GamesRPGThe long-awaited sequel to The Ur-Quan Masters hits its crowdfunding target in less than four hours, and they’re not kidding about that $4.4 million stretch goalWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
GamesRPGThe long-awaited sequel to The Ur-Quan Masters hits its crowdfunding target in less than four hours, and they’re not kidding about that $4.4 million stretch goalWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
After a long, rocky road, the sequel to Free Stars: The Ur-Quan Masters is finally taking flight. AKickstarter campaignto support the development of Free Stars: Children of Infinity got underway earlier this week, and it’s already a major success, having tripled its $100,000 goal in just three days.
“We really weren’t sure what to expect, but we were surprised and quite flattered to see so many people turn out with so much enthusiasm!” Gerstein told PC Gamer. “One of the best feelings as a creator is getting to actually put your work out in the world and get feedback on it. After so many years on our journey to this point, we are simply thrilled to have the opportunity to bring so much happiness to people and create something we love that we can share with the gaming community.”
The gameplay in the Children of Infinity Kickstarter video will be almost immediately familiar to fans of The Ur-Quan Masters, and Gerstein said there will be “lots of little touches, callbacks, and reminders” of that game.
But it’s not meant to be purely a nostalgia project: Fred Ford said developers “want it to be a familiar place that will beckon to the fanbase, while updating it enough to modern sensibilities to entice new players into the lore and universe.”
The core elements of that gameplay are similarly connected to the early days of the series, both in the open-ended freedom players have as they make their way across the stars—Gerstein called it “letting the player ‘Be the Captain’"—and in its “diversity of storytelling and how aliens express themselves,” a nod to the fact that some of the alien races in The Ur-Quan Masters are, to be blunt, a little goofy.
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“There are weird aliens, scary aliens, and funny aliens in our fiction,” Gerstein said. “The aliens, however, always take themselves completely seriously. The player may laugh at them or be scared of them, but the aliens don’t think that: they are convinced of themselves.”
Image1of3(Image credit: Pistol Shrimp Games)(Image credit: Pistol Shrimp Games)(Image credit: Pistol Shrimp Games)
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(Image credit: Pistol Shrimp Games)
(Image credit: Pistol Shrimp Games)
(Image credit: Pistol Shrimp Games)
(Image credit: Pistol Shrimp Games)
(Image credit: Pistol Shrimp Games)
(Image credit: Pistol Shrimp Games)
(Image credit: Pistol Shrimp Games)
(Image credit: Pistol Shrimp Games)
(Image credit: Pistol Shrimp Games)
(Image credit: Pistol Shrimp Games)
(Image credit: Pistol Shrimp Games)
(Image credit: Pistol Shrimp Games)
(Image credit: Pistol Shrimp Games)
(Image credit: Pistol Shrimp Games)
(Image credit: Pistol Shrimp Games)
There’s also an element of “be the captain” in Pistol Shrimp’s decision to make an Ur-Quan Masters sequel more than 30 years after the release of Star Control 2. “This was the last game where we controlled virtually the entire development (e.g. design, engineering, production, etc.),” Ford explained.
“We poured our hearts and souls into it and nobody told us we couldn’t. As our careers progressed, we were obliged to take more and more direction from our publishers, because the money required became larger and larger. We wanted to return to that unfettered position and we still had fans waiting patiently.”
The Free Stars: Children of Infinity Kickstarter has already knocked off more than a half-dozen stretch goals including “enhanced super melee,” more ships, and Mac and Linux versions, and with 28 days left in the campaign there’s plenty of room for more. The final stretch goal, a promise to make the entire thing open source after two years if the Kickstarter hits $4.4 million, seems like a distant dream and maybe not entirely serious, but Pistol Shrimp isn’t kidding.
(Image credit: Pistol Shrimp Games (Kickstarter))
“Open-source is a big reason for our being able to make this game,” Ford said. “The open-source version of The Ur-Quan Masters, which has been active for over two decades has spawned community mods and kept the lights on for this sequel.
“Releasing everything would be a nice bookend and allow fans to contribute their own ideas. It also happens to be our continuing livelihood and getting to this point has been long and hard; so putting a price on that seems only right.”
It might be a long shot, but with $300,000 raised over three days, anything seems possible, and The Ur-Quan Masters clearly has enduring appeal. The Free Stars: Children of Infinity Kickstarter campaign runs until May 17—Pistol Shrimp hopes to have the game out sometime in 2025.
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