Star Citizen has come a long way since the original Kick Starter concepts for a Space game. In some ways we are looking at a different game to the one originally planned. Game release long overdue? No not really. If the game had been made with 5, 10, or even 50 Million dollars, it would have probably been released by now. As the project has grown in diversity and complexity, so have the issues. There have been set backs, some more major than others. So where are we now? I thought I would take a look at the original stretch goals pledges to see what has been fulfilled so far. You could dismiss these stretch goals, but actually if promises have been made in exchange for monetary support, then they have to be fulfilled in one form or another. You could for instance give an equivalent item, or even improve an item, but not remove an item without just cause. Without writing here every stretch goal promise, I can say that over 30 items have been fulfilled. Items such as some of the space ships, mission design, community updates etc How many items have not yet been fulfilled? I found over 80 items such as the creation of specific planets, other ships, items relating to squadron 42, free professional mod tools etc. Of these 80+ items, some we know of are currently in development. So based on this (and not including all the new tech) how long until games completion, 8, 10, 12 years? it could be that long (Seriously), but the figures don't tell the whole story. In the early days much of the game was sourced to third parties. That was a car crash waiting to happen, but was an initial obvious choice to keep overheads down with limited funds. Most of that has been rectified, which brings us to the next point. The money pot has grown far beyond anything anyone could have imagined. This has allowed a constant expansion of the in house team. Has the money been spent wisely?. Probably not entirely, but that is very subjective. The first four years, including setbacks doesn't feel like much progress has been made, but the rolling stone in the last year or so has been gathering momentum. There has been constant talk of new tech, more automation, tools, tools, and more tools, to speed the process up. This certainty takes time in development, but once implemented it does cause a kind of catch up, where a lot gets done in a shorter time period. It's like building a house. The foundations seem to take ages to do. Then all of a sudden, the house seems to go up very quickly. Think where there has been huge jumps that have to be tested. e.g. the first hanger and ships. the first bit of space combat (Arena Commander), first person shoot em up including zero gravity (Space Marine), the first space station (Port Olisar), the first planet-side place to walk around (Area 18), the first moon and planet to land on, the first solar system to fly in, including the calculations to run the solar system, multiple people walking around in a ship while it is flying, weapons, outfits, custom characters etc. This was a slow laborious process without automation tools in some areas. You can't automate everything, but it helps. There is a lot of work being done that we don't see relating to fleshing out the galaxy. With tools being implemented rather than developed, the speed of progress is only going to increase. Hold on there are two games to develop. Well yes and no, one of the delays in seeing Squadron 42 completed is having the same feel to both games (e.g. graphically, technically). Certain improvements to the PU game directly effect the Squadron 42 game, which is certainly delaying the games release, but outside of that, Squadron 42 is a far easier game to implement and many of the components of the game are already in place. So what about all the new tech, items and reworks that don't relate to the stretch goals? I love the reworks of the Connie, Freelancer, Cutless and I'm looking forward to the up and coming reworks. Face recognition. For me it doesn't enhance the game that much, but i'm still looking forward to seeing it. There is an incredible amount of new features in the game that was not originally planned, some of which are behind the scenes all helping to enhance the game. Of course there is a cost to all this. We have to wait longer for the final release. I get frustrated about this only out of a passion to play the game and seeing the potential for playing what hopefully will be a brilliant game when released. i thought it would be nice to just scratch the surface of the games development. looking back at some aspects and seeing where we are now. See the original Kick Starter Video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhsgiliheP0