Sometimes darkness can show you the light.

[RayneCloud]

I was listening to "The Light" by Disturbed when I heard the news, the news we were all hoping we'd never see.

For those of us that have been in this industry for a long time, we've been here before. You come in to work thinking everything is going to be just like it was yesterday, only, it's very much not going to be like it was yesterday. You find out your studio was bought out and you're being made "Redundant" or that the studio is out of money, or any other numerous "nightmare" situations. You hear the words, "Realignment" and "Consolidation" and you look at the parent studio/publisher and see them posting record profits and you ask, "How can you do this to us when you're making so much money?"

All of that being said, it's a dark day, I don't deny that at all. What I ask though is that you all don't forget the community we built, the dreams we all had of space travel, the memories we made. I ask that you don't forget the team that's hurting right now as so many lives have been upended over night and so many have been blindsided (including upper leadership who didn't sese this coming either, I promise you that).  A dear friend lost her job last year and ended up homeless for nearly 6 months before getting back on her feet, but she did, get back on her feet. 

We will too.

Kerbal Space Program as a franchise, an IP, as memories of space flight and dreams of the future, is not gone. It's not dead. Spaceflight is hard and so is game development, and the light that we have to see through the darkness of today's horrible news, (for me at least) is that we have KSP1 and all of it's mods, and the version of KSP2 that we have that is still playable. It wont be the version we were promised or dreamed of with colonies, multiple star systems, multiplayer, etc, that's true... but we still have it. 

Anyway, I know this is an uber cringe post but at 40 and with my health issues, I don't have the negativity in me anymore. So, this is me asking our community to stay strong and look to the future while remembering the past.

-Rayne
Former KSP 1 CM

 

[AtomicTech]

16 minutes ago, RayneCloud said:

I was listening to "The Light" by Disturbed when I heard the news, the news we were all hoping we'd never see.

For those of us that have been in this industry for a long time, we've been here before. You come in to work thinking everything is going to be just like it was yesterday, only, it's very much not going to be like it was yesterday. You find out your studio was bought out and you're being made "Redundant" or that the studio is out of money, or any other numerous "nightmare" situations. You hear the words, "Realignment" and "Consolidation" and you look at the parent studio/publisher and see them posting record profits and you ask, "How can you do this to us when you're making so much money?"

All of that being said, it's a dark day, I don't deny that at all. What I ask though is that you all don't forget the community we built, the dreams we all had of space travel, the memories we made. I ask that you don't forget the team that's hurting right now as so many lives have been upended over night and so many have been blindsided (including upper leadership who didn't sese this coming either, I promise you that).  A dear friend lost her job last year and ended up homeless for nearly 6 months before getting back on her feet, but she did, get back on her feet. 

We will too.

Kerbal Space Program as a franchise, an IP, as memories of space flight and dreams of the future, is not gone. It's not dead. Spaceflight is hard and so is game development, and the light that we have to see through the darkness of today's horrible news, (for me at least) is that we have KSP1 and all of it's mods, and the version of KSP2 that we have that is still playable. It wont be the version we were promised or dreamed of with colonies, multiple star systems, multiplayer, etc, that's true... but we still have it. 

Anyway, I know this is an uber cringe post but at 40 and with my health issues, I don't have the negativity in me anymore. So, this is me asking our community to stay strong and look to the future while remembering the past.

-Rayne
Former KSP 1 CM

 

Aye aye Cap'n 

[Fizzlebop Smith]

+1 As usual, wonderful words of advice.

I was a bit overzealous in my  use of the like button. Apparently, I am unable to give this the like it deserves.

You often offer a silver lining or ray of sunshine in an otherwise excrement-y situation. I do hope all those that put hard work into the title, are able to find employment elsewhere 

One thing that I see as a ray of light. Recently the US FTC has banned non-compete contact clauses. 

I am hoping this allows developers more ease and flexibility in finding more work (at least where I live) & hopefully opens the door on a resurgence in the indi scene.

It is often the indi development that captures out hear and forms cult followings  KSP is such a franchise to me.

Discovered after my bout of homelessness, it saved me. At least assisted I  the process of my salvation. 

Part of that was due tp community interaction. Though my opinions of various aspects of this game have been less than positive / optimistic, my love for the franchise and community is still there.

I am sad for us all and hope we can avoid a descent into more toxic behaviors.

