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Elite: Dangerous is a forthcoming space trading and combat simulator that represents the fourth installment in the Elite video game series. Having been unable to agree to a funding deal with a publisher for many years, the developers crowdfunded the project through a Kickstarter campaign.

The game was originally due for delivery on PC in March 2014. A playable alpha of the game was released to backers in December 2013, and when asked in June 2014, developer David Braben was unable to give a delivery date, but said "it will be this year for sure".

Gameplay

Elite: Dangerous retains the basic premise of previous games - players start with a spaceship and a small amount of money and make their own way in an open galaxy, furthering themselves either legally or illegally, through trading, bounty-hunting, piracy and assassination. Braben has described the game as a mix of the original Elite and the sequels Frontier: Elite II and Frontier: First Encounters (Elite 3), describing it as closer to the sequels in terms of the way that the galaxy is as scientifically accurate as possible based on the real Milky Way, with real sized 1:1 scale planets and star systems. but with the "visceral and seat-of-the-pants" combat of the original Elite.

Updates to the game are expected to allow the player to walk around inside ships and space stations, and space-walk around the exterior of ships to affect repairs. Other planned updates will allow players to board and steal other ships, or operate ships with multiple players, and to explore the surfaces of real sized 1:1 scale populated living planets on foot and "have vehicles you can drive around on the surface". Braben added that, as a player, he would like to be able to go big-game hunting on a planet, "chasing big dinosaurs around".

Elite: Dangerous features a massively multiplayer, persistent universe,but also has single player options, here a development video showing Braben dodging enemy fire from a colleague. The actions of players will affect the wider galaxy within the game, such as the type of missions/quests that will generated by the event system The developers have often noted how the previous games lend themselves naturally to modern online gaming - for example, destroying an innocent ship has always led to a criminal record and to police attention in systems rich enough to afford law enforcement, which would provide a powerful anti-griefing mechanism in a multiplayer game. The developers have also considered allowing players to play within small, trusted groups, so that any in-game encounters are only drawn from that group.

Elite: Dangerous will be set around 50 years after the events of Frontier: First Encounters (Elite 3), and the Thargoids, the insectoid aliens from the original game, are due to make an appearance.

Development

Elite 4 was to be the third sequel to 1984's Elite, a game that David Braben and his former associate, Ian Bell, wrote for the BBC Micro computer, and ported to most other platforms of the day. At the 2011 Game Developers Conference, Braben presented a post-mortem discussing the development of Elite. The final question in the Q&A section asked if Elite 4 was still on the drawing board and he replied "yes, it would be a tragedy for it not to be."

The project, referred to as Elite 4, had difficulty in finding funds, which Braben has attributed to the traditional publishing model, which he sees as being biased against games which have no recent predecessors. In November 2012, Frontier Developments announced that the game was now named Elite: Dangerous, and would be funded via Kickstarter which aimed to raise £1.25m and deliver a game in 18 months, by March 2014. The Kickstarter project remained open for 60 days, and rewards included a digital copy of the game, standard and premium boxed copies, a T-shirt, and access to alpha and beta test versions of the game. Funding was also made possible through the game's website, via PayPal. By April 2014, the campaign had raised £1.7m, and Braben had reacquired the rights to the Elite franchise.

Elite: Dangerous is being developed using Frontier Development's own in-house "Cobra" game development engine. The engine was developed prior to the Kickstarter project. In October 2013, it was announced that the game would officially support the Oculus Rift VR headset.

An alpha version of the game was released to certain Kickstarter backers in December 2013. In May 2014, Frontier Developments announced the fourth phase of Alpha testing was underway for the game. The latest Alpha build offered players a more expanded game world with more scale, scope and depth. On 30 May 2014, Frontier Developments officially launched the Premium Beta phase of Elite Dangerous. It is the same size and scope of the last Alpha phase but with multiple bug fixes and expanded networking to deal with more players. The game is due to be released for Windows at some point in 2014.

