Elite: Dangerous passes 500,000 on Kickstarter

Founder David Braben talks about multi-player in new dev diary

1984. It was a time when hair metal ruled the earth, Wayne Gretzky ruled the ice and we found out George Orwell's novel was, thankfully, way off the mark (or was it?). The video game revolution was well underway, with milestone titles like King's Quest and Tetris hitting the shelves (we had shelves back then). Life was good.

Amid all of that, a little game called Elite was released by Acornsoft, and let me just say it was way ahead of the curve. It offered players a 3D vector "open world" space environment that let players engage in combat and trading. You might even be able to argue that it offered the world's first video game achievement, as the combat goal was to progress to Elite status!

1993 saw a sequel in Frontier: Elite II that brought non-vector 3D graphics and physics to the party, along with an accurate depiction of our entire galaxy! Its scope was impressive not just for it's time, but even now.

But one thing was still missing: multi-player. Until now, that is. Enter, Elite: Dangerous.

Frontier Developments, the original developer behind the Elite series, has an ongoing Kickstarter campaign for the game, which to this point has raised over £500,000, well on the way to it's target goal £1,250,000 with nearly 40 days remaining. 

To go along with this milestone, Frontier released a new dev diary hosted by founder and original Elite co-creator David Braben. The video takes an early look at some multi-player aspects of the game.

Braben talks about different modes that will allow you to play alone, or with a specific group of friends. Perhaps most interestingly, he states you can play in a free-for-all mode with everyone else that wants to do the same.  While there is no UI or game sound in the video, it does give a good idea what to expect out of the environment.

With all of the talk about a certain other crowd-funded space sim, also with a serious pedigree behind it, you might be tempted to overlook Elite: Dangerous. But I suggest you don't. As a player of the original Elite, I can tell you the creative minds behind this game have the capability of creating something special. Go give 'em a hand!

Bill "Lethality" Leonard

Via: Eurogamer

Tags: elite, News

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