The Message From The Developers On Launch Day... Most people missed it... Read between the lines..

[Buzz313th]

On launch day, the devs released this "Launch Cinematic".  

It depicts Valentina and the other Kerbals struggling time and time again, to finally succeed in the end.  

The song in the cinematic is titled, "Things Can Only Get Better"  from Howard Jones.  The license for that song was not  cheap.  

The lyrics are here... https://genius.com/Howard-jones-things-can-only-get-better-lyrics

The Cinematic, which was remarkably well done, was produced by this company...   https://halon.com/   which is one of the top five CG companies in the world.  It was an expensive product. 

What's my point?  

Well the devs knew that the game was not ready.  They probably released it too soon because of pressure or timelines from the investors and or the publisher.  This Launch Day Cinematic was well thought out and purposely made to send a specific message to the players.  

You don't sink this kind of money in to a marketing product if there is any chance that you might can the project.  I think the message of the Cinematic is the truth.

Cheers..

Bz

Edited March 1, 2023 by Buzz313th

[whatsEJstandfor]

I wouldn't be surprised if this cinematic was already mostly in the can for years. Don't forget that Halon also did the announcement cinematic, so choosing them for this cinematic would have been a no-brainer. This isn't the kind of thing you just whip up in a few weeks to try to assuage an audience. Besides, if the developers were going to just be communicating in winks and nudges during this time, I wouldn't be impressed. Given the state of the launch, it's not cute; it'd be frustrating.

[USAGuerrilla]

I heard Kerbin is really flat, not a sphere.

[Nuke]

sounds like they hired 3rd party promoters. i cant say its a bad thing to outsource this kind of stuff. yes its expensive, but so is game dev. you have to consider how much it cost in relation to if they did it in house, and if they did it in house, that would take artists off of actual development. games are a business. 

[Cailean_556]

I'll admit I had a similar thought, mainly purely due to the song choice. Some of the lyrics certainly imply the devs could be communicating their thoughts and feelings to us, and their fears of our thoughts and impressions of the state of KSP2 on launch... Truly, things can only get better.

But I'd have to go full-on Kool-Aid drinking, with spider diagrams of an analysis of the lyrics, to convey my meaning beyond that. And I'm not there yet.

Having said that, my opinion on the devs, the state of KSP2 as it is currently, and the development time it has taken has changed - in part due to a video by "Grey Beard Gaming". According to him, data miners have discovered entire elements/features have been hidden for the public release. Add to that the fact that Nate, in his interview with Matt Lowne (which GBG mentions but I also saw/heard/watched myself), claims he has already played KSP2 multiplayer (a feature which is one of the later features intended on being implemented) - so there's clearly an early build of it over at Intercept Games, which means there's potentially more to KSP2 than we're being allowed to access/see.

I'm still not happy with some of the parts/features missing/changed and the bugs we're all encountering (even if there are entire features that have been developed but are being hidden) but, with that being said I don't think your theory (nor mine) is entirely without merit.

[The Aziz]

There are features locked out because those features exist, just aren't finished yet. (And given the current roughness even on the surface, having them on would do more harm than good).

And I like the trailer because it's so positive, despite all early failures and cockups, it ends up successful and the brave Kerbalsdevs end up going interstellar with friends. That's true Kerbal spirit.

[boolybooly]

I have also noticed the emphasis on the "very Kerbal" approach of learning through disaster being used to persuade people that if things go wrong at first it is not the end of the game and if we (and by we I mean they) keep trying we (they) can overcome the erm... misfortune.

This applies to simulated rocket crashes in the physics sim and also to the bugs in the software creating the sim, is what they are trying to say. i.e. they are learning by error, which I am prepared to believe. We are too in playing the game. The comparison of errors is an attempt to communicate and explain and gain our sympathy.

Its true the only way this comes right is if they do keep going and debug the game. They did give us notice of this intent before the launch if you read between the lines, by saying it was going to be like KSP1 development so I am waiting to see the proof of this with their first patches.

As I said at the time this is kind of a tradition with KSP. We had a huge number of bugs to deal with during KSP development. Unfortunately we still do, in both KSP and KSP2.

I am not happy with the way unmodded KSP plays at the moment, mostly to do with map, maneuvers and intercept predictions. I dont want to waste development focus on that though and would rather they got KSP2 working as that is what we will be playing for the next decade.

