Development veteran Chris Roberts (pictured) has provided an update on how the single-player portion of the wildly ambitious Star Citizen, Squadron 42, is faring.

In a video update – as reported by PCGamesN – Roberts said that the game is still in development, and that developer Cloud Imperium Games would be releasing it when it was ready.

Roberts also admitted that communication with the Star Citizen audience hasn't been as strong as it could have been.

“We haven’t been happy with how effectively we’ve been showing progress on Squadron 42, as we felt the previous format didn’t do a good job of all in communicating just how much work is going on,” Roberts said.

“Squadron 42 is a tricky project to communicate on as we really don’t want to give the experience and story away which can make updating on certain content or features challenging. Squadron 42 will be done when it is done, and will not be released just to make a date but instead once all the tech and content is finished, polished and it plays great. I am not willing to compromise making a game I believe in with all my heart and soul,” he later told the community. “Even though everyone (including me) wants Squadron 42 sooner than later, it would be doing a huge disservice to everyone working really hard on the project and all of you that are looking forward to it to deliver something that isn’t great.”

Star Citizen is the super ambitious space MMO that started life on Kickstarter back in 2012. There is no release date for the game yet, but it has managed to raise $314.8m in funds from 2.8m backers.

Last month, Roberts lamented the cynicism surrounding the game.