Creator Chris Roberts has laid a development schedule and the release of Star Citizen Alpha 3.0. According to Roberts, the release will give the gameplay a giant leap in potential. Looking at the scope of what Start Citizen hopes to accomplish, Roberts believes that this is the most ambitious game ever made.

Star Citizen Alpha 3.0 is a major milestone for the game, according to Roberts. Players will have the opportunity to try the games “Planetary Tech” in what they’re calling a “live-build”. This planetary tech will create a new landscape for adventure, here’s what Roberts had to say about it:

“In the same way that Large World and Physics Grids created new possibilities in gameplay by allowing players to go from walking around a space station to boarding a ship, flying it hundreds of thousands of kilometers, exiting their pilot seat, walking to an airlock, opening it and EVAing over to a derelict station, all from the same point of view, the Planetary Tech takes it one massive leap further.”

Ultimately the Star Citizen Alpha 3.0 update’s Planetary Tech will enable players to fly to a planet or one of its moons, set down, and explore it. This will be accomplished on foot or in a vehicle with a seamless approach to the process. According to Roberts, this shift will take the game well beyond what they had initially promised.

“All seamlessly, all with the incredible first person detail that Star Citizen is known for,” Roberts said. “With this we are delivering something that goes way beyond the initial promises and conception of Star Citizen; we will be simulating a First person Universe with almost no limits. It’s a great illustration of how with the support of a Community as great as Star Citizen’s anything is possible.”

The Start Citizen Alpha 3.0 update is shooting for a June launch date. Once available, there will be three moons that players can land on. Cellin, Yela, and Dayman will all be explorable. Stanton’s main landing zones will come a little later than expected according to Roberts.

“We had originally hoped to deliver most of the Stanton Landing Zones with the first release of Planetary Tech, but that proved optimistic once the talented team at Behaviour, who had built ArcCorp, Levski, Grim HEX, and had begun work on the remaining landing zones of Stanton, moved off Star Citizen and onto another Behaviour project in December. We had been steadily shifting our reliance away from external resources and we felt it would be unfair to block them from the opportunity to work on their own game. Unfortunately, replacing an Environment team of over 20 is no small task, which has set back the progress we had originally planned to make on the landing zones of Stanton. As of today, we have just abut replaced the team with internal hires and we are continuing to hire additional environment artists as fast as we can find ones that meet our quality bar. The Environment Team is now some 37 artists strong, so long term we feel we are better situated to deliver the vast amount of locations that Star Citizen and Squadron 42 needs.”

Planetary Tech isn’t all that is coming with the Star Citizen Alpha 3.0 update. Player interaction mode will allow players a wider variety of gameplay and actions. A myriad of new outposts, missions, ships, debris fields and more are available and all the details are available here!

Roberts feels that getting to share their in-depth roadmap is a pretty big deal. Giving players a breakdown of when features will arrive and if they are delayed the players can understand why gives Star Citizen a unique relationship many developers don’t have. This kind of transparency, especially when they operate on the donations of the community, means players will know exactly what they’re getting for their money. The enthusiasm surrounding Star Citizen is sure to carry it even further as fans and developers work together to create a truly unique and interesting game.

Is Star Citizen as ambitious as it claims? As a community project, can Star Citizen do things other developers can’t or won’t? Join in on the conversation in the comment section below or start one on Disqus! Don’t forget to follow the official Twitter for live gaming and entertainment news 24/7!