Multiplayer space warfare from the minds behind X-Wing, Crysis and Desert Combat.
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Multiplayer space warfare from the minds behind X-Wing, Crysis and Desert Combat.
About this project
We love space shooters.
We all played the hell out of X-Wing, Wing Commander, and that entire generation of amazing space combat games. That’s why we’re so excited to be creating the next game in that rich lineage: STARFIGHTER INC., a hardcore team-based PvP multiplayer space shooter in the vein of X-Wing vs. Tie-Fighter.
We want to recapture the intensity and excitement of those games and provide a fresh experience via modern graphics, new gameplay, and awesome gear derived from the science of today and tomorrow.
Thank you so much for joining us on this adventure.
- The Starfighter Team
In short, Starfighter Inc. is:
All About Combat. Hardcore PvP multiplayer space warfare focused on pure, unadulterated tactical simulation combat.
Realism Done Right. A hard-science driven, zero-g experience where players can spin, tumble and strafe their way through a gritty frontier universe.
Unparalleled Customization. You control and customize every element of your ship, from the chassis to the powertrain to the cockpit layout.
We want to give our community unprecedented access into the creation of this game, so we'll be adding loads more information to this page as our Kickstarter campaign goes on. Read on for more and keep an eye out for updates!
It’s 2230. A generation has lived and died among the stars.
Mankind’s final frontier has been destabilized by corporate interests and powerful private military companies. The powers that be look to elite mercenary pilots to secure their holdings; violently if need be.
Pilot a single-seat recon ship, fly with a squadron of interceptors, or team up with others to crew a multi-seat gunship as you take part in truly massive space battles. Immerse yourself in a gorgeous, cinematic, VR-enabled space simulator set in a near-future hard science setting.
Intense, high-action combat meets classic X-Wing style space simulation gameplay on a scale you've never seen.
This Kickstarter campaign will determine how far we can take this game. We have a great core design we know is going to be really fun, but if we want to make some of our bigger dreams a reality - things like playable capital ships, a player-owned universe, and scripted story content - we're going to need your help.
This is how we ranked our tiers, based on importance to the core game and cost to get them done. If you see a feature in a later tier that you think we should move up, jump over to the comments section and let us know!
These Key Features define the Starfighter gameplay experience.
Tier 1: Core Multiplayer Experience
- Core PvP Multiplayer – Large-scale multiplayer engagements put players head-to-head over dedicated servers to achieve a massive, chaotic, awesome battlefield.
- Persistent Ship Customization – Players start off the game taking out a loan for their first ship, then run missions to gain credits to pay it off, pay for repairs, build new ships, buy new parts, or just give it a sweet paint job.
- Component Damage – Every system on the ship is susceptible to damage and each has a unique effect on gameplay. Shrapnel hit to your maneuvering thrusters? Spend the rest of the battle in an unstable, erratic beast. Main sensor cluster fried by enemy lasers? Looks like you’re going to have to fly blind. Missile hit in the cockpit? Well, you get the idea.
- Player-Run Mercenary Corporations – Mercenary corporations post missions to be run by qualified pilots. Perform well and you’ll find yourself rising through the corporate ranks, securing valuable gear discounts, access to exclusive missions, and to ships only available to those corps through exclusive agreements. Get enough capital together and you might find yourself as CEO of your own mercenary corp, managing the cut-throat business of running a mercenary outfit on the final frontier!
- VR Integration – VR is awesome and it turns Starfighter Inc. into an unbelievably immersive experience. We believe in the future of VR and we’re proud to be taking part in this revolution.
- Single Player Bot Match - Don’t want to play online? Prefer to hone your skills offline before taking on the world? Enjoy a good comp stomp? We’re excited to announce that no matter what level Starfighter Inc. gets funded, the game will include a simple Bot Match Single Player component, where players square off against AI-driven opponents set on pure, unadulterated meatbag massacre.
