Devnote Tuesday: A big announcement

[TeddyDD]

Oh how nice! *yawn* Good luck writing 50% of your game from scratch.

Now, where is devnote?

And they claim porting wouldn't negatively effect development

What about rushing 1.0?

[Superfluous J]

I don't think porting to PS4 will affect PC development, and I don't think it has. All it's affected so far is that the version number is 1.x instead of 0.2x

[Tourist]

sigh.... congratulations Squad, that's a real coup.... so many more potential customers who can now enjoy this great game, more people for our community, awesome.... but.... don't you know your audience here by now? Come on, this is the kind of crowd that gets fractious about minor balancing changes... let alone something this major. And god forbid we don't get our beloved dev notes....

So Squad, this is a great announcement* and you should be proud of what you have achieved with the game. I might even buy it again myself on the PS4.

But announcing here, in the dev notes section, with current users keenly awaiting word of the next update, seems a little tone deaf.

Separate announcement, along with "slow news day III" dev note, would have been better (the natives would still become restless of course, but my thinking is not as much.)

*so long as it does not negatively affect the experience of current PC (and potato laptop) users experience.... which I'm sure it won't of course.

[passinglurker]

As long as this doesnt affect the development of pc KSP I couldnt care if they ported it to PS4 and Xbox.

An actual devnote tommorrow would be nice.

It already has why do you think 1.0 was rushed out?

[basic.syntax]

They've been working on KSP for 3-4 years. A porting job done by an outside company that understands Unity games can't be the same amount of distracting workload for Squad, as it would be to create a new game from scratch, for multiple platforms at once.

Edit: added

It's just speculation to think that 1.0 was "rushed," given their previous release schedule of something new every 4 months or so. Each and every release, early access or the one Beta, players wished for more bug fixing and features and testing. It's then another leap of speculation that it was "rushed" because Sony asked for it by a certain date. Sony announces the game should be available next year, I think if Sony was so demanding, it would have been announced today for holiday delivery, not 2016.

Edited June 17, 2015 by basic.syntax

[liweih]

I noticed that max like to post his information on tweet and reddit instead of the forum. I hoped i was wrong.

[passinglurker]

They've been working on KSP for 3-4 years. A porting job done by an outside company that understands Unity games can't be the same amount of distracting workload for Squad, as it would be to create a new game from scratch, for multiple platforms at once.

they needed the game to be "released" before they could hand the console work off to the other studio so in a way this port has negatively effected development by rushing 1.0

[ss8913]

I really don't get this... anyone who has ONLY a console generally isn't going to care about something like KSP, they aren't into that sort of thing.. they like teabagging and bunny hopping and telling their friends how awesome their 720p looks in 2015 and how it's fun to play dumbed down versions of games (ie, mass effect, others). Not to say there aren't PS4 owners who DO play KSP, but these people also have computers and use consoles for things like rock band and netflix and things that consoles actually make sense for. Not sure I'd really predict a lot of PS4 or any kind of console sales for KSP. Maybe they're going to start a kickstarter or something asking US for $20 to NOT make this port? That would probably end up grossing them more money than actually releasing it on PS4 to an audience who couldn't give two ....s about a game with no weapons in it or which requires any degree of scientific thought. (ha - BD Armory, sure, but ... no mods, so none of that.)

[Wallygator]

I'm beginning to think that the recent shift from "Developer control" to "Producer control" is behind these decisions and announcements.

I get the impression that Squad needs to continue to make a few more poorly timed decisions in order for them to learn from their mistakes.

Don't get me wrong - we need both controls in place - but they need to be working together for check and balance - something that seems to not be in effect at the moment.

Also, I'm sad they forgot about the Sega Genesis - just saying... since Flying Tiger is all so proud their CDMA work.

[Luis]

I have a PS4 as well as a PC and I'd be interested to see what KSP looks like on that. In particular, the restricted input methods might force Squad to redo the manoeuvre node editor, which is pretty unusable for interplanetary transfers right now. I suppose mods could also be handled as DLC in the Playstation Store, which might mean that the best mod authors could get some money for their work. I wouldn't be opposed to that either.

These predictions of doom and catastrophe also preceded the console port of Minecraft but rumours of its demise seem to have been greatly exaggerated.

[Torquemadus]

So, we've discovered that KSP is being brought to a wider audience, which is good, and doing so is helping progress towards Unity 5, which is good! I'm glad to see that Squad are planning for the long term future of KSP!

[grosser_Salat]

squad getting more money is great, fantastic, and awesome. But telling pc gamers that one of their favorite games is about the be dumbed down for consoles will never be met with cheers. This is what I am concerned about.

Absolutely my opinion. It distracts capacities, which I expected to improve existing stuff, not to feed console-kiddies.

