Blender Used In Star Citizen Concept Development

Paul D. Larson writes:

Those who have followed the development of Star Citizen, the biggest crowd-funded game project in history with hundreds of millions of dollars raised, may have noticed that the two or three main 3D packages referenced in previous episodes of Inside Star Citizen (and in episodes of Around the Verse before that) were Maya, 3DS Max, and Houdini. In the most recent edition of Inside Star Citizen posted on Thursday, host Jared Huckaby mentioned Blender and indicated that it was used in concept development for upcoming Star Citizen homesteads. He said the following (see 8:38 to 9:51 of the video):

"Finally, several weeks ago we showcased some initial concept explorations for homesteads, frontier housing to be found out in the wilderness areas of undeveloped planets and moons, and there were a lot to choose from. So the next step has been to turn some of those 2D sketches that we really liked into 3D sketches in Blender to further explore the shape language, to see these things from as many different angles as possible and to begin to build out a library of kit-bash options for us to play with. At this stage, one of the main things we're looking for in fleshing out this colonial architectural vibe visually is that it looks like it can survive in many different climates, perhaps with a...a patchy motif that indicates generations of use instead of the outright replacement of components that could keep them looking newer. As far as shape language, these efforts will also be used to help us land on a specific direction of cubical, conical, spherical, or some mix therein. Like most concepts, these visual explorations are just as important in figuring out what we do want as determining what we do not. "

Of course, the use of Maya and Houdini will likely continue to be staples of Star Citizen, but it is nice to see that Blender has made its way into the development of what is one of the biggest game development projects in history.