Tier 2: Big Multiplayer Experience
- Multi-Seats Ships – You drive, I’ll shoot. Players can jump into the pilot seat while a buddy mans the turret, optimizes the ship’s performance, or manages countermeasures, electronic warfare systems or drones.
- AI Carriers – AI Carriers manage the resupply and maintenance of fighters in the field. Players launch into combat from them and return to get rearmed or repaired, or to get a new ship if theirs is destroyed.
- Troop Transports – Behemoth ships that carry troops into battle. Often the goal of these ships is to twist, bash, and smash their way through combat to dock with the target ship, then unload their troops for a boarding action.
- Boarding – Players can dock their Troop Transports with large capital ships in the hopes of disabling key systems, key personnel or capturing the ship altogether. Players get their ship into docking range, initiate the board action, then jump into a turret to defend their bird while the Combat Troops do their thing inside the ship. Bonus points for a clean extraction.
- Drones – A major component of warfare on the frontier is unmanned drones. Light, cheap and able to pack a punch, these small autonomous robots are launched from bigger vessels, then carry out their prescribed orders around the battlefield.
Find additional information on Funding Tiers 3-7 at www.ImpellerStudios.com
To thank you for being a part of this adventure with us, we've lined up what we think are some pretty great backer rewards. Give these a look, make a pledge to support the game, and if there's something you'd like to see, let us know in the comments!
$5 or More: Welcome to Starfighter Inc.
Join the Community: Get campaign updates, discuss the game in the comments section and contribute to the success of Starfighter Inc. Welcome to the company!
Exclusive "Atlas" Digital Wallpaper: The official Starfighter wallpaper, featuring the extremely badass "Atlas" carrier, will only be offered directly to Kickstarter backers.
Special Thanks in the Credits: Our thanks to you for helping make this game possible.
$25 or More: Gun for Hire
All Lower Tier Backer Rewards, Plus...
Digital Copy of the Finished Game: Once we final the game, you'll have a copy waiting for you! The game will mostly likely retail for closer to $50 USD, so this is a great way to save a buck on a great game.
Digital Soundtrack: The Official Game Soundtrack, featuring music from the game and commentary from the dev team.
Digital Artbook: Step through the creation process with concept art, illustrations and final assets from the game.
$35 or More: Dual Wielding
All Lower Tier Backer Rewards, Plus...
An Extra Digital Copy of the Finished Game (2 Total): Grab your wingman, send a copy to Mom, or bribe a police officer with your extra copy of the final game. This tier will give you an extra Digital Copy, totaling 2 copies. Given that we'll retail the game for close to $50, this is a roughly $100 value!
$50 or More: Beta Company
All Lower Tier Backer Rewards, Plus...
Beta Test Access: Once we're close to launching the game, we'll do a Beta Test, where players can try the game for free. Join in and be one of the first players to play the finished game!
In-Game "Beta Company" Badge: Proudly display your Beta Company team badge in-game. We're still sorting out exactly where badges will go, but they'll likely appear in the leaderboards, game score, and game summary screens.
$60 or More: Check Six
All Lower Tier Backer Rewards, Plus...
4 Extra Copies of the Finished Game (6 Total): Get the gang together because its time for some formation flying! This tier will give you 4 extra Digital Copies, totaling 6 copies. At a $50 retail price point, this is an approximate $300 value!
$75 or More: Day Zero
All Lower Tier Backer Rewards, Plus...
Day 0 Friends & Family Alpha Test Access: Be one of the first players outside the studio to try the game out! Free access to the first build distributed to our Friends and Family group. The earliest access you can get to the game, way before it hits retail.
In-Game "Day Zero" Badge: Show your pride as part of the family.
Vote on New Features via Dev Team Forum: Sound off on our internal team forum on what features we should prioritize, what we should cut and what we should add. Want your voice to shape the game? This is the place to be.
$85 or More: Squadron
All Lower Tier Backer Rewards, Plus...
