Chris Roberts is a British-American video game designer, programmer, film producer and film director. He created the Wing Commander series while at Origin Systems and since 2010 has been working on the crowdfunded space simulator Star Citizen.

Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over US$34 billion was raised worldwide by crowdfunding.