See also

• Star Citizen – space trading and combat game by Chris Roberts

References

1. ^ "David Braben: Publisher model prevented development of new Elite". incgamers.com. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
2. ^ Makuch, Eddie (6 November 2012). "Elite returns on Kickstarter". Gamespot. Retrieved 8 July 2014.
3. ^ Phillips, Tom (12 December 2013). "Elite: Dangerous combat now playable if you're a £200 alpha backer". Eurogamer. Retrieved 8 July 2014.
4. ^ Tito, Greg (12 June 2014). "Elite: Dangerous - Oculus Support Puts You in Infinity". The Escapist. Retrieved 8 July 2014.
5. ^ Cook, Dave (23 November 2012). "Elite Dangerous: Braben's square peg". VG247. Retrieved 25 April 2014.
6. "Gamespot Developer Demo".
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8. "GamerHubTV".
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10. "Procedural Generation - Dev Diary".
11. "Fiction Diary #5".
12. ^ "Elite: Dangerous will have 100 billion star systems, plus Thargoids — Braben reveals what's next". pcgamesn.com. Retrieved 10 January 2013.
13. ^ "Metro interview".
14. ^ "Edge interview".
15. ^ "Gamespot Stage Demo".
16. "Stuff TV interview".
17. ^ "Infinity and Beyond".
18. "Gamespot Stage Demo".
19. "Scott Manley interview".
20. Yin, Wesley (26 November 2012). "Elite: Dangerous dev diary shows multiplayer gameplay as Kickstarter pushes past Ł500k mark •". Eurogamer.net. Retrieved 25 April 2014.
21. "New Elite: Dangerous dev diary shows off galaxy evolution". PC Gamer. 3 December 2012. Retrieved 25 April 2014.
22. "PC Games interview".
23. "PC Gamer preview".
24. Events "Newsletter #28". {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
25. "Interview with Kate Russel". The Pod Delusion. Retrieved 21 December 2012.
26. Braben, David (2011). "Classic game postmortem". GDC Vault. Retrieved 9 November 2011.
27. ^ Cellan-Jones, Rory (6 November 2012). "Elite reborn". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 6 November 2012.
28. Stoke Sentinel. "David Elks: Gaming industry is worth the investment". Stoke Sentinel. Retrieved 25 April 2014.
29. games.on.net. "Elite rights now with David Braben, Frontier Developments shares up for grabs". games.on.net. Retrieved 25 April 2014.
30. "Cobra game engine". Cobra game engine.
31. "Production on Elite: Dangerous started after Kickstarter".
32. "Elite: Dangerous will support Oculus Rift". Official Frontier Developments announcement.
33. "Elite: Dangerous Website". Retrieved 24 April 2014.
34. "Elite: Dangerous Alpha Testing 2 Underway". MMO Attack. 16 May 2014. Retrieved 20 May 2014.
35. "Elite: Dangerous "Premium Beta" now available at a $150 price tag". PC Gamer. 30 May 2014. Retrieved 20 June 2014.

Further reading

• Curtis, Tom (5 November 2012). "David Braben turns to Kickstarter to bring back Elite". Gamasutra. Retrieved 6 November 2012.
• Hillier, Brenna (6 November 2012). "Elite: Dangerous announced as sequel to 1980′s space trader". VG247. Retrieved 6 November 2012.
• McCarthy, Michael (August 1995). "The Ian Bell Interview (hosted on Ian Bell's website)". Games Domain. Retrieved 28 October 2007.
• Sharwood, Simon (6 November 2012). "Classic game 'Elite' returns … on Kickstarter". The Register. Retrieved 6 November 2012.
• Yin-Poole, Wesley (6 November 2012). "Elite: Dangerous Kickstarter from series creator David Braben". Eurogamer. Retrieved 6 November 2012.

External links

• Elite: Dangerous - Official Website
• Elite: Dangerous - Kickstarter campaign
• Elite: Dangerous - Wikia
• Elite: Dangerous - Sub-Reddit

• Kickstarter projects
• OS X games
• Science fiction video games
• Space flight simulator games
• Space trading and combat simulators
• Upcoming video games scheduled for 2014
• Video game sequels
• Video games developed in the United Kingdom
• Virtual economies
• Windows games