Kickstarter

[Deathernater]

Seeing the recent successes on Kickstarter, I think KSP definitely has a chance to redefine itself once again! This is hands down the best game/simulation/education tool I have ever used! Despite the awesomeness of the game however, there is still a lot to wish for (such as weather). Imagine the weather on a has giant! The graphics and simulation could be vastly improved with the right funding.

I know KSP is getting increasingly popular, but the growth rate is just not fast enough. In order for SQUAD (you guys are my heroes) to do the next best thing, we need to have a massive funding campaign. I think once more people know how AWESOME KSP is, there will definitely be more sales and more funding. The best approach today to cheaply become the "next best thing" is Kickstarter. It has a relatively low entry fee, and look what Chris Roberts did with Star Citizen! I think the guys at SQUAD can definitely pull this off?

What do you guys think? If you agree, please, let's rally together, bring this to SQUAD's attention and go from there!

[spectrhz]

I can't speak on behalf of Squad, but if I were to hazard a guess, I highly doubt they would consider this. I think the rate at which KSP is developed and sold is plenty fast enough, and the game is incredible as-is. Money isn't always the answer, its the time and the effort of development put into the game. From what I can tell, this game is updated and worked on diligently and is not needing anything quite as large as a kickstarter, since it's already had so much success. I also feel like if people were just throwing money at Squad for more updates and overhauls, the development would be a much larger item on the table. Of course, there's no reason not to buy the game multiple times to show your own support

[EvilotionCR2]

Or rework it to the engine called Terra or something like that.That engine can simulate whole planet at once and also can do Dynamic craters,and graphics...

[SolarLiner]

Or rework it to the engine called Terra or something like that.That engine can simulate whole planet at once and also can do Dynamic craters,and graphics...

Just Stahp with the engine changing suggestion ! Because you will have to wait another 4 years to get to the same point as now with a different engine. It's like build a giant house, and then abandon the current site and move on to an other terrain and restart all over again. It is just impossible now we are so far on the developpement. And you could put $1M to squad, they will not go faster, because they can't.

[Tripzter]

Hate to say it folks but the progress is very disappointing. 2 years to get to .21 with handful of parts? A 1 man team could do more.

[Beeman]

The rate of development is actually quite fine, regardless of what some people seem to think. They're certainly faster than some bigger studios at pushing out content and updates on a regular basis.

Games like MWO, Firefall, War Thunder and many others come to mind when I start thinkin' about speed of development. Compared to those, this small handful of people working on KSP are really powering through updates and making major progress every update. Granted, it takes anywhere from one to three months per update, but as an example, MWO puts out one, maybe two mechs per month and it took them over a year to get things like ranked matchmaking and 12v12 matches stable enough to play. Compared to that game alone, KSP is kicking butt XD

Just relax and take it easy. KSP has already made lots of money for SQUAD and the developers and will continue to do so. There's no need for a kickstarter campaign...and I think people would react negatively to it at this stage of development anyways. So just enjoy what we've got and look forward to the next couple updates like the rest of us(or most of us, anyways). Wee~

[HeadHunter67]

2 years to get to .21 with handful of parts? A 1 man team could do more.

So go ahead and do it then. If you can beat them to release with an idea that's at least as good, you'll sell at least as many copies, right?

Or are you merely speaking theoretically, with nothing concrete to support your statement?

Put up or shut up, as they say.

[TheCanadianVendingMachine]

Hate to say it folks but the progress is very disappointing. 2 years to get to .21 with handful of parts? A 1 man team could do more.

Ok then. I mean, there isn't engine fixes, bug fixes, under the hood fixes, and many more! Nope! All about the parts!

[spectrhz]

Hate to say it folks but the progress is very disappointing. 2 years to get to .21 with handful of parts? A 1 man team could do more.

You must be incredibly impatient if that's how you really feel. When I first started playing in 0.20 I thought there were too many parts to choose from, and the updates come out so fast my space programs don't even get finished. I also don't understand how you think a 1 man team would be better, Orbiter is made by one person and it isn't nearly as refined as KSP.

[maxpower]

Just Stahp with the engine changing suggestion ! Because you will have to wait another 4 years to get to the same point as now with a different engine. It's like build a giant house, and then abandon the current site and move on to an other terrain and restart all over again. It is just impossible now we are so far on the developpement. And you could put $1M to squad, they will not go faster, because they can't.

I know you are exaggerating a bit, but it wouldn't take 4 years at all. The vast vast vast majority of games take between 2-4 years to build from the ground up (and KSP has been under development for 2.5 years), so I have no idea where you came up with the idea it would take that long to switch engines. Mind you all the art work transfers, and all the game systems have been worked out... so its really just a matter of re-coding everything to function inside a different engine. At most, it would take a few months. That's not to say I agree with the idea of switching engines. Unity has limitations that probably hold parts of KSP back, but other engines have limitations of their own... and its not likely that there would be enough benefit to switch at this point.

