Development timeline

The development of Star Citizen is ongoing; beginning with the start of crowdfunding and continuing today.

The following sections show the features and mechanics added to Star Citizen in each year and month, as well as the major tasks undertaken by the different studios.

Early thoughts
In 2011 Chris Roberts wanted to do another game, possibly under the Wing Commander brand, and to push the boundaries in terms of narrative and cinematic storytelling again. He was looking at games that had been done and in his eyes they were falling short not because of the technology but because of how they were done.

He was scoping out game development trends and thinking about doing a big console game, with funding from a publisher.

However he felt that wasn’t so interesting and he wanted to control his own destiny, not work for a major publisher. He eventually focused on the PC, where technology is moving far ahead of consoles and where the game would be free of considerations towards console generations.

As Chief Creative Officer of Bl!nk Media International, he was planning a Wing Commander video game by Wing Commander Productions, which had already been used by for the Wing Commander movie, but got certified in Michigan in 2011. This video game project would be starring past actors from Wing Commander. Wing Commander Productions got dissolved in 2012.

Concept art shared in 201 by Rob McKinnon and later rebranded for Star Citizen also points to an initial Wing Commander themed game.

Pre-Production
Chris Roberts spent over a year building the game's backstory and creating a prototype in CryEngine that could be presented at campaign launch. Using their own funds, CIG engaged a small group of writers, designers, and engineers to assist in this process.

A teaser trailer for Chris Roberts untitled project was released in 2012.

2014
2014 is marked by the release of Arena Commander and other mechanics