My message to the devs would be to please make the current version more playable before adding new features, like curing the tank draining issues, both across stages and in timewarp/reload when there is no throttle but the game adds phantom throttle and drains tanks. Those are gamebreaking bugs. Also the severe Kraken shoving which is going on in low orbits increasing or decreasing AP and PE at alarming rates. This kind of thing is beneath minimum playability and IMHO these have to be fixed before trying to advance as the game needs to stay playable to succeed in EA. 2c

[dr.phees]

Could someone re-render this trailer in 3fps?

[Kerbart]

Sometimes a rose is just a rose.  They're using that agency because it's probably T2's go-to agency for trailers. All the lawyer stuff has been hashed out already, the rates have been negotiated, etc. The music? I don't think the licensing for that particular piece is more expensive than any other hit song, and I think its punchy tune, and yes the lyrics, match the overall vibe of the trailer: Kerbal means failure, not giving up, and reaching your goal. But it always has been like that.

I don't think there's any subliminal messaging from the devs. In fact, the devs are as far away from the people who were involved in making this as possible; it's an external agency and the ones that interact with them are likely PD managers.

If there is something to read between the lines, it's this: you are absolutely right that making a 150s video like this is far from cheap. If the plan is to simply recover as much as possible out of a dumpster fire before abandoning it, pouring more money in a expensive video doesn't make sense. So you can draw hope from that.

[Buzz313th]

Positive thinking and projection.   Fingers are crossed.  

 

Lets face it, they own the game and inherited those rights from Squad.  KSP is a phenomenal concept.  Potential and longevity are just inherent with this title.   I think we will see great things from it in the future.  

 

Cheers

 

Bz

[JWag]

Ha! I missed that. That song brings me to a certain time and place emotionally. It's one of my favorite songs from that era, and they used it masterfully in that video. I was always going to buy the game in the first half hour it was available, but that video would've sold me on it too.

If 10% of the spirit of that trailer is alive in the game devs, it's going to be an amazing game.

Maybe I'm just a sentimental old rocket nerd, but I'm optimistic about KSP2.

[Buzz313th]

16 minutes ago, JWag said:

Ha! I missed that. That song brings me to a certain time and place emotionally. It's one of my favorite songs from that era, and they used it masterfully in that video. I was always going to buy the game in the first half hour it was available, but that video would've sold me on it too.

If 10% of the spirit of that trailer is alive in the game devs, it's going to be an amazing game.

Maybe I'm just a sentimental old rocket nerd, but I'm optimistic about KSP2.

I love your post and felt and feel the same way.

 

Cheers

Bz

[RayneCloud]

14 hours ago, Buzz313th said:

On launch day, the devs released this "Launch Cinematic".  

It depicts Valentina and the other Kerbals struggling time and time again, to finally succeed in the end.  

The song in the cinematic is titled, "Things Can Only Get Better"  from Howard Jones.  The license for that song was not  cheap.  

The lyrics are here... https://genius.com/Howard-jones-things-can-only-get-better-lyrics

The Cinematic, which was remarkably well done, was produced by this company...   https://halon.com/   which is one of the top five CG companies in the world.  It was an expensive product. 

What's my point?  

Well the devs knew that the game was not ready.  They probably released it too soon because of pressure or timelines from the investors and or the publisher.  This Launch Day Cinematic was well thought out and purposely made to send a specific message to the players.  

You don't sink this kind of money in to a marketing product if there is any chance that you might can the project.  I think the message of the Cinematic is the truth.

Cheers..

Bz

All of this. This is just, pure positivity and gods I needed it. Wonderful post. 

[Buzz313th]

3 minutes ago, RayneCloud said:

All of this. This is just, pure positivity and gods I needed it. Wonderful post. 

Thanks Rayne.  I truly believe in the Devs and the future of this title.  

[RayneCloud]

Me Too Buzz, Me Too.

[GregA]

KSP 2 makes me feel more 

 

[XavBell]

Oh boy I loved those comments, such positivity is great to see!

[zeekzeek22]

I also think some of the features are going to have pretty short debug periods before they move to the next one. Like, the science tech tree unlock feature is probably really simple, as is the "buying parts with resources". The "touch end of drill to within 2m of surface resource feature to initiate harvesting" stuff will be a big more, but it's small. I think this first big debug period is going to be the longest by far, and the big features will all roll out only a couple months after each other. I bet the roadmap step updates are going to be way less buggy on their own...the hard part is now.

[Buzz313th]

On 3/2/2023 at 12:04 PM, zeekzeek22 said:

I also think some of the features are going to have pretty short debug periods before they move to the next one. Like, the science tech tree unlock feature is probably really simple, as is the "buying parts with resources". The "touch end of drill to within 2m of surface resource feature to initiate harvesting" stuff will be a big more, but it's small. I think this first big debug period is going to be the longest by far, and the big features will all roll out only a couple months after each other. I bet the roadmap step updates are going to be way less buggy on their own...the hard part is now.

