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DayZ creator reveals a “Kerbal Space Program killer” with kittens and challenges license owners to sue himA new solar system! Multiplayer! Life support! Possibly out in 2025!
A new solar system! Multiplayer! Life support! Possibly out in 2025!
Image credit:RocketWerkz / Rock Paper Shotgun
Image credit:RocketWerkz / Rock Paper Shotgun
StationeersandIcarusdevelopers RocketWerkz are making a spiritual successor to beloved space simKerbal Space Program, which is currently titled “Kitten Space Agency” in a flagrant display of adherence to wholesome internet trends. It’s based on an actualKerbal Space Program 2pitch the studio threw at Take-Two subsidiary Private Division back in the day. RocketWerkz CEO and originalDayZcreatorDean Hallhas hired several former KSP and KSP2 developers to work on the game, and is describing it on social media as a “KSP killer”.
I’m not sure KSP2, at least, needs to be “killed” at this point. The sequel - which once thrilled with talk of interstellar travel and lightyear-wide braking manouevres - appears to have beenabandoned, with Take-Two gutting developers Intercept Games back in May. Still, I’m happy to learn that somebody else is wrestling with the important problem of how you simulate an entire solar system without blowing up your office.
“I put a lot of work with into a good design document and opted to keep the focus entirely on this design and the technical aspects of the project,” he continues. “This was a serious problem for two of the people on the call who said we were the only pitch that did not contain art. Obviously our studio wasn’t chosen.” (I have fixed a couple of Hall’s typos here, because I am nice.)
The studio’s catlike KSP slayer/reviver is being made with a set of in-house C# development tools, the BRUTAL Framework, which RocketWerkz feistily advertise as being “complicated, slow, and difficult to use”. The key asset of the BRUTAL Framework seems to be that it lets developers and modders work directly with your GPU via the Vulkan API, allowing for “tremendous” scale.
There’s a fair bit of technical detail in that Reddit thread, a mix of game engine specifics and abbreviated ruminations about physics. I fear to quote much of it in case I capitalise the wrong letter and accidentally delete my computer, or switch off local gravity. A lot of it is tilted towards modders: there are a few modders on the KSA team. But hidden in amongst phrases like “dealing with floating point precision loss” there is some chat about the project’s direction and features for us regular, Earth-dwelling folks.
Hallsaysthey’re aiming “To replicate the same feeling, commitment, and challenge of existing KSP”, because “base KSP is a great compromise between many factors when it comes to scale, and so we are not trying to reinvent that”. Instead, they’re focusing on “solid datastructures” and “ease of development for modders”. They’re planning to include off-world base building, life support systems, multiplayer functionality, and seamless movement between screens with no loading breaks during multicraft space missions.
The current builds use real-life solar system data for testing purposes, but the developers aim to construct their very own solar system for the game. The ship-building elements will be familiar, but RocketWerkz want to expand it with combinable “subparts” such as fairings and small tanks. And yes, Hall says the game currently has kitten characters, though that may change. “I think a certain amount of whimsy is important,” he notes.
One reachier goal is to add an n-body physics system. I’m going to screw up describing this, but essentially, an n-body physics system dynamically simulates the relationships between bodies based on gravity, rather than “baking in” their motions. It’s very hard to do this without dropping planets everywhere like balls of wool. RocketWerkz say there’s a “small chance” of RocketWerkz developing such a simulation internally - they’re currently trying to hire somebody with a PhD to apply the requisite high-density brain-magic - but it’s likely this will be left for modders to figure out.
You might wonder what Kerbal Space Program rights holders Take-Two Interactive make of all this. Are RocketWerkz concerned about getting sued for copyright theft or patent infringement? Not at all,saysHall. “They are welcome to try! Would be some great publicity for us. Also, I’m very bitter as I think they are a terrible company. So bring it on! We have great lawyers.” Well then.
