Star Citizen Release Schedule Dates FPS Mode and Story Campaign

The four separate games systems that make up Star Citizen will be individually showcased during a six-part launch schedule, the game’s creator Chris Roberts has revealed.

Speaking during a BAFTA-hosted event on Tuesday, Roberts explained that Star Citizen would incorporate distinct gameplay systems: a space combat sim, a first-person shooter, a single-player campaign, and a persistent online universe to explore.

This quartet of gameplay systems will be showcased across a range of six separate releases, culminating with the Star Citizen commercial launch in 2016. Roberts’s schedule for these builds, revealed during a Twitch stream and captured on Polygon, shows that they will arrive on a quarterly basis.

In spring (northern hemisphere) 2015, an alpha for the FPS mode will be released, along with an alpha to "planetside", which is the base game that bridges all the modes and social components. Then in the summer, a major update to the multiplayer mode Arena Commander will go live, which will implement multi-crew ships (with players in control of different areas, such as the bridge or turret).

By fall 2015, the first episode of Star Citizen’s single-player campaign, Squadron 42, will launch. Then at the closing stages of 2015, an alpha of the game’s “persistent universe” will roll out to backers.

The game's "Hangar" mode, which allows players to admire and tinker with their ships, is already available to backers, as is the first edition of Arena Commander.

Star Citizen is believed to have accumulated the biggest draw in the history of crowdfunding, having surpassed $69 million at the turn of the year.

"We're now close to $70 million, and it's likely the carry-on will probably be over $100 by the time the game is close to public release," Roberts said during his BAFTA talk.

"But the crowdfunding isn't really about the money. Yes, the money is nice. Yes the money enables you to do some of these things you do, but it's really about bringing people in to create this community and have them sort of share that experience with you as you're building it."

A test build, called the Public Test Universe, is now available to backers.