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  • A Fond Farewell


    Ted

     

     

    For the past four years, I’ve worked alongside the most talented, passionate and dauntingly intelligent people I’ve ever met, on a game like no other. It's come time though, to step back and focus on other things.


    Four years ago, I successfully applied for a forum moderator position on the forums and spent the next six months helping run every facet of it. Due to the development model that Kerbal Space Program followed, early access to updates was available to moderators for the purposes of testing and I became very interested in that. As the game grew, so did the demand for more rigorous and organised testing, and soon I worked with the developers to expand and invigorate our Experimental Testing Team. Not long after this, around the time we moved to Unity 4, we set up the QA Team and I volunteered for one of the QA positions.


    About five months later, I was employed as QA Lead and Director on KSP. I held this position through the rest of KSP’s early access and into release. It was an extremely rewarding time and one that presented a myriad of challenges that we overcame as a team.


    After version 1.0 released, I moved to the role of Technical Producer. In this role I assisted the developers with organising, documenting and communicating development, oversaw the QA and Experimental phases and ran many, many meetings and standups.

     

    Kerbal is a project like no other; it’s a game like no other, it has taught me innumerable lessons about software development, game design, QA... the list goes on. I’ve met tens, if not hundreds of absolutely amazing people who have done things that I could only hope to achieve. I’ve watched KSP affect people’s lives in ways I would never have imagined; inspiring them to pursue careers in aerospace and astronomy, enjoying time with their friends on a rainy day or just having fun.

     

    In the time since I started working on KSP, the community has grown exponentially through a massive amount of initiative and enthusiasm from you all. The feats you’ve accomplished in-game and within the community are awe-inspiring.

     

    Working on KSP has been a dream come true, it’s a game I have always loved to play and loved even more so to work on. Four years is a long time and after all this time, it’s time that I move on and let someone else take the reins. I couldn’t have asked for a better team to have worked with, or a better project to work on. I’ll truly miss the game, the development team and - perhaps most of all - the brilliant community. You’ve all changed my life for the better in countless ways and given me hope, not just for gaming communities, but for the brilliance of people.

     

    Thanks and all the best.

     

    7lguyx6.png


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    1 hour ago, Combatsmithen said:

    As of late it seems like loads of people are bailing off the KSP team lol

    It makes sense, the game has been released for a while now. Maintaining a piece of software isn't nearly as exciting as creating a new one. That having been said, lots of folks love coming in and perfecting things (Nathan et al), or creating amazing new things to throw on top of a functional framework (think modders, or all the modders who are now working for Squad).

    Not surprised in the least over here.

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    In the deep shaded recesses of the build server, the fallow prey code relaxes as the alpha predator moves away, lured by the scent of fresh prey further afield

    Unfortunately this moments relaxation costs it dearly, and the eternal struggle continues [read in either David Attenborough or David Bellamy's voice]

     

    Thanks for everything along the way @Ted, please stay in touch!

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    Cheers mate, keep in touch!

    And I don't think people are "bailing." I think it's a logical transition period and time of reflection. Are they not allowed to leave when they feel the time is right? Are they to be shackled to the game for life? The fact that they are announcing it publicly does them credit. Transition and change are a part of life, nothing about this strikes me as "abandon ship mode activated."

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    Have at it chap. You've got some serious experience and skills. Go make sure another excellent game isn't a buggy pile of poop. Game on. Excellent etc.

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    On 7/4/2016 at 10:41 AM, cantab said:

    Another one flees the ship. Probably just as well for Ted with the looming icebergs emblazoned "PS4" and "XBox One". KSP might sail smoothly between them. Might.

    People were saying not to panic as two employees don't make a trend.  How about three?

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    So long Mr. Ted and thanks so much for all your hard work in such an amazing game, I have been enjoying it from the day I uploaded it and plan to for years to come, Kerbal Space Program and the Forums have become a place where I can be creative for dirt cheap and enjoy having fun with others like me. Also I think when NASA met Squad it's not just a game anymore it's high tech fun! Thanks again and I do look forward to seeing your next endeavors.

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    Dear Ted,

    Thank you.

    I'm super happy for you, man! I trust that your future holds much more that will bring you joy.

    I don't think too much can be said in thanks for your leadership in this project. Please stay in touch, sir.

    - M

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    1 minute ago, Waseemq1235 said:

    KSP is falling apart, no no no..

    Isn't that a little alarmist?  Ted left more than two months ago, there haven't been any major departures since, and there's a great team of developers and QA folks working to push out 1.2.  The new features for 1.2 look great - doesn't seem to be falling apart to me, seems to be in pretty good health.

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    Just now, panarchist said:

    Isn't that a little alarmist?  Ted left more than two months ago, there haven't been any major departures since, and there's a great team of developers and QA folks working to push out 1.2.  The new features for 1.2 look great - doesn't seem to be falling apart to me, seems to be in pretty good health.

    Kasper also left us..

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    2 minutes ago, Waseemq1235 said:

    Kasper also left us..

    Ah, then I stand corrected on major departures.

    Any game producer is going to have fairly high turnover once a game becomes feature-complete.  It's normal for the industry.

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    1 hour ago, panarchist said:

    Ah, then I stand corrected on major departures.

    Any game producer is going to have fairly high turnover once a game becomes feature-complete.  It's normal for the industry.

    I agree with you completely, but the game also isn't feature-complete.

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    2 hours ago, Andem said:

    I agree with you completely, but the game also isn't feature-complete.

    True, it's Scope-complete, but it's pretty close to feature-complete.  1.2 is supposed to have it almost there.  Hard to say since the current crew may have a different notion of what that entails than Harvestr did.

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