What-or who-got you into this game? What has your time since then been like?

[Drunkrobot]

I'm not sure if this is the right place for this question. Do move it if that's the case. Thanks.

How did this game enter-and effect-your life? I ask this because it probably isn't the same reason you buy other games. Kerbal Space Program is not a global sensation-yet. Other games I play, I bought because my friends won't shut up about them, so I might as well see what the fuss is about. This time, nobody I know knew of the existence of this game. And then they knew, because I would never shut up about it.

On the 1st of July, 2012, 375 days ago today, I was looking through my youtube subscriptions, and I notice this video about this game called "Kerbal Space Program"...

I think to myself "FyreUK? Well, I only really watch them for the Minecraft builds... but why not? They revealed to me the existence of H.A.T. films, that was a good discovery. Besides, it has "Space Program" in the title, so it must be good."

I fell in love. With a video game. About little green men. Inside spaceships that I myself can build and fly and land and crash. I needed to know more.

Luckily, in the comment section, I see this post "Hey, you might want to check out this dude called trydyingtolive. He has a lot of KSP videos, and you might learn a thing or two." I look up trydyingtolive, and I learn a thing or two. The man gives me a crash-course in orbital mechanics. I didn't even know what a "Periapsis" or an "Apoapsis" is, before I watched his videos. I see that this game is science at work, it is how NASA does it. Then I spot in suggested videos a certain "Danny2462". I see that this game is also completely, magnificently insane. Danny shown me that "Kerbal" is not just a noun, it's an adjective.

More players of KSP become known to me-Kurtjmac, Scot Manley, Pleborian, The Solar Gamer, HOCgaming, xPDxTV- the whole lot of them filling my brain with wonderful memories-Harv and TheMattDennis16-not the same Matt who introduced me to the game-race to get a flag on the Mun, a suave Scotsman giving a nugget of space history, Danny unveiling his orbital mass relay, Pleborian trying to skycrane down a base station on the Mun, only to accidentally release it a few kilometres too high...

I download the demo. I get into orbit. I "attempt" the Mun. I fail, then I succeed. I do it again and again, getting better each time. I buy the game on steam. I send probes to the other planets. Now, very recently, I have put boot prints on the Duna soil. This game isn't even nowhere near finished, and even then, even now, it's the greatest game I have ever played.

What about you guys? How has your time with this game been like? How did it start? Sorry if I'm talking about myself too much. You talk about yourselves, if you want. In the words of a great Kerbal, "Cheers".

[TheRabbit]

NerdCubed's first freegames friday, it got me alert of the game. Then I found KurtJMac and bought it a few days after that. I'm now smarter than the average American because I know how to get into orbit.

[Tw1]

Hearded about it on XKCD. The comic reminded me of a moon lander game that had been around ages ago, that I'd never beaten, so I jumped on google and checked it out. It was a lot more than what I expected.

It still takes up too much of my time really, but there's so much to do on it!

[Skorpychan]

Couple of my friends picked it up, saw them playing it on Steam. It sounded interesting, so I looked it up on wikipedia.

Then had to get the demo.

After ****ing about with THAT for a while, I came to a decision. I just HAD to get the game.

Since then, I went from fail rockets design to orbital screwery, then to landing on the mun after a few failed tries. Then landing on the mun regularly and semi-casually to drop off rovers to replace the ones that KEEP FREAKING EXPLODING.

[Whirligig Girl]

When I found Orbiter 2010, I had recently came out of Spore. I found not only that it had none of the fun things Spore had, but it was HARD. I then ended up finding Kerbal Space Program. I saw the trailer video, downloaded 0.13.3 (This was around the time of 0.15) and played it for a while. I finally asked my parents if I could get Kerbal Space program 0.16, as 0.17 was coming very soon after. They said yes, I ended up on a very difficult time paying for it and downloading subsequent versions, and I never looked back to Orbiter again! (Well, sort of, I figured maybe I could try it again since I was no longer a n00b to spaceflight, I couldn't)

[Yuming]

I found it on my own looking for a casual version of orbiter, and decided this is the perfect game. It still is. I started playing on October 7th, 2012 a day after I got it for my birthday. (An excuse to spend money). I joined in late .17, so I'm still a relative noob compared to some people, but I'm glad I bought the game when I did.

