of articles in each issue see: Jump Point Year One
| Issue | Title of Issue | Pages | Jump Point № |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01-01 | Mayan End of the World | 24 | 1 |
| 01-02 | Last Flight of the Seraphim | 43 | 2 |
| 01-03 | Flying Into a Hornets' Nest | 39 | 3 |
| 01-04 | The Vanduul Horde | 52 | 4 |
| 01-05 | Aurora First Light | 45 | 5 |
| 01-06 | Charting the Constellation | 56 | 6 |
| 01-07 | The Next Generation is Now | 56 | 7 |
| 01-08 | A Few Good Men | 43 | 8 |
| 01-09 | Hanging Out | 79 | 9 |
| 01-10 | Lawyers, Guns & Money | 42 | 10 |
| 01-11 | Born Free | 55 | 11 |
| 01-12 | Drawing the Cutlass | 46 | 12 |
| 01-13 | Avengers Assemble | 53 | 13 |
2014: Year Two
For a full list of articles in each issue see: Jump Point Year Two
| Issue | Title of Issue | Pages | Jump Point № |
|---|---|---|---|
| 02-01 | The Cutting Edge | 48 | 14 |
| 02-02 | Corvette Winter | 81 | 15 |
| 02-03 | The Birth of a Frigate | 52 | 16 |
| 02-04 | Heads Up | 46 | 17 |
| 02-05 | Racing to Get Done | 49 | 18 |
| 02-06 | The Next Great Jump Point | 80 | 19 |
| 02-07 | Horsepower | 73 | 20 |
| 02-08 | The Stars Align | 80 | 21 |
| 02-09 | The Empire's Sword | 64 | 22 |
| 02-10 | One Small Step | 52 | 23 |
| 02-11 | First Platform Station | 64 | 24 |
| 02-12 | We Solute You | 60 | 25 |
2015: Year Three
For a full list of articles in each issue see: Jump Point Year Three
| Issue | Title of Issue | Pages | Jump Point № |
|---|---|---|---|
| 03-01 | Riding Herd | 66 | 26 |
| 03-02 | The ArcCorptm Issue | 75 | 27 |
| 03-03 | Retaliation at Last | 75 | 28 |
| 03-04 | Leading the Way | 56 | 29 |
| 03-05 | The Hull Truth | 69 | 30 |
| 03-06 | Stand By Me | 57 | 31 |
| 03-07 | Creating Magic | 53 | 32 |
| 03-08 | The Producers | 87 | 33 |
| 03-09 | Opening Doors | 76 | 34 |
| 03-10 | Ein Praechtiges Unterfangen | 64 | 35 |
| 03-11 | Meeting Places | 40 | 36 |
| 03-12 | Refining the 'Verse | 75 | 37 |
2016: Year Four
For a full list of articles in each issue see: Jump Point Year Four
| Issue | Title of Issue | Pages | Jump Point № |
|---|---|---|---|
| 04-01 | Teamwork | 57 | 38 |
| 04-02 | Fly Galactically, Design Modularly | 57 | 39 |
| 04-03 | On The Leading Edge | 75 | 40 |
| 04-04 | Reaching the Stars | 76 | 41 |
| 04-05 | Crucial Operations | 60 | 42 |
| 04-06 | Persistant Progress | 53 | 43 |
| 04-07 | Bugging Out | 62 | 44 |
| 04-08 | Grim Realities | 64 | 45 |
| 04-09 | Outward Bound | 63 | 46 |
| 04-10 | Corvette and Convocation | 63 | 47 |
| 04-11 | Homemaking | 59 | 48 |
| 04-12 | Tevarin Topics | 68 | 49 |
2017: Year Five
For a full list of articles in each issue see: Jump Point Year Five
| Issue | Title of Issue | Pages | Jump Point № |
|---|---|---|---|
| 05-01 | The Razors Edge | 60 | 50 |
| 05-02 | Marine Arenas | 64 | 51 |
| 05-03 | Storm Season | 57 | 52 |
| 05-04 | The Sound and The Fury | 79 | 53 |
| 05-05 | The Spectral Eclipse | 68 | 54 |
| 05-06 | Environmental Sustainability | 48 | 55 |
| 05-07 | It Was a Dark and Stormy Nox | 53 | 56 |
| 05-08 | Moon Shadow | 77 | 57 |
| 05-09 | Adventures Accidental and Intentional | 74 | 58 |
| 05-10 | New Beginnings | 54 | 59 |
| 05-11 | Expanding the Boundaries | 56 | 60 |
| 05-12 | Soonish Is Now | 58 | 61 |
2018: Year Six
For a full list of articles in each issue see: Jump Point Year Six
| Issue | Title of Issue | Pages | Jump Point № |
|---|---|---|---|
| 06-01 | A Slice of Virtual Life | 19 | 62 |
| 06-02 | Levski's Traveling Asteroid Show | 19 | 63 |
| 06-03 | Fine Tuning | 20 | 64 |
| 06-04 | Scoring 100 | 20 | 65 |
| 06-05 | Excelsior | 18 | 66 |
| 06-06 | Whats Mine is Yours | 18 | 67 |
| 06-07 | AI Think Therefore AI Am | 19 | 68 |
| 06-08 | Apollo and the Space Race | 20 | 69 |
| 06-09 | Graduating OCS | 19 | 70 |
| 06-10 | Power to the Pirates | 20 | 71 |
| 06-11 | The Alien Issue | 16 | 72 |
| 06-12 | Looking Back, Jumping Ahead | 20 | 73 |
Trivia
- The cover of Jump Point issue 02.01 is a nod to the cover of Wing Commander.[10]
References
- ↑
- ↑ SCAA Interview with CIG's David Ladyman, Nichole D'Angelo, YouTube, 14 May 2014
- ↑ "Glad the short stories aren’t forgotten! We pushed hard for these early on but it was just too much work to keep continuity with external writers so early on. A shame, I had intended Jump Point to gradually become more fiction as development went on.", @banditloaf.bsky.social, Bluesky, November 9, 2024
- ↑
- ↑
- ↑ David Ladyman and Ben Lesnick, From the Cockpit, Jump Point, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 2, 2018-02-20.
- ↑ David Ladyman, From the Cockpit, Jump Point, vol. 6, no. 6, pp. 2, 2018-05-29
- ↑
- ↑
- ↑ "We did a Star Citizen magazine cover that was a nod to the design, too!", @banditloaf, twitter, Nov 11, 2016
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