Funding for Chris Roberts’ PC space sim climbs to all-new high; first-person combat to be added if support reaches $20 million.

The crowd-funding campaign for Chris Roberts’ upcoming PC space simulator Star Citizen has surpassed $18 million, up from $17 million less than one week ago. Star Citizen is already the most crowd-funded project–across all mediums–of all time.

“When we first proposed Squadron 42 and Star Citizen, the goal was to bring back space sims and prove that PC games never died. We thought that was an important goal worthy of our effort and your support,” developer Cloud Imperium Games said. “We never dreamed that you would take that even farther and become our partners in changing how games are developed. As always, thank you.”

Funding for Star Citizen currently stands at almost $18.4 million from nearly 250,000 backers.

For hitting the $18 million mark, players will unlock the “exclusive star system.” This means all supporters who backed the project prior to reaching $18 million will be able to start their in-game journey in a system that is unavailable to others as a starting point.

Cloud Imperium Games also announced that if funding reaches $20 million, first-person combat on “select lawless planets” will be added. No further details were given.

Star Citizen has been in development at Cloud Imperium Games for more than a year. The game itself includes a “sophisticated storyline” that is set in a persistent online universe.

According to Roberts, it will fuse elements of his previous games, Wing Commander and Freelancer. Support for the virtual-reality headset Oculus Rift is planned.

Star Citizen is expected to be released in late 2014.

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