Development team

The development team working on Star Citizen and Squadron 42 consists of over a thousand people spread around the world. On top of Cloud Imperium Games' in-house studios, many contractors and partners have contributed into the project.

In 2020-12, CIG itself had a total of 695 staff. 512 of whom were developers. As of July 2023, 1100 CIG staff were working on Star Citizen, not counting third party partners.

Cloud Imperium Games, LLC

Located in sunny Los Angeles, California, CIG LA is Cloud Imperium's flagship studio. Home to Chris Roberts and much of the company's leadership, CIG LA represents a cross-section of the company and includes the ship development pipeline, technical designers, high level engineering, community, marketing and more.

• Mark Abent - Lead Gameplay Programmer
• Elwin Bachiller - Associate Vehicle Art Director
• Sandi Gardiner - Vice President of Marketing
• Jared Huckaby - Creative Content Lead
• Chris Roberts - Chairman & CEO
• Forrest Stephan - Principal Technical Artist
• Eric Kieron Davis - Chief People Officer
• Kirk Tome - Lead Systems Designer
• Steven Hosmer - Senior Systems Designer

• Todd Papy - Star Citizen Live Director
• Pete Mackay - Senior Designer
• Ben Lesnick - Director of Community Engagement and Content Strategy
• John Pritchett - Senior Physics Programmer
• Josh Herman - Character Art Director
• Justin Wentz - Concept Artist

Cloud Imperium Games Texas, LLC

The team at Cloud Imperium Games Texas' Austin studio (Bee Cave, Texas) is responsible for making the Star Citizen persistent universe. The DevOps team is also located in Austin, keeping servers running and building out the infrastructure needed for Star Citizen.

As of 2018-02-16, CIG Austin has a total of 71 staff working on Star Citizen.

• Tony Zurovec - Director of Persistent Universe
• Chris Smith - Lead Vehicle Artist
• Sean Tracy - Senior Director, Tools and Tech Content

• Rob Reininger - Assistant Director of Systemic Gameplay and Services
• Elijah McNeal - Concept Artist

Cloud Imperium Games Ltd.

Formerly known as Foundry 42, Ltd. The heart of Manchester, England is also the heart of Star Citizen 's Squadron 42 single player game. This fully-equipped development team is responsible for creating a unique cinematic experience in the Star Citizen world.

As of 2018-02-16, F42 Manchester had a total of 234 staff working on Star Citizen. In early 2024, a relocation of staff to the Manchester studio took place, bringing the number of CIG staff there to 600.

• Erin Roberts - Studio Director & Global Head of Production
• Zane Bien - Global UI Creative Director
• Derek Senior - Programming Director
• Nick Elms - Creative Director
• Nathan Dearsley - Squadron 42 Art Director
• Phil Meller - Lead Designer
• Mike Snowdon - VFX Director
• Alistair Brown - Senior Technical Director, Graphics and Procedural Technology
• John Crewe - Vehicle Director
• Zoe Collier - Senior Producer
• Ben Parr - Lead Producer
• Jens Lind - Engineering Director
• Clive Johnson - Technical Director Network Programming
• Robert Johnson - Live Engineering Director
• Will Weissbaum - Assistant Narrative Director
• Dave Haddock - Narrative Director
• Steve Bender - Senior Animation Director

• Paul Jones - Art Director
• Joe Neville - Principal Vehicle Artist
• Corentin Billemont - Systems Designer
• Lee Banyard - Audio Director
• Simon Vickers - Lead Level Designer
• Steve Turberfield - Senior Technical Designer
• Ricky Jutley - Lead Producer

Cloud Imperium Games Ltd.

Formerly known as Foundry 42, Ltd. Frankfurt, Germany is home to Cloud Imperium's latest internal development studio. Staffed with top CryEngine development experts, Foundry 42 Germany is responsible for developing the pioneering backend technologies.

As of 2018-02-16, F42 Frankfurt had a total of 80 staff working on Star Citizen.