 

Edited May 1 by Fizzlebop Smith

[AtomicTech]

6 minutes ago, Fizzlebop Smith said:

+1 As usual, wonderful words of advice.

I was a bit overzealous in my  use of the like button. Apparently, I am unable to give this the like it deserves.

You are often offer a silver lining or ray of sunshine in an otherwise excrementsty situation. I do hope all those that put hard work into the title, are able to find employment elsewhere 

One thing that I see as a ray of light. Recently the US FTC has banned non-compete contact clauses. 

I am hoping this allows developers more ease and flexibility in finding more work (at least where I live) & hopefully opens the door on a resurgence in the indi scene.

It is often the indi development that captures out hear and forms cult followings  KSP is such a franchise to me.

Discovered after my bout of homelessness, it saved me. At least assisted I  the process of my salvation. 

Part of that was due tp community interaction. Though my opinions of various aspects of this game have been less than positive / optimistic, my love for the franchise and community is still there.

I am sad for us all and hope we can avoid a descent into more toxic behaviors.

 

Yessir! I'm right there with you!

[RealKerbal3x]

This whole thing is certainly sad news to see. I was always hopeful about this game, and I'm optimistic to a fault, so this thread feels like the best place to chip in.

I've grown distant from this forum in the last year or so. Part of that is because of the near-constant bickering that's been the norm 'round these parts for a while, but it's more because I've been consumed by studying to be an aerospace engineer.

Kerbal Space Program gave me that. I genuinely think discovering this game was an extremely significant event in my life, and I'm not sure where I would be now if that hadn't happened. I don't know where we go from here, but I thank and wish all the best to everyone who made both games what they are, and imagined what they might have been.

I know my dozen different modded KSP1 installs are still there for me no matter what

It might take a little time
A lonely path, an uphill climb
Success or failure will not alter it
- Howard Jones

Edited May 1 by RealKerbal3x

[dlrk]

I agree, but let's keep in mind that some fault goes to Squad for selling to T2

[Skorj]

5 minutes ago, dlrk said:

I agree, but let's keep in mind that some fault goes to Squad for selling to T2

Except, if you've read the interviews with Felipe about the early days: KSP1 was created within a marketing company, not a gaming studio or even software company.  They had no idea what they were doing, needed guidance, and (like most studios) were in no position to be picky about their publisher.  Yes, they could have just kept trying by themselves, but I find it very hard to blame them for taking any publishing deal they could find.  KSP is already a remarkable outlier for being created without a publisher in the first place.

[Jacke]

KSP 2 was well beyond my ancient hardware's capacity.  I hadn't played KSP for a long time, but I planned to get back into it in the next month.  Hadn't been following these forums for a while.

On the Pressure-Fed Astronaut's Discord (a great YouTube channel and Discord), I just stumbled across a link to the Yahoo Finance article about Take-Two shutting down Intercept Games.

Things all seem darker.

I have the latest version of KSP.  But I need mods to play it.  What happens to these forums?  The forums that are the hub of getting mods, getting help with mods, discussing mods, even taking on making mods....

Without a connection to make us a Kerbal Space Program community, can we hold onto KSP?

EDIT: Apparently there will be some continuing support for KSP.
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/take-two-confirms-kerbal-space-program-2-is-safe-despite-seattle-layoffs#close-modaln

Edited May 2 by Jacke

[Icegrx]

32 minutes ago, Jacke said:

KSP 2 was well beyond my ancient hardware's capacity.  I hadn't played KSP for a long time, but I planned to get back into it in the next month.  Hadn't been following these forums for a while.

On the Pressure-Fed Astronaut's Discord (a great YouTube channel and Discord), I just stumbled across a link to the Yahoo Finance article about Take-Two shutting down Intercept Games.

Things all seem darker.

I have the latest version of KSP.  But I need mods to play it.  What happens to these forums?  The forums that are the hub of getting mods, getting help with mods, discussing mods, even taking on making mods....

Without a connection to make us a Kerbal Space Program community, can we hold onto KSP?

Forums aren’t shutting down 

[Jacke]

18 minutes ago, Icegrx said:

Forums aren’t shutting down 

We don't know.

EDIT: Apparently there will be some continuing support for KSP.
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/take-two-confirms-kerbal-space-program-2-is-safe-despite-seattle-layoffs#close-modaln

But one thing a lot of game companies are doing is shutting down forums and just using Discords.  Which is sad.

