Development team

The development team of Star Citizen consists of over a thousand people 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.

As of 2020-12, CIG has a total of 695 staff. 512 of whom are developers. As of July 2023, 1100 CIG staff are working on Star Citizen, not counting third party partners.

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.

Notable members
 * Mark Abent - Lead Gameplay Programmer
 * Elwin Bachiller - Lead Ship Artist
 * Sandi Gardiner - Vice President of Marketing
 * Jared Huckaby - Creative Content Lead
 * Ben Lesnick - Director of Community Engagement and Content Strategy
 * Pete Mackay - Game Designer
 * Chris Roberts - Chairman & CEO
 * Forrest Stephan - CG Supervisor
 * Chris Smith - Lead Vehicle Artist
 * Sean Tracy - Technical Director, Content
 * Will Weissbaum - Senior Writer
 * Eric Kieron Davis - Studio Director LA / Production Lead U.S.
 * Josh Herman - Character Art Director
 * Kirk Tome - Lead Systems Designer
 * Dave Haddock - Narrative Director
 * Steve Bender - Animation Director
 * Steven Hosmer - Senior Systems Designer
 * John Pritchett - Senior Physics Programmer
 * 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 a reality! From character artists to engineers, CIG ATX is a creative hotspot tasked with making an entirely new kind of game. The crack DevOps team is also located in Austin, keeping servers running and building out the infrastructure that will be needed to make Star Citizen sing.

As of 2018-02-16, CIG Austin has a total of 71 staff working on Star Citizen.

Notable members
 * Tony Zurovec - Director of Persistent Universe
 * Rob Reininger - SJS Assistant Director
 * Elijah McNeal - Former 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. A AAA game in itself, Squadron 42 is using groundbreaking cinematic techniques and best-in-the-industry game design to craft a narrative you won't want to put down.

As of 2018-02-16, F42 Manchester has a total of 234 staff working on Star Citizen.

Notable members
 * Erin Roberts - Studio Director & Global Head of Production
 * Todd Papy - Star Citizen Live Director
 * Paul Jones - Art Director
 * Zane Bien - Global UI Creative Director
 * Joe Neville - Senior Vehicle Artist
 * Corentin Billemont - Systems Designer
 * Derek Senior - Programming Director
 * Nick Elms - Creative Director
 * Nathan Dearsley - Squadron 42 Art Director
 * Phil Meller - Lead Designer
 * Lee Banyard - Audio Director
 * Mike Snowden - VFX Director
 * Alistair Brown - Director of Graphics Engineering
 * John Crewe - Lead Technical Designer
 * Zoe Collier - Associate Producer
 * Ben Parr - Associate Producer
 * Simon Vickers - Lead Level Designer
 * Jens Lind - Lead FPS Programmer
 * Steve Turberfield - Senior Systems Designer
 * Clive Johnson - Lead Network Programmer
 * Robert Johnson - Lead Gameplay Programmer
 * Ricky Jutley - Senior 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 that will allow Star Citizen's persistent universe to shine!

As of 2018-02-16, F42 Frankfurt has a total of 80 staff working on Star Citizen.

Notable members
 * Brian Chambers - Development Director
 * Chris Campbell - Lead Lighting Artist
 * Francesco Roccucci - Lead AI Programmer
 * Hannes Appell - Director of Cinematics
 * Christopher Bolte - Principle Engine Programmer
 * 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.

As of 2018-02-16, F42 Derby has a total of 15 staff working on Star Citizen.

Turbulent
Turbulent works with Cloud Imperium Games to develop web platforms such as Spectrum, the Starmap, Issue Council, the website and the launcher 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. . They have been working with CIG since November 2012. 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. 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). As of 2020-04-05, Turbulent had 42 people and growing working on Star Citizen. Cloud Imperium Games acquired Turbulent in July 2023. CIG merger with Turbulent brings the headcount to 1110 at the time.


 * Turbulent Homepage

Notable members


 * Benoît Beauséjour - CTO and Co-Founder

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


 * 3Lateral Homepage

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).


 * Amazon Lumberyard Homepage

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 is also in the work. However, since late 2018 no mention of the product has been made by either CIG or Faceware.


 * Faceware Technologies Homepage

Firesprite
Firesprite is contracted to Cloud Imperium Games in 2017-01-11. 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.


 * Firesprite Homepage

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.


 * Intel Homepage

Perforce
Cloud Imperium Games utilize Perforce Helix to support its DevOps.


 * Perforce Homepage

Tobii
Introduce official head and eye tracking support for the Tobii Eye Trackers.


 * Tobbi Homepage

Gamerizon
Gamerizon developed the interactive 3D part of the front-end javascript client for the Starmap.

As of July 2022 they are helping build Quantum.


 * Gamerizon Homepage

Other Partners

 * David Ladyman - Editor @ Incan Monkey God Studios (responsible for publications such as Jump Point)
 * Geoff Zanelli - Composer for Squadron 42
 * Jan Urschel - Freelance Concept Artist @ Hendrix Design
 * Pedro Macedo Camacho - Lead Composer for Star Citizen

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.


 * Advanced Micro Devices Homepage

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.


 * Airship Images Homepage

Atomahawk Design
Atomahawk design did concept art for Foundry42.


 * Atomhawk Design Homepage

Behaviour Interactive
Behaviour Interactive (BHVR) is responsible for art production for Star Citizen since 2012-12-12.


 * Behaviour Interactive Homepage

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


 * CGBot Homepage

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.


 * Confetti SpecialFX Homepage

Crytek
Crytek was the game engine developer of CryEngine, the base game engine for Star Engine before the switch to Amazon Lumberyard in 2016.In 2017-12, Crytek filed a lawsuit against CIG on breach of the game license agreement (GLA). As of 2018-01, both parties are still engaged in the lawsuit.


 * Crytek Homepage

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


 * IIIFonic Homepage

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


 * Massive Black Homepage

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.


 * Moon Collider Homepage

Rmory
Rmory was responsible for early weapon concept arts for Star Citizen and Squadron 42.


 * Rmory Homepage

Streamline Studios
Streamline Studios worked on SQ42 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".


 * Streamline Studios Homepage

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


 * The Imaginarium Homepage

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


 * Wyrmbyte Homepage

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


 * Virtuos Homepage

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


 * voidALPHA Homepage