• Brian Chambers - Vice President of Development
• Chris Campbell - Assistant Lighting Director
• Francesco Roccucci - AI Director
• Hannes Appell - Director of Cinematics
• Christopher Bolte - Technical Director, Engine

• Tobias Wanke - Lead Weapons Artist

Cloud Imperium Games Ltd.

Formerly known as Foundry 42, Ltd. An official satellite studio of Foundry 42 Manchester, the Derby office is a small team looking after all aspects of the facial pipeline. From taking delivery of the Face Rigs from 3Lateral, implementing them in-game, taking all the face animation from Cubic Motion and also creating all the Facial animation for the PU that Cubic aren't doing.

As of 2018-02-16, F42 Derby has a total of 15 staff working on Star Citizen.

Cloud Imperium Montreal / Turbulent

Turbulent has been working with CIG since November 2012. They develop web platforms such as Spectrum, the Starmap, Issue Council, the website, and the launcher, as well as the Concierge program, telemetry system, community Hub, Galactapedia and Roadmap, while being part of the CIG efforts on cloud services, Persistent Entity Streaming, and Server Meshing.

In 2019 CIG went through a mutual investment with Turbulent. In 2020, Turbulent announced that the company will open a Montreal game studio focusing on building star systems for Star Citizen. Cloud Imperium Games acquired Turbulent on 2023-07-02. The CIG merger with Turbulent brought the headcount to 1110 at the time.

in 2025 part of Turbulent became Cloud Imperium Montreal, focusing on the development of Star Citizen and Squadron 42.

• Turbulent Homepage

3Lateral

3Lateral works with Cloud Imperium Games on character faces in Star Citizen.

• 3Lateral Homepage

Amazon

Amazon works with Cloud Imperium Games on the development of Amazon Lumberyard since 2015, which is what Star Engine based on. Amazon also provides game servers for Star Citizen on a cloud-based service called Amazon Web Services (AWS).

• Amazon Lumberyard Homepage

Entangled

Entangled Studio created 3D models for Star Citizen.

• Entangled Studio Homepage

Faceware Technologies

Faceware Technologies works with Cloud Imperium Games to develop the Face Over Internet Protocol (FOIP) feature that was built with Faceware's LiveSDK. A facial motion sensor specifically for Star Citizen was also in the works. However, since late 2018 no mention of the product has been made by either CIG or Faceware.

• Faceware Technologies Homepage

Honest PR

Honest PR is doing Public Relations work for Cloud Imperium Games since at least 2020.

• Honest PR Homepage

Intel

Intel works with Cloud Imperium Games to promote the Intel Optane series SSD for desktop users and workstations. They also sponsored hardware to CIG and also their conventions.

• Intel Homepage

One PR Studio

One PR Studio is a Public Relations organization that has been working with CIG since at least 2022 to 2024.

• One PR Studio Homepage

Perforce

Cloud Imperium Games utilize Perforce Helix to support its DevOps.

• Perforce Homepage

Tobii

Introduce official head and eye tracking support for the Tobii Eye Trackers.

• Tobbi Homepage

Twin

Twin does character modelling for Star Citizen.

• Twin Homepage

Versa Studios

Versa Studios does motion capture and has built the bespoke technical infrastucture to meet Cloud Imperium Games requirements.

• Versa Studios Homepage

Gamerizon

Gamerizon developed the interactive 3D part of the front-end javascript client for the Starmap.

As of July 2022 they are helping build Quantum.

• Gamerizon Homepage

ElevenLabs

ElevenLabs is a company that has built an AI voice platform and has partnered with Cloud Imperium Games.

• ElevenLabs Homepage

Other Partners

• David Ladyman - Editor at Incan Monkey God Studios (responsible for publications such as Jump Point)
• Geoff Zanelli - Composer for Squadron 42
• Jan Urschel - Freelance Concept Artist at Hendrix Design
• Pedro Macedo Camacho - Lead Composer for Star Citizen

Advanced Micro Devices

AMD partnered with CIG to promote their Radeon™ R9 or R7 Series graphics cards with Mustang Omega, as a part of the AMD Never Settle Space Edition promotion.

• Advanced Micro Devices Homepage

Airship Images

Airship Images is specialized in character arts and worked on characters, hairstyles and R&D tasks for CIG in the years 2016/2017.