I hope so.  Waiting patiently for the first patch.   I went back to KSP1 to make further progress in my career save while the Dev team works away.  Did I mention what a great job Halon did with this trailer.  

 

Cheers

 

Bz

[Monger]

As appealing as the idea is: succeeding not despite but because of spectacular failure is kind of the main theme of KSP. That it also fits the desired development process might be coincidental. 

[lemon cup]

On 3/1/2023 at 3:41 AM, Kerbart said:

I don't think there's any subliminal messaging from the devs. In fact, the devs are as far away from the people who were involved in making this as possible; it's an external agency and the ones that interact with them are likely PD managers.

I helped in the making of this trailer. I don’t want to say too much because my involvement was fairly small but I can confirm that:

-as of less than 1 year ago this was still just story boards

-those story boards were drafted by senior creative devs at Intercept

-Halon received those story boards and followed them quite faithfully.

[Buzz313th]

2 hours ago, lemon cup said:

I helped in the making of this trailer. I don’t want to say too much because my involvement was fairly small but I can confirm that:

-as of less than 1 year ago this was still just story boards

-those story boards were drafted by senior creative devs at Intercept

-Halon received those story boards and followed them quite faithfully.

Interesting.  I often work with VFX Supervisors on live production for compositing.  A few were either in house or freelancers working for Halon.

Do you know when the song selection was finalized?    

That trailer was one of the best, if not the best game cinematic I have ever seen, both technically and creatively.  Was the animation work done by Halon in the states and do you know who directed it?

Edited March 6, 2023 by Buzz313th

[lemon cup]

37 minutes ago, Buzz313th said:

Do you know when the song selection was finalized?    

That trailer was one of the best, if not the best game cinematic I have ever seen, both technically and creatively.  Was the animation work done by Halon in the states and do you know who directed it?

Song was finalized before I came on board which was mid April of last year. At that point Halon was slated to do the work but was not involved yet.

I was working from the Intercept side of things so unfortunately I have no idea who and what was brought to bear over at Halon to do their part.

 

[Buzz313th]

49 minutes ago, lemon cup said:

Song was finalized before I came on board which was mid April of last year. At that point Halon was slated to do the work but was not involved yet.

I was working from the Intercept side of things so unfortunately I have no idea who and what was brought to bear over at Halon to do their part.

 

Kudos to you and the creative team.

[Arugela]

On 3/1/2023 at 2:15 AM, Nuke said:

sounds like they hired 3rd party promoters. i cant say its a bad thing to outsource this kind of stuff. yes its expensive, but so is game dev. you have to consider how much it cost in relation to if they did it in house, and if they did it in house, that would take artists off of actual development. games are a business. 

It's not a business. And such things used to be an active engineering environment with more ability to get work done in a given time and think it out ahead of time... Let alone put more work in overall for fun. Fun is work. If the work ain't fun. You ain't doing it right. Or aren't doing it at all. Depends on which side of it you are on.

It's now a world of bad 80's business men. Even bringing back dead necro business like activision and running on a world of badly educated artists... Because Impressionism.!

We used to at least maximize our games so people could enjoy them. We have gone completely way from that. Forethought is design. the more you have the more you can get done and avoid traps like redoing work. Or you make a tool to make it easy to redo work. Or you take it all the way and correctly automate the work. Software is farther behind than people understand. All old game genres should be drop in automated bits with full working old game genres generated as standard. We are not really trying and software and game design are all retrogressing. And we aren't even getting fun retro stuff out of it!!3

There is a process to software design. Correct answers in logic are simply 100% of the information. That is the same definition as what it takes to do work correctly and to automate something in a computer. These things should go a certain way. That is not happening. The cycle is broken and hanging like a broken bike chain. The only thing closed to automation were old 80's tools for older games before they were used to make 90's games. It did not progress after that. This applies to all software development. If you can't define it, you don't know it. If you know it you can automate it. The object is to be able to automate it. This is the same standard for education(although not in practice at this point in time.). No one will undstand this, but emotions are a part of the brains data gathering functions. you have data use mode and data gather. If you have feelings, it's data gather. Put more info in and it will revert to data use until out of data. This is what makes feelings. If it's hard it's a feeling. It's the brain tricking you to argue partial data sets in your brain to try to learn.(argument is part of a data feedback system.) It's a trick of the brain. It's always a result of a lack of knowledge. Fix the problem the feeling goes away and you can do work again.

Edited March 6, 2023 by Arugela