Mark Hamill, who appears in Star Citizen as Lt. Commander Steve Colton, discusses his experience doing voice and motion capture work for the ambitious sci-fi game.

Mark Hamill's career is currently experiencing a big upswing. The actor is reprising his iconic role as Luke Skywalker in the new Star Wars films, he's had some runs as The Trickster in The Flash TV series, and he's also enjoying some success in the world of video games, with his critically acclaimed portrayals of The Joker in the Batman: Arkham games. Not content to stop there, Hamill is also starring in the upcoming Star Citizen, and recently spoke about his experience working on the game in an interview with PC Gamer.

Star Citizen sees Hamill reunite creatively with game director Chris Roberts. The two worked together on the 1999 film Wing Commander, and Hamill thought that would be the end of their working relationship. However, thanks to Star Citizen, the two have a chance to work together yet again, and Hamill has enjoyed the experience, providing voice and motion capture work for the character Lt. Commander Steve "Old Man" Colton.

Hamill, who agreed to work on the game before even seeing a script, especially enjoyed the motion capture process.

"It's very equalizing to see everyone dressed exactly the same way--it doesn't matter if you're a principal player or a background artist. You spend a lifetime on movie sets, doing television and what-not, and you think you know something. Here you’re going back and learning it all over again. It's like being a child again, playing Robin Hood in your backyard. It's all pretending."

It's reassuring to know that Hamill has enjoyed working on the game, and may put to rest the recent rumblings that development on Star Citizen has been troubled. These rumors began when the Star Citizen FPS module was delayed, and then were compounded by executive producer Alex Mayberry leaving Cloud Imperium Games.

Since those issues, however, the second Alpha for Star Citizen was released, coinciding with the game reaching an impressive new milestone of surpassing $100 million in crowdfunding. It's clear that those working on Star Citizen, such as Hamill and the developers, are passionate about the project, and working hard to deliver the epic sci-fi experience that the many backers are expecting to receive come the game's full release in 2016.

2016 will be the year to make or break Star Citizen. If development on the ambitious project continues as expected and it hits its 2016 mark, it may be hailed as one of the strongest titles of the year. However, if it is delayed again and consumer confidence is shaken, it may spell bad news for the massive game. Hopefully some of the game's other actors, such as Gary Oldman and Gillian Anderson, follow Hamill's example to offer us additional insight into how Star Citizen is shaping up behind the scenes.

Star Citizen's full release is expected at some point in 2016 for PC and Linux, with Oculus Rift support.

Source: GameSpot