Developer Chris Roberts' Star Citizen and its single-player component, Squadron 42, have been in the works to one degree or another since 2012. While Squadron 42 was probably done filming and motion capturing its all-star cast sometime around 2016, Roberts' embattled team has continued building the game around those actors. In that amount of time, Chris Roberts has basked in the support and also weathered the storm. He's gained a little weight and lost a little hair. Hey, I've done the same since 2012, and I don't have a multi-million dollar video game to show for it either, so I'm reserving judgment. I hope that success will serve as the best deodorant for him.
To be fair, nobody's saying Roberts' videos don't look good. They look fantastic. Just check out the Squadron 42 trailer above. It's all cinematics, no gameplay. But the subdued moodiness and eye-opening possibilities still fill my lungs with air, despite the who-cares dialogue. It's just been hard to curb our enthusiasm for six years now.
Neither Star Citizen or Squadron 42 are ready for prime time, but building Roberts' magnum opus was always going to be a task that'd take awhile. Yes, Star Citizen has been six years in development, but plenty of high-profile games have taken longer. Like L.A. Noire (seven years), Spore (eight years), Team Fortress 2 (nine years), Prey and Diablo III (both took 11 years). Of course, the granddaddy of them all is still Duke Nukem Forever weighing in at 15 years. Yes, there's a difference between development and delays, but you get the picture.
Roberts hasn't hit the Top 10 Development Hell list yet, but he will soon enough, and I tend to think that's okay. I literally couldn't play 10 minutes of Star Citizen's open beta in April without my computer crashing, so there was nothing for me to write home about, and it's indicative that Roberts still has a long road ahead. But hey, when it launches—sometime closer to the time frame it took Team Fortress 2 or Diablo III to develop—then maybe I'll have an upgraded PC that will hold all of Roberts' dreams in it.
Star Citizen and Squadron 42 are still baking. They're still more of an idea than a game at this point. But that's fine. Rome wasn't built in a day, yadda yadda.