6 Extra Copies of the Finished Game (12 Total): Summon the Squadron, pilot! This tier will give you 6 extra Digital Copies, totaling 12 seats of the final shipping game. Why 12? Because that's most real-world squadrons are between 12 and 24 units and we're down with that hard science jam. Assuming the game ships for $50, you're talking about a $600 value (or a ~86% markdown!).
$100 or More: Fear the Shrike
All Lower Tier Backer Rewards, Plus...
"Shrike Schematic" T-Shirt: Soft, easily wearable and pretty damn cool, this shirt shows off the fastest ship this side of the solar system, The Tsong Industries "Shrike" Information Warfare Fighter.
Backer-Only In-Game "Shrike" Information Warfare Ship: A super fast, extremely maneuverable recon ship with top of the line information warfare gear, the Shrike will only ever be available to Kickstarter backers.
$150 or More: Join The Crew
All Lower Tier Backer Rewards, Plus...
Limited Run "Crew" T-Shirt: Proudly display your membership in our crew with this super high quality shirt, only available to Kickstarter Backers and internal dev team members (and significant others raiding said backers or developers' closets).
Invite to Weekly Dev Team Calls: Join the dev team on our weekly team All Hands call and let us know what you want to see in the game, what we're doing well, and what we're not. Or just argue about physics with Jack and Dave.
Backer-Only In-Game "Impeller Cannon": A beastly weapon, among the most powerful in our game, the Impeller Cannon uses extreme ordinance rotation to achieve incredible armor penetration.
$200 or More: Digital Deluxe
All Lower Tier Backer Rewards, Except Any Physical Rewards Requiring Shipping (t-shirts, etc.): This is a tier for those folks who want lots of awesome Starfighter digital goodies, but who don't want to throw cash at shipping. Specifically, this includes all non-physical backer rewards at lower tiers, and...
All Backer-Only Ships: Right now, this includes the Shrike and Pegasus, but we may be cooking up a little something something...Either way, this Tier awards backers all Backer-Only ships offered through this Kickstarter campaign.
$250 or More: Starfighter Package
All Lower Tier Backer Rewards, Plus...
Backer-Only "Pegasus" Assault Transport: A massive assault transport built for getting shock troops on board an opposing ship and keeping them safe while the boarding action is happening, the Pegasus is an extremely powerful, multi-seat ship that will only be available to Kickstarter backers.
Starfighter Poster, Signed by Members of the Dev Team: A beautiful 24'x36' poster that will loom large in any office, game room, or other room that needs to be significantly more awesome. Signatures from legendary game designers David Wessman, Jack Mamais and members of the dev team make this an instant collectors item.
$500 or More: The Jarvis Package
All Lower Tier Backer Rewards, Plus...
Custom Voiceover Pack (subject to creative review)
Work with Starfighter Inc. Writer & Executive Producer Coray Seifert to create your own custom voiceover pack, triggering during key events. Ever want your space sim to say “That’s the way, uh huh uh huh, I like it.” whenever you get a kill? Well, now's your chance!
Custom Digital Taunts (subject to creative review)
Like above, but your opponents will hear it! Gotta keep it clean, keep it consistent with the universe, and keep it (reasonably) respectful, but this is finally your opportunity to unleash that perfect post-kill pun you’ve been holding onto all these gamer years.
Optional: Impeller Publishes Your Custom VO/Taunts with the Game
If you want, we’ll make your custom VO pack available to all other players in the game, making you an instant celebrity or infamous n’er do well, depending on the content of your VO pack.
$1,000 or More: The Hero's Journey
All Lower Tier Backer Rewards, Plus...
Hand-Drawn In-Cockpit Digital Portrait (subject to creative review)
One of the exceptionally talented Starfighter Inc. artists will draw an awesome portrait of you (or your kid/wife/dog/etc.) in the cockpit of any in-game ship. Whether pensive and reflective or pitched in combat (you’ll be able to give us some direction), this shot will be the most badass representation of you that has ever existed. Plus, it’ll make a sweet Facebook profile picture.