[YargJay9991]

Also, remember some people lack the computer specs to play KSP to its full potential. But the PS4 is quite a fast operating system I believe, and would probably be able to run KSP with reasonably high graphics. This means "limited" players would be able to enjoy KSP even more that they had done previously. I think it's a good call, but I have my concerns.

Also, my opinion here is very limited as the latest PlayStation I own is the PS2. Therefore I have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about as I have never touched a PS4.

[Streetwind]

Huh. Color me genuinely surprised! In the past, whenever Maxmaps talked about negotiating deals with partners, it was things like printing rockets or making Kerbal plushies... which is nice and stuff, but not really that hype-worthy.

This, by contrast, is a bombshell.

I wish you good luck with that project, and hope the PS4 community treats you better than the PC community does. Because honestly, some of the people in this thread have me feeling ashamed to be in the same forum with them.

[Screeno]

Looked at the flying tiger website... Oh my god... Their games look so bad its actually making me cringe... Please squad... I don't think you want to work with these plebs.

[regex]

Squad, you used to know how to communicate with your fans and customers. You did it well, and often. Reading your messages frequently made me happy.

Why did you change?

According to some people around here we're all a bunch of howling, poo-throwing monkeys. Of course, that assumes that Squad actually communicated in the first place. I have yet to see a roadmap for the game, or even the inkling that one exists (the fact that career mode is what it is pretty much convinced me that Squad never had any plan whatsoever).

[Schmonzo]

so, I am guessing that after ps4 release we should not expect any new features anymore? Does that mean dreaded multiplayer and that's it until dlc?

Also, are ps 4 owner able to mod their games? If not, I am really interested how many hours they'll lock into the game in comparison to pc gamers...

[japa]

I hope this results in better controller support for the PC release. Maybe even being able to play the fully game from my couch?

[Hotblack Desiato]

People have come back from vacation so there wasn't much content to put in the devnotes that wasn't flat out spoiling the PS4 announcement. Thankfully I can say that the dev cycle on 1.0.3 is nearly done now, and you'll hear more as the week progresses.

well, than take it this way: that little piece of information about 1.0.3 would have been very nice in the devnote

[Alewx]

Disappointing.

[basic.syntax]

...that assumes that Squad actually communicated in the first place. I have yet to see a roadmap for the game, or even the inkling that one exists ....

This (a few example links) looks like communication to me. Many of these plans were delivered. Some didn't make it. I think they have a larger roadmap, in pencil or post-it notes on a whiteboard that get moved around probably monthly, and choose not to share it, partly for that reason.

KSP 0.21 Update News

0.23 Update News

The 0.24 Update Goals Post!

Beta Than Ever: The Future of KSP

[Ryds]

I've just got into making spaceplanes and I fly them with my PS4 controller. It's not awful but it's not great either - I hope that the experience of working with a PS4 developer enables Squad to sort out proper PS4 controller support. I really can't see how a controller will be easy to use in the VAB or SPH but then I'm not considering buying it on PS4 so I don't really care. So long as work continues on the PC version I'm fine with KSP being on PS4 and I hope it becomes a valuable revenue stream for the devs. We just don't know if PS4 KSP will impact the PC version yet so there's no point in all this doomsaying.

I think a lot of the disappointment here on the thread stems from the fact that Squad have called the game 1.0 but there is still a lot of work to do on it and people are worried that the devs will lose focus. KSP has fantastic community support and actually a fantastic community but since 0.90 Squad has been making decisions which are threatening to lose that support and I worry that once they lose the trust and support of their fans and modders then they won't be able to get it back.

Keep listening to your community Squad and keep working with the modders who make your game better because I'm sure you must have started dreaming about KSP 2.0 - but if you lose your fans in 1.x then the next version will never be as successful.

[r4pt0r]

Im ready for next weeks Devnotes where they say "Last weeks PS4 announcement went great, we are all glad to have everyone's undivided support."

[Xannari Ferrows]

You get what you get. I for one think this is a grand step in a good direction. Expanding the reaches of KSP into a whole new realm of entertainment is a massive undertaking. Never without bumps in the road, of course, but I say the end result is likely to soar above what I think the quality will be, no matter how high.

I'll get myself a copy of this, along with No Man's Sky when they come out. No rush though. Refining is the most important, and often most time consuming step of any product development.

[Alewx]

People have come back from vacation so there wasn't much content to put in the devnotes that wasn't flat out spoiling the PS4 announcement. Thankfully I can say that the dev cycle on 1.0.3 is nearly done now, and you'll hear more as the week progresses.

And people have been at vacation in the past two weeks and you managed to get a decent Devblog out there.

Also PS4 decision smells like the one for Course.