[Icegrx]

1 hour ago, Jacke said:

We don't know.

EDIT: Apparently there will be some continuing support for KSP.
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/take-two-confirms-kerbal-space-program-2-is-safe-despite-seattle-layoffs#close-modaln

But one thing a lot of game companies are doing is shutting down forums and just using Discords.  Which is sad.

We do know, Dakota said as much. 
check the dev tracker at the bottom of the forum main page 

forums and discord are here to stay 

Edited May 2 by Icegrx

[RayneCloud]

1 hour ago, Jacke said:

We don't know.

EDIT: Apparently there will be some continuing support for KSP.
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/take-two-confirms-kerbal-space-program-2-is-safe-despite-seattle-layoffs#close-modaln

But one thing a lot of game companies are doing is shutting down forums and just using Discords.  Which is sad.

That's a whole lot of meaningless word salad that doesn't say what it says it says. Lots of corp speak that doesn't actually confirm beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are supporting KSP2 anymore moving forward. 

Though, there is some reason to suggest that some of KSP2 staff might have been absorbed in to PD directly, but that doesn't matter if they laid off most everyone with the skillset, knowledge, and experience, to actually finish the game. 

[Majorjim!]

4 hours ago, Jacke said:

EDIT: Apparently there will be some continuing support for KSP.
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/take-two-confirms-kerbal-space-program-2-is-safe-despite-seattle-layoffs#close-modaln

That article is very misleading. At no point does anyone from T2 say KSP2 is ‘safe’. 

[Meecrob]

18 hours ago, RealKerbal3x said:

I've been consumed by studying to be an aerospace engineer.

Kerbal Space Program gave me that. I genuinely think discovering this game was an extremely significant event in my life, and I'm not sure where I would be now if that hadn't happened.

Same here, I thought I was too old to go back to school so I played KSP instead. For context I was a laid off aircraft mechanic after the 2008 economic "correction." I worked on a bunch of stuff including the Diamond D-Jet and its L-39 chase plane. Anyways, laid off, I had to get a job to pay the bills so I got into logistics, which scratched the itch for the logical, problem-solving part of my brain vs. something like sales or management. I'm stuck in this job and my dream and passion is now a smoking hole in the ground. At least I can play KSP! And after about 5000 hours I realized that screw it, I can "fake" my way past any entrance exam for any of these courses directly from the knowledge I gained from playing KSP!

As for where I would be in life without it? I had enough money saved up after a decade of toiling away in shipping to finish up some of my flying licenses, only to run out of money due to Covid issues like aircraft and instructor availability. So yeah, I'd be in shipping still. Probably being told by some idiot boss how to do my own job because they asked chatGPT and it says I should do my job this way, lol!

[Fizzlebop Smith]

2 minutes ago, Meecrob said:

Same here, I thought I was too old to go back to school so I played KSP instead. For context I was a laid off aircraft mechanic after the 2008 economic "correction." I worked on a bunch of stuff including the Diamond D-Jet and its L-39 chase plane. Anyways, laid off, I had to get a job to pay the bills so I got into logistics, which scratched the itch for the logical, problem-solving part of my brain vs. something like sales or management. I'm stuck in this job and my dream and passion is now a smoking hole in the ground. At least I can play KSP! And after about 5000 hours I realized that screw it, I can "fake" my way past any entrance exam for any of these courses directly from the knowledge I gained from playing KSP!

As for where I would be in life without it? I had enough money saved up after a decade of toiling away in shipping to finish up some of my flying licenses, only to run out of money due to Covid issues like aircraft and instructor availability. So yeah, I'd be in shipping still. Probably being told by some idiot boss how to do my own job because they asked chatGPT and it says I should do my job this way, lol!

I am at a similiar point in my life. Jaded by tedius work in engineering related fields without the credentials to move up. 

When my marriage went to excrements I made quite a few poor choices. KSP did something truly unique for a game..

It inspired me. Much of the recent progress in my life would likely have been significantly delayed without the wonder of the first title. 

Most of this was from the Forum posts of community members as I lurked & saw just how many others the title had similarly touched.

This alone probably doomed me to disappointment. Too much ofnmy expectation was predicated on that experience with KSP1.

Now I am 40 and a few years into complete reboot of life, largely thanks to the inspiration KSP helped provide.

The franchise is magical. Despite what happens in the here & now.. I have hope that one day Jeb & Val will eventually be part of an agency that truly deserves them.