• Airship Images Homepage

Atomahawk Design

Atomahawk design did concept art for Foundry42.

• Atomhawk Design Homepage

Behaviour Interactive

Behaviour Interactive (BHVR) is responsible for art production for Star Citizen since 2012-12-12. It was Behaviour Interactive that referred Turbulent to CIG to help work out website issues.

• Behaviour Interactive Homepage

CGBot

CGBot was responsible for the early concept arts and assets production for Star Citizen and Squadron 42. It is run by an Art Director who used to work with Chris Roberts at Origin Systems and Digital Anvil.

• CGBot Homepage

Clear Angle Studios

Clear Angle Studio did head scanning for the DNA pool.

• Clear Angle Studios Homepage.

Confetti SpecialFX

Confetti SpecialFX are a thinktank for advanced graphics technology that worked on a capital ship damage system and nebula effects for Star Citizen between the end of 2013 and end of 2014.

• Confetti SpecialFX Homepage

Crytek

Crytek was the game engine developer of CryEngine, the base game engine for Star Engine before the switch to Amazon Lumberyard in 2016. In 2017-12, Crytek filed a lawsuit against CIG on breach of the game license agreement (GLA). The case was dismissed with prejudice in March 2020.

• Crytek Homepage

Elite3D

Elite3D was a studio which worked on Star Citizen commercials, in-game characters, and helped with the first versions of the Argo MPUV and Bengal Class Carrier.

• Elite3D Homepage

Firesprite

Firesprite is contracted to Cloud Imperium Games in 2017-01-11. On 2021-03-18, CIG and Firesprite publicly announced the collaboration on the PvP combined-arms multiplayer mode, “Theaters of War”, which began in early 2019. In April 2021 CIG stated that development of Theaters of War was transfered to an internal team. Firesprite later reported that the company was acquired by PlayStaion Studios.

• Firesprite Homepage

IllFonic

IllFonic was responsible for the initial FPS module and the FPS components of the game.

• IIIFonic Homepage

Massive Black

Massive Black did concept art and ship design for Star Citizen, including the design of the 300i by Kemp Remillard in 2013.

• Massive Black Homepage

Mercuna

Mercuna is a developer of AI navigation middleware tasked with dogfighting AI and 3D pathfinding in a dynamic environment for Star Citizen.

• Mercuna Homepage

metricminds

metricminds is a animation studio specialising in cutscenes, they aided CIG with the Freelancer commercial.

• metricminds Homepage

Moon Collider

Moon Collider was responsible for the Kythera AI development prior to the development of Subsumption. CIG started working with Moon Collider in Spring 2013.

• Moon Collider Homepage

Rmory

Rmory was responsible for early weapon concept arts for Star Citizen and Squadron 42.

• Rmory Homepage

Side

Side was tasked with casting over 40 actors for Performance Capture shoots, its audio team was on-location to record all dialogue in sync to Mocap during the shoots, and provided characters and props for Star Citizen.

• Side Homepage

Streamline Studios

Streamline Studios worked on Squadron 42 art assets, such as the Vanduul ship models in 2014 and 2015, a number of their assets were leaked to the public in 2015 as part of the "Lando Leak".

• Streamline Studios Homepage

The Imaginarium

The Imaginarium was responsible for the motion capture mainly for Squadron 42, but also for the Persistent Universe.

• The Imaginarium Homepage

Warhorse Studios

Warhorse Studios, makers of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, proceeded to a sharing of Cryengine technologies and knowledge in 2014. On its end, CIG was particularly interested in the layering of cloth. As of 2016 CIG the collaboration had ended and CIG was working on its own solution, which has become StarCloth.

• Warhorse Studios Homepage

Wyrmbyte

Wyrmbyte was responsible for early network engineering for the Persistent Universe in 2014.

• Wyrmbyte Homepage

Virtuos

Virtuos was responsible for the early ship and prop assets in 2014.

• Virtuos Homepage

voidALPHA

voidALPHA was responsible for environment art till the end of 2015.

• voidALPHA Homepage

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