[CyclonicTuna]

Or rework it to the engine called Terra or something like that.That engine can simulate whole planet at once and also can do Dynamic craters,and graphics...

At least try dude. I mean you're making a comment, a suggestion in fact on something totally out of reach, a swich of engine, and you can't even name the damn thing. Its called Outerra and its far from complete. You can download the tech demo and pledge sort of in the same way Squad has done, whereby you'll recieve updates. But its gonna take many more months if not years to get that project where KSP is now.

But its an engine designed for a totally diffrent purpose. Yes it can render an entire planet with quite remarkible detaill, but that's not what squad wants. Squad wants a solarsystem filled with bodies that influence you and each other. Outerra is being developed for a game called Anteworld which has Simcity like features but with a first person experience in mind. It couldn't be any furter from what Squad are making.

Besides Unity is bound to get an update too which will increase computing cababilitys such as multicore threading.

No offence but next time at least try to take a bit of time to research the subject before commenting.

[CyclonicTuna]

Hate to say it folks but the progress is very disappointing. 2 years to get to .21 with handful of parts? A 1 man team could do more.

Eventough you obviously have zero knowledge about gamedevelopment I still feel compelled to reply, so let me break it down for you:

1. KSP didn't start out after a group of CEO's and directors sat down and decided to make the 7th sequel, it began as the brainchild of one man who had very little recources. There wasn't a budget of 100 million and a big team of 400 artists, programmers and designers to start with. So the fact that KSP has become what it is in 2 years is rather remarkible instead of slow.

2. The amount of stuff in a game does not define how far it is in the development cycle. About 80% percent of the work goes into creating an engine, establishing a framework for gamemechanics, and fixing and tweaking all of this. KSP's framework is finished, the dev's have confirmed that themselves at last years Kerbalkon. All that remains now is adding all of the content and placing all of the gamemechanics.

3. KSP is a project with a large active community that (unlike you I assume) provides constant feedback and suggestions. All developers of a game like for instance, The Sims have to worry about, is that they have a trailer ready every 5 weeks or so, and that they publish a couple of patches every now and again. KSP evolves, it grows, and if you have to release a playable update very 2 months its just gonna take longer.

So don't make these stupid claims, you're just impatient and not very passionate about this game. What sets KSP aside from other games is that demands your attention and envolvement to some degree. Which I really like because it doesn't make me feel like I'm another mindless consumer in the eyes of the people that make this. And its a damn shame that that's such a rere sight these days because I slowly feel like more and more gamers are becoming mindless consumers. Which in my respect isn't very fair towards the intellectual property we demand. You are after all a gamer because you want to do more than just sit back and watch right? Then don't behave like that's what you want but you still want to be treated like you're building the game yourself.

[Tripzter]

Jee sounds like i hit a nerve on some of you.

`````````````````````"So go ahead and do it then. If you can beat them to release with an idea that's at least as good, you'll sell at least as many copies, right?

Or are you merely speaking theoretically, with nothing concrete to support your statement?

Put up or shut up, as they say."

Alright i'll bite, I used to do 3d design back in high school. I've made 3-4 thousand poly parts in a single day. In case u're not familiar with game design that is very detailed. Anyways i choose to go in a different direction bout my life career however that doesnt change the fact that ksp is lacking. Take a look at the mods out there. Hundreds of mods made for this game by the average Joe and u're telling me the pros that designed it cant do better?

`````````````"Ok then. I mean, there isn't engine fixes, bug fixes, under the hood fixes, and many more! Nope! All about the parts! "

Yet the game still lags like crazy, still runs a single thread, graphics card only being used 40%, cpu only being used 30%.

`````````````````"you must be incredibly impatient if that's how you really feel. When I first started playing in 0.20 I thought there were too many parts to choose from, and the updates come out so fast my space programs don't even get finished. I also don't understand how you think a 1 man team would be better, Orbiter is made by one person and it isn't nearly as refined as KSP. "

I'm basing it off on the amount of work being put out and i dont see much. The amount of time it takes to make a 100 poly part is about an hour, most parts in ksp are about half that and are symmetrical so it should be even faster, that said on a full 8 hour day cranking out 10+ parts should be doable... how many new parts did they release in the .21 update? 2? 3?

`````````````````"Eventough you obviously have zero knowledge about gamedevelopment I still feel compelled to reply, so let me break it down for you:"

You're right, i dont have knowledge in what it takes to modify a game engine however i do have quite a bit of knowledge on 3d modeling and design. I qualified within the top 10 in Illinois for 3d solids. Now that you know my experience i feel comfortable saying that i can create all the parts in ksp in a week easily.

Edited September 9, 2013 by Tripzter

[OdinYggd]

Alright that's enough.

Simply put, KSP wouldn't really benefit from kickstarter at this point.

There aren't funding problems that Squad has made public, and the development cycle is limited purely by the time it takes to develop content and program new features.

With the codebase getting larger each update, it does no good to simply throw new untrained programmers at it- that's how you get a mangled mess like you find in a lot of games out there.

Patience is key when programming.

And flaming each other is unacceptable.