X-Wing Designer Kickstarts New Space Dogfighting Game

The lead designer on the classic LucasArts Star Wars: X-Wing series has launched a Kickstarter for a new space dogfighting game, which looks very much like the spiritual successor to the X-Wing games. David Wessman, whose CV includes Crysis, Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries, Halo 3, and Homefront, on top of the X-Wing games, is launching Starflighter Inc., which Wessman pitches as “World of Tanks meets Counter Strike in space”.

“This is the next great space shooter,” Wessman extols in the project’s Kickstarter video. “This is the next X-Wing. We want to capture that intense, immersive feeling of being in the cockpit.”

Adding to Wessman’s experience is a team that boasts Jack Mamais (Far Cry, Crysis, Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries) and Nate Walpole (Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 4, and Elder Scrolls Online) under the banner of Impeller Studios. The studio has been trying to sell the game to publishers since 2013, but has now opted for the crowdfunding model.

“Our hope is that by bringing the game to the Kickstarter community, we can make this dream a reality,” the team wrote on their campaign page. “We spent a lot of time at GDC last year shopping the game around, so we had time to chat in between meetings. Even though we were tired from hours of pitching, one interesting realization emerged from our conversations. The most successful projects we’ve all worked on, both in terms of commercial success and in terms of how we felt about them, were projects that tapped directly into the community.”

Starfighter Inc. has so far raised $39,499 on Kickstarter at the time of writing (and rising every minute, it seems) of its $250,000 pledge goal with 31 days to go.

Thank you Polygon for providing us with this information.