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We often hear about how people working in the space industry first had their interest piqued by space movies and games , but someone working in the space industry for over a decade before making the jump to developing video games is a much rarer tale. But that's exactly what happened for Stefan Moluf, a programmer at games studio RocketWerkz who spent nearly 12 years working as a Flight Software Engineer for SpaceX.
His experience fits the bill, though, as the team at RocketWerkz — led by Dean Hall, creator of hit survival game DayZ — is working on a spiritual successor to Kerbal Space Program, called Kitten Space Agency (KSA). What's more, Felipe Falanghe, creator of the original Kerbal Space Program, is also working on the project.
The team has just dropped a surprise pre-alpha build of the game , so we sat down with Stefan to talk about how his experience at SpaceX prepared him for game development, and how the team at RocketWerkz is taking a unique approach to game design and distribution to create what they hope will be the ultimate spaceflight simulator experience.
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Moluf explained that RocketWerks isn't being coy about the inspiration, saying it's "unashamedly a spiritual successor to Kerbal Space Program ." But for the uninitiated, what does that mean?
"It's a space flight simulator, but also like a rocket building, engineering, and exploration game," explained Moluf. "It's designed to capture all the different pieces of it; building a rocket, flying it, landing on other planets, and exploring; experiencing the engineering challenges and the wonder of space flight."
Learning from the mistakes of the past
Kerbal Space Program 2, the ill-fated sequel now trapped in perpetual early access. (Image credit: Private Division)
Fans of the series will know that Kerbal Space Program already had a successor — it was called Kerbal Space Program 2 , and it did not go well. Development issues plagued the project, which was released in early access to a middling reception. And there it stayed, as 2K Games shut down the developer, Intercept Games, and it's now been 17 months since the game received an update. So, what went wrong? And how is RocketWerkz looking to avoid the same fate for KSA?
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