Edited July 11, 2013 by Yuming

[duncan1297]

I searched â€Âair races†on YouTube meaning the red bull pylon racing and saw a video of someones attempt at a challenge using c7 part pack. I played the demo for a while and bought the game in .16.

[SpaceGremlin]

I first heard about KSP on a fan forum for DDO. The demo got me hooked so fast that I bought the full version later that day (this was right after .18 came out).

[espm400]

I watch a lot of 'Quick Looks' on Giantbomb.com, and KSP was featured last August ( http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/quick-look-kerbal-space-program/2300-6420/ ). I spent the hour or so of the video laughing my ass off and immediately decided to get the demo. I played it for a while, but as I have the attention span of a ferret on crystal-meth, I put the demo down after a few weeks. Then a few months ago, lo and behold it gets released on Steam. I saw it and realized I had a pre-paid Visa with $25 still left on it, so I said, why not? Played it a bit more until I discovered ALL OF THE BLOODY MODS! Lets put it this way, got the full version at the end of May, and since then according to Steam, I'm up to 178 hours.

[Skyrunner27]

It all comes back to me now...

It was the summer of 2012. I had recently gone into a major change in youtubers I watched. During the search for a new youtuber I was watching someone play Just Cause 2 multiplayer. In the comments people were talking about a guy named Nerd^3. I went to his channel to find a plethora of video's about games I have never heard about. I went to his first free games extravaganza. The one thing I saw that made me want the game was the mission report after the accidents. It took a while but then I landed on a youtuber by the name of Kurtjmac. He introduced me to many fandoms including hooking me in on Kerbal Space Program.He taught me everything about basic orbital mechanics. After watching his video's I got the first Demo 13.3. Then I was watching some person complaining about the gilly collision mesh problem. In th comments someone said something about a guy named Scott Manly. He taught me about the math involved in being a space program. Finally I discovered Danny2462 who finally made me want the game more then anything. I watched Kerbalkon II wanting to be able to play .18 when it was released. I watched all the Dev live-streams wanting to be a part of the community. I finally bought the game after Christmas. My life has not been the same since. I barely passed algebra due to daydreaming about building rockets in class. I had plans for my space-station before I had the game.

[Shadoworgon]

I heard about KSP from Quill18 on youtube who did a "Lets try" of it. I then picked it up which was still insanely early in development (i think .10 ) played it for awhile up untill .13, then stopped playing for a few months because of school. Then I started seeing what people were doing in .14 and then decided to buy the game...which so happened to be the exact day .15 came out

[Alavarien-46]

I didn't heard of KSP on the internet, it was on a magazine which made a page on a space flight simulator called Kerbal Space Program and his demo, the version 0.13.3. The page only showed how to build a rocket with ASAS and liquid fuel, but I downloaded the demo and paid the game few days later (dears times of 0.14...).

[Sof]

Was talking on skype to a bunch of friends playing L4D2. Chatting about random stuff, and one of them mentioned Kerbal Space Program. Being rather into space, party due to being the son of an astrophysicist, I decided to google it. Found the demo and downloaded 0.13.3 A bunch of explosions later, and I finally managed to get a rocket past the launch tower before it exploded too.

Eventually managed to get one to the edge of space and decided to buy the game shortly before they released planets. I was struggling to get to the mun, let alone minmus, so other planets were out of the question.

Had a short break, got back into it after watching some tutorials and haven't really looked back since.

[KWilkiePJ]

I heard about it from my mate noozter, who downloaded it from steam out of curiosity. I downloaded the demo, a day later i had bought it.

I then spent 3 weeks solid playing the game stock, going from knowing absolutely nothing about how to fly the rockets i was building to attempting my very first docking, which I failed at miserably for days and days until I finally managed to do it which was a YESSSS! moment .

Love the game, the possibilities it provides and the variation. I have played nothing else since I got it and very much looking forward to 0.21 for some new ways to enjoy Kerbal mayhem!

[kahlzun]

i'd seen bits and pieces about it before, but thought it was your standard 'put engines here and fuel here and away' kinda kiddy game (the kerbals didn't help).