24x36 Glossy Poster Portrait Print
We’ll send you a high-quality glossy 24x36 print of the above, perfect for showing your friends, loved ones, or lovers how preposterously badass you are.
Canonized in the Game Story (subject to creative review)
Based on your portrait, the Starfighter Inc. writing team will make you a central character in the game story. We’ll work with you set some direction (protagonist/antagonist, company affiliation, charisma ability modifier, etc.) and then include your likeness as a central story pillar as the franchise moves forward.
$5,000 or More: Executive Producer Package
All Lower Tier Backer Rewards, Plus...
In-Game Ship Class, Outpost/Colony or Main Character Naming Rights (subject to creative review): Want your name to live on in the history of the franchise? This backer option allows anyone to name a Ship Class (like the Shrike or Hyperion), an Outpost/Colony (like L4 Lagrange or Luna Prime), or Main Character (you get the point). Please note that all creative decisions must be approved by the Starfighter Creative Director or Executive Producer.
Design a Game Mode (subject to creative review): An Impeller Studios designer and programmer will work with you to create a new game mode. Want to create a race game mode? How about an ore mining mini-game? You dream it and we'll build it.
Join Secret Dev Team Facebook Group: Join our internal Facebook group, where we share reference art, research articles and random funny crap from the internet. As an Executive Producer on the project, contribute to discussion that shapes the future of the game.
Executive Producer Credit on the Final Shipping Game: As a key member of the fundraising team, backers at this tier will have their names prominently featured in the Starfighter Inc. credits as "Executive Producer."
$10,000 or More: VIP Experience
All Lower Tier Backer Rewards, Plus...
Design a Ship (pending Creative Director approval): An Impeller Studios concept artist and a 3D modeler will help create the ship of your dreams.
Name One of the Main Corporations (subject to creative review): Players join mercenary companies when they start the game. Want the first experience players have in-game to be joining your corp? Then this is the tier for you!
Attend Launch Party: You get yourself to the party location (probably New York, NY) and we'll get you in the door. Spend the night reveling with the development team, meet key staff, and celebrate the launch of the next great space shooter!
Dinner with the Designers: Ever hear the story of how X-Wing came to be? Want to know what the pitch for Crysis was like? You get yourself to the dinner location (probably New York, NY) and you'll sit down with David Wessman and Jack Mamais for a dinner on release night where you'll enjoy a great meal and great conversation with two legendary game designers.
PLEDGE ADD-ONS (available to all pledge levels at $15 and above):
- $15 - Digital "Starfighter Inc. Strategy Guide" written by Rusel DeMaria, writer of the official guides for X-Wing and TIE Fighter
- $20 - Backer-Only Shrike ship! (Shrike video here)
- $20 - Boxed Copy of Starfighter Inc. (you must add $5 USD for USA shipping or $10 USD for shipping elsewhere)
- $75 - Physical art book: "The Universe of Starfighter Inc." an 8" x 11" hardcover (you must add $10 USD for USA shipping or $20 USD for shipping elsewhere)
Add-On Instructions: To add an add-on to your pledge, simply:
1) Press the "Manage Your Pledge" button above.
2) Increase your pledge in the "Pledge Amount" box by the TOTAL amount of the add-on(s) you want to add.
3) At the conclusion of the Kickstarter campaign you will receive a survey that will allow you to specify what item(s) you would like included in your reward(s).
Please note that all delivery dates refer only to backer rewards, not the game itself. We may deliver backer rewards separately from the final game.
Principals
Jack Mamais brings 20 years of game design experience to the Starfighter Inc. team, having worked on such landmark titles as Crysis, Far Cry and Mechwarrior 2. Always committed to creating realistic, immersive games, Jack guides the team in bringing the Starfighter Inc. universe to life. With past stops at Crytech, Midway, Activision and others, Jack is no stranger to creating games at the highest level.
