"There's no easy way to say this."

[Superfluous J]

I'm surprised that this was posted on Reddit an hour ago and hasn't been reposted here yet.

submitted an hour ago by NathanKellRSS Dev/Former Dev

All good things must come to an end, and so it is for us. It is time for each of us to move on from Squad. Kerbal Space Program is an incredible game and has truly been a joy to create. We have greatly enjoyed working together with such a tightly-knit, professional, and talented development team, and with such a wonderful community. Over the last update cycle we’ve taken KSP to new heights and achieved great things with such a small team. We’ve finished work on update 1.2 and when Squad releases it, it will be a product of which we can be truly proud. We hope you share that opinion and we hope you enjoy playing it as much as we loved creating it.

Thank you all for the incredible community support. So long, and thanks for all the snacks!

Signed, in no particular order, your Kerbal developers Mike (Mu), Bill (Taniwha), Nathanael (NathanKell), Sébastien (Sarbian), Jim (Romfarer), Brian (Arsonide), Chris (Porkjet), Nathan (Claw)

 

[HoloYolo]

Didn't Nathan join just last year? It feels like he's leaving so early.

[OldLost]

These guys are some of the best modders the game has. It would be doubly-sad if the mods they've developed also ended. I hope this is not the case, but fear it is.

[regex]

Welp.

[Alshain]

Sarbian just joined the team a few months ago.  There is more than meets the eye here.

[Waxing_Kibbous]

This is a tough one, these guys are all super-awesome. Hopefully they stick around in the community!

[eddiew]

And then the bug reports start coming in and all the devs have gone?  

[monstah]

Wait, them all?? Crap, map.

Thank you, guys. For some of you it was a brief moment, for others not, but you were all great devs.

[worir4]

oh man. I guess there goes multiplayer....

Any ways, thanks for all your work guys. You made my favorite game of all time.

I speak for all of us when I say you will be missed and you are really appreciated. That goes to all that have worked on KSP in the past.

[monstah]

2 minutes ago, Alshain said:

Sarbian just joined the team a few months ago.  There is more than meets the eye here.

Definetely, but I'm not getting into that, same way I don't discuss politics at work. It's just a lousy can of worms and I already paid for this game some good 3 years ago, anyway.

I'm just sad that I was finally getting really satisfied with the game, and all my complaints seemed like they would be a thing of the past

[regex]

2 minutes ago, Alshain said:

Sarbian just joined the team a few months ago.  There is more than meets the eye here.

Modders join team, whip the code into shape, add some additional modding support, update the engine, crank out a few stellar updates, leave the dev team to pursue their own mods because the game is a terrible mess of broken game mechanics that are already hard-coded and would take too much time to rewrite for no cash.

[Superfluous J]

I know that several of these guys have (had? I'll freely admit I don't know any of them well though I consider several of them "internet friends") full time real jobs, and it is at least possible that some of them are leaving because 1.2 proved to be too much actual work for a part time job. I've quit jobs for similar reasons in the past.

The optimist in me hopes that's all this is. I tend to advise caution in these situations. I must admit though that I'm kind of concerned.

[monstah]

2 minutes ago, regex said:

Modders join team, whip the code into shape, add some additional modding support, update the engine, crank out a few stellar updates, leave the dev team to pursue their own mods because the game is a terrible mess of broken game mechanics that are already hard-coded and would take too much time to rewrite for no cash.

Only strange part is where they leave their paid jobs with access to hard-code and return to unpaid moddom o_O

(edit: not the only, the other strange part here is my double post)

Edited October 4, 2016 by monstah

[IronCretin]

O_o

[regex]

1 minute ago, monstah said:

Only strange part is where they leave their paid jobs with access to hard-code and return to unpaid moddom o_O

So maybe Squad fired terminated the contracts of all those guys?  Seems legit.

Edited October 4, 2016 by regex

[monstah]

Just now, regex said:

So maybe Squad fired all those guys?  Seems legit.

That, it does. Or they got to know Squad post-Harvester and quit themselves? Wild guesses are all I have here.

[CalculusWarrior]

2 minutes ago, 5thHorseman said:

I know that several of these guys have (had? I'll freely admit I don't know any of them well though I consider several of them "internet friends") full time real jobs, and it is at least possible that some of them are leaving because 1.2 proved to be too much actual work for a part time job. I've quit jobs for similar reasons in the past.

The optimist in me hopes that's all this is. I tend to advise caution in these situations. I must admit though that I'm kind of concerned.

Well said, it's all too easy to speculate on apocalyptic meanings for this announcement, when it simply could be as simple as they did their jobs and don't want to continue further.

[worir4]

Just now, regex said:

So maybe Squad fired terminated the contracts of all those guys?  Seems legit.

Nice edit.  I saw the original.

I suppose they will be replaced and that is not always going to be a bad thing. New people means new ideas, right? Although some experience doesn't hurt.

[regex]

Just now, monstah said:

That, it does. Or they got to know Squad post-Harvester and quit themselves? Wild guesses are all I have here.

By all accounts, Squad pre-Harv and post-Harv were basically the same. But I'm guessing these guys were "contractors".

[Kerbal Kommander]

This is very concerning.  I'm hopeful for the future of KSP as I've been playing since .20, and would hate for its potential to be wasted.  They claim the future has much in store, but I wonder if that will be more geared towards selling products.  This is not to say I am opposed to paid updates, as I've already gotten my money's worth.  But will the uodates be worth it, or will it turn into a cash grab?  Who knows, all of 1.2 looks amazing, and maybe the future will be even brighter than the past.  Let us raise a glass to all of the possibilities KSP has to offer!

[monstah]

Just now, regex said:

By all accounts, Squad pre-Harv and post-Harv were basically the same. But I'm guessing these guys were "contractors".

You're right there. I forget Squad's origins are separate from KSP.

What I meant was KSP's dev/production team.

[regex]

1 minute ago, worir4 said:

I suppose they will be replaced and that is not always going to be a bad thing. New people means new ideas, right? Although some experience doesn't hurt.

I doubt they will be replaced. Maybe one or two, but I'll bet Squad is going to look into either selling or licensing the franchise rather than keep it as a flagship.

[Alshain]

Just now, Kerbal Kommander said:

This is very concerning.  I'm hopeful for the future of KSP as I've been playing since .20, and would hate for its potential to be wasted.  They claim the future has much in store, but I wonder if that will be more geared towards selling products.  This is not to say I am opposed to paid updates, as I've already gotten my money's worth.  But will the uodates be worth it, or will it turn into a cash grab?  Who knows, all of 1.2 looks amazing, and maybe the future will be even brighter than the past.  Let us raise a glass to all of the possibilities KSP has to offer!

I don't think it's potential is wasted.  It's a wonderful game as it is, even if 1.2 were to end up being the last.

[Galileo]

Maybe 1.2 is the end product ( a few patches and fixes here and there after it releases)  but maybe it's really just done?  It's sad but I understand money doesn't grow on trees. Just blind speculation 

Edited October 4, 2016 by Galileo

[worir4]

Just now, regex said:

I doubt they will be replaced. Maybe one or two, but I'll bet Squad is going to look into either selling or licensing the franchise rather than keep it as a flagship.

What about those job ads they put a month or two ago? I thought they were recruiting new people. I guess all these guys leaving would explain why they are.