And then I saw this:

it was something made in such a manner that it didn't even come close to working properly. It was jerky, and glitchy, andf displayed emergent behaviour that made me realise 'hang on, there's a flexible building system there, as well as real-time physics'

Been having a great time since, coming up on out 1 year anniversary. I plan to celebrate by blowing stuff up in a traditional Kerbal manner.

[Moon Goddess]

So like ages ago I saw kurtjmac talking about it. I looked at the game and I said to myself. Nope that's too hard for me, I like games I can relax.

And so I went on about my way.

Fast forward to March of this year, I encountered a Scott Manly video by chance. I bought the game before I finished watching the video. Not sure what changed. Wish I could have gotten in when I first saw it so I can be a bitch old grognard like everyone else.

[AfailingHORSE]

probably this

[legodragonxp]

Someone posted it as a link in a forum I hang out in. August 21, 2011:

-Lego

[regex]

A coworker mentioned it, I bought it around maybe 0.16 or 0.17 after trying the demo (back when the radial decouplers still had three legs instead of six). I didn't do much with it because that summer was pretty busy but recently I saw it on Steam and transferred my copy.

Since then it's eaten up most of my gaming time.

[Firenexus13]

I was wandering around youtube, and i found danny2462. the game he was playing looked fun, so i tried the demo. after many failed attempts to land on the mun, i deemed the mun too hard and thought, "what about other planets like duna in the full version! they might be easier!" i then got the full game and safely landed on eve ._. it was still easier then then mun, except the encounter. i then, later landed on the mun with the Kerbal Ship XLIV (44)... it took a while... but i got to eve with the XVI! (16) then i got to duna with the XLV! (45) right now i am up the the XLVII (47) with the XLVII, i got to Eeloo! (and back)

...About little green men. Inside spaceships that I myself can build and fly and land and crash...

That is true :3

Edited July 11, 2013 by Firenexus13

[Sma]

I started off on the .16 demo somehow. Don't remember where I hear about it from though. Forgot about it for a while then while playing Battle Pirates on Facebook, made a few friends. In talking to one of my friends, she mentioned that her husband doesn't play BP as much any more (long build/research times when you reach higher levels) but was really into this game called Kerbal Space Program. I go and download the demo 0.18 (at this point, feb or march I think) and then I got hooked. Bought it, 0.19, for my birthday in April and have been playing pretty much every day (more that I likely should LOL) since. Steam only reflects 300 something hours but it's gotta be more than that as I sometimes leave it running, especially now that I'm using Kethane, and planning on after .21 to build kethane/ISA MapSat probes.

It'll be fun seeing how much the game advances in the future. Two things that I have on my mind is how cool it'd be to make a KSP Flight sim cockpit with dedicated buttons, switches etc (of course it'd be stuck to one type of capsule I guess). Short of that, maybe oculus rift compatibility, and a motion control chair. Of course there's also the plugins for making a simulated mission control with data about your flights being available on tablets and phones. Aside from the flight sim though...more realistically it'd be cool if the KSP sound track was available to download/buy. But I digress...that happens from time to time talking about the game lol

[SuperWeegee4000]

I'm an avid follower of Markiplier, and he did six KSP episodes. I really liked the look of the game, and decided to look it up, and the rest is history.

[OptimumAmoeba]

I discovered KSP on steam about 3 months ago, I downloaded the demo on a Saturday morning, Sunday morning I bought the full game. Three months later I have clocked up 338 hours (all stock) and have only just started to explore Duna. I love the natural progression of this game at first getting to orbit is tricky but after a while it becomes second nature, same with docking and landing on the Mun / Minmus. Now I am trying to make a rocket that will get me to Duna and back without having to send a rescue party or tanker hopefully I will crack that this evening. I must say a big thank you to all the youtubers that have helped me so much with KSP and of course all the guys at Squad for making such a fun geeky game.

[kenbobo]

Three people. Nerdcubed, HOCGaming, And Kurtjmac.

[rasheed]

On april 12, 2012 i was searching for a space sim and i stumbled on KSP.

Decided to watch a few vids about it before DL'ing the demo, 15 minutes after downloading the demo i bought the full version, rest is history