Veteran designer David Wessman brings a wealth of experience in the flight and space sim genre. From his start testing seminal titles such as Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe and Falcon 3.0 to mission and story design on the legendary X-Wing Series, David’s staunch commitment to simulation gameplay has been an incredibly valuable asset to the Starfighter Inc. team. Responsible for core gameplay, ship design and weapon balancing, David’s focus lies on the all-important moment-to-moment player experience, a task in which he has excelled over a storied 20-year career in games.
A veteran game designer, writer, and producer, Coray Seifert leads production and narrative development efforts for Starfighter Inc.. As Executive Producer, Seifert manages the internal development team, oversees partner relationships and coordinates PR/Marketing efforts. An accomplished game writer with over 20 game writing credits, Seifert is also responsible for all writing, copy and narrative content for Starfighter Inc..
Overseeing art production and creative development, Marc Wilhelm brings extensive games industry experience to the Starfighter Inc. team. A veteran of numerous high profile level design and production assignments, Marc's specific focus lies on transparency and thoughtful development practices.
An accomplished animator, graphic designer and illustrator, Nate Walpole defines the aesthetic vision of Starfighter Inc., overseeing all visual development for the title. Playing a key role in the development of Halo 2, 3 and 4, Nate has been a key part of massive - and massively successful - projects over the past decade.
The Starfighter Inc. development team brings experience on landmark franchises and across dozens of titles.
- Founded: 2013
- Studio Format: International Virtual Team (7 time zones)
- Team Size: 15
- Total Years of Games Industry Experience: 151
- Average Years of Games Industry Experience: 10
- Total Games Published: 96
- Average Games Published: 6.4
- Current/Former College Professors: 5 (Rutgers, SCAD, Champlain, Breda)
- Key Team Member Titles: X-Wing Series, Crysis, Far Cry, MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries, Battlefield 2, Desert Combat, Homefront, Saints Row, Blood Wake, Frontlines: Fuel of War, Ravaged
While we all have a great deal of experience working in games, we don’t have access to the kinds of capital that a project like this needs to be done well. Our options are either to take the game to a publisher, who may want to reduce risk by cutting hardcore features or take the game to Kickstarter. Our hope is that by bringing the game to the Kickstarter community, we can make this dream a reality.
We spent a lot of time at GDC last year shopping the game around, so we had time to chat in between meetings. Even though we were tired from hours of pitching, one interesting realization emerged from our conversations. The most successful projects we’ve all worked on, both in terms of commercial success and in terms of how we felt about them, were projects that tapped directly into the community.
Games like Desert Combat, which actually started as a community project and grew into one of the biggest mods of all time. Games like X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, which drew heavily on feedback from players to create a landmark multiplayer experience. Games like Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries, where each successive release was guided by great feedback from a dedicated player base.
We want to create and engage with our Starfighter Inc. community to the same degree we did with those games.
So join us! Get involved with the project. Spread the word, back the project or post a comment. We want to know what you think about the game and how we can make it better, so get in touch with us on Kickstarter, on Facebook, or on Twitter.
Together, we can make this thing happen!
Coming Soon...
We'll be posting information about the following soon, so keep an eye on this page!
- Stretch Goals
- Behind-the-Scenes Design Insight
- Sample Gameplay Encounter
- Music & Sound Effects
- Story
- In-Game Corporations
- In-Game Manufacturers
Risks and challenges
Gameplay Innovation - Making games is hard, even when you're going the tried-and-true route or working on a sequel with a proven game mechanic. When you're trying to do something really out of the box - like blend hard-science and high action in a space shooter - it can introduce risk to the project. Luckily, our staff has significant experience working on projects like these and our extensive preproduction phase has allowed us to iron out the unknown elements as we move into full production.
3D Printing - We're really good at making games. Less so at 3D printing. Luckily, we've lined up a great partner in Amplify, a really great firm that specializes in merchandise fulfillment. (note: This was from a reward tier we had to cut, but we're trying to bring back. You might be able to guess what it is!)
Chris Roberts Starting a Rap Battle with David Wessman - That whole Wing Commander/X-Wing static isn't going anywhere. This is probably going to go down...old school.
Learn about accountability on KickstarterFAQ
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Pure, high-intensity, explosion-a-minute tactical space combat.
No mining, no hunting womp rats, no exploration through deep space. All that stuff is awesome and those games do it extremely well. However, we decided that if we were going to be the best at one thing, it would be blowin' stuff up!
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We hope so! We have some stretch goals that have story and narrative elements that we're extremely excited about. We hope you'll be excited too.
That said, we want to make sure that we have the runway to make a great game at its core and that happens through PvP multiplayer. If we can build a great foundation via Multiplayer and then lay a singleplayer or co-op story on top of that, we'll be able to pair great gameplay with great story the way that so many of the X-Wing games did.
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We think we have a really unique model that capitalizes on the benefits of both free-to-play and premium games.
The game itself is premium. You can buy it and then own it for life. We'll have DLC and new content packages that launch from time to time which you can buy, or not.
One of the things we love about free to play games is that there are always tons of people to play with. So, we want to offer a basic free access to the game. This will basically be a trial where players can jump in and use stock ships, but can't customize or level them up.
It'll take some balancing to get it just right, but we think it'll really appeal to players from both ends of the spectrum.
As with everything we're doing with this campaign, we're very interested to hear how you all feel about this. Hit us up on the campaign page, on our forums or on Facebook. We want to hear from you!
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The backer-only ships, just like every ship in the game, will be balanced against every other ship in the game. We don't want to have a dominant strategy for any ship, weapon or other gear, because then the game is just boring (see Tube, Noob).
What's cool about these backer ships is that they're pushed to the extreme for doing one thing.
The Shrike for example, is probably going to be one of (if not THE) fastest, most maneuverable ships in the game with stupid good IW gear. That said, it's got basically no armor, the weapons pretty much couldn't hurt your grandmother, and it's tiny. So, it's great for information warfare, it's a great scout, and its super fun to fly (also it looks badass), but you're not going to go toe-to-toe with a heavy fighter.
Part of the coolness is also that you'll see dozens of others ships all the time, but seeing a Shrike will be fairly rare, so you'll be the talk of the gritty mercenary town, so to speak.
What we want to do is reward our backers with weird, cool ships that nobody can get when the game goes live. Hopefully everyone is into that, but if you have any feedback, we're all ears!
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PC and VR are our core platforms. We love the potential for immersion and want to focus the bulk of our up-front efforts on those platforms to deliver the best possible experience.
Mac and Linux are appealing options, especially for helping folks run dedicated servers, though we want to make sure that any time we go to a platform, we're 100% confident that we can deliver a great experience. So we'll keep these guys on the back-burner for the time being.
It's also a great time to be a console gamer. XBox One and PS4 are great gaming consoles and dual sticks provide a great control scheme for space shooters, especially those driven by Newtonian physics (sliding, strafing, tumbling, etc). That said, consoles are very expensive to develop for and we want to make sure that we get it right, so we want to make sure that if we ever consider consoles, we can deliver the same great experience as on PC/VR.
So, tl;dr, we're focusing 100% on PC right now with VR being a specific area of interest. That said, we'll keep an eye on the other platforms and hope to bring content to them as soon as we responsibly can.
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TBD
We're assessing our options and quite frankly, almost all of them are great. It's an amazing time to be developing games for VR and we're excited about the future of the platform.
And yes, we upgraded to the new Oculus headsets :)
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This is the first Kickstarter campaign we've run and we didn't know that people wanted [thing]. If you want [thing] or even [other thing], definitely post a comment, hit us up on Twitter, or Like us on Facebook.
Who knows! We may even have the [really weird thing] that you're looking for!
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Yes! Joysticks are awesome! We will absolutely support joysticks. Best way to play a space sim, in our humble opinions.
We are also aiming to support mouse and keyboard as well as game console controllers. Dual-stick control schemes aren't too bad if you have a keyboard handy too.
Rewards
Funding period
- (32 days)