Kerbal Space Program

Kerbal Space Program
File:KerbalSpaceProgramFullRedLogo.png Official logo of the game
Developer(s)	Squad
Publisher(s)	Squad
Engine	Unity3D
Platform(s)	Windows, Mac OS
Release	June 24, 2011 (first alpha release) October 29, 2012 (0.17.1)
Genre(s)	Space flight simulator game Simulation game
Mode(s)	Single-player

Kerbal Space Program (commonly abbreviated as KSP) is currently a playable in-development alpha-stage space flight simulator game, indie game currently in version 0.17.1. The game is developed for Windows and Mac OS.The game allows players to build spacecraft and spaceplanes to be launched, flown or navigated through a fictional solar system. The game contains a large amount of stock parts and several extraterrestrial bodies to visit. The game has had support for mods, since its inception, this has led to a large amount of mods to be created by a significant community to expand and modify the gameplay as well as add new parts. The "kerbonauts" or Kerbals are the main inhabitants of this game.

Gameplay

File:KSPscreenshot.png

A rocket sitting on the launchpad, with the Mun (A satelite of the planet) in the background

This game allows players to build and pilot a space vehicle, made out of pre-fabricated modules (also referred to as 'parts') such as liquid fuel engines, fuel tanks, solid fuel rockets, landing gear, wings and steering fins. Additional parts such as payload fairings, wheeled rovers, and weapons have been added to the game by players. Players can also control the characters piloting the vehicle, called 'Kerbals'.

Within the game there are fourteen total celestial bodies organized in an abbreviated Solar System, including the Earth-like planet named Kerbin where the player begins, a gas giant, a planet resembling Mars, and various moons. In total there are six different planets to vist, 8 different moons in orbit of the respective planets.

From version 0.14 on, support for persistent journeys has been added: any object that has attained a stable orbit, or is anyway in a predictable path outside of an atmosphere, will be saved between play sessions, its trajectory propagated simultaneously with all the others. Version 0.16 added the feature of EVAs, allowing players to control the Kerbals. A "tracking station" interface allows the player to resume any of the flights in progress, switch between them, and also visit non-controllable space debris. Vehicles cannot dock yet, but the introduction of this feature has been set aside for a later release. Other planets have since been added to the game ,in 0.17.

Modification

The game supports extensive end-user modification, allowing craft parts to easily be built and implemented by players. As a result, the game enjoys a significant modding community, with hundreds of modifications released to date. These modifications to the game add to functionality, allowing craft such as land vehicles or airplanes to be created far more easily than with the base game.

Beginning with the paid 0.14.1 version, the game supports an extensive plugin API, allowing players and mod-makers to create parts that load additional code at runtime; this code extends the base game, allowing for new functionality or for more powerful control of the existing ones (e.g. autopilot modules, or telemetry). The plugins are written in C#, as is the base game.

Inconsistencies

While newtonian physics generally is implemented in a realistic manner, the game engine's inability to solve the n-body problem only allows gravity from one celestial body at a time to be modeled, with gravity 'switching' at a definite point. This prevents the simulation of Lagrangian points and other situations involving gravitational pull from multiple objects. This was a trade-off intentionally made by the developers, to improve the stability and speed of the simulation, in addition to the predictability, which will help certain planned features.

The physics simulation is based on the PhysX middleware, utilized as part of the Unity 3D. The unique necessities of the game, which has to correctly handle distances in a range of at least 13 orders of magnitude and velocities in the order of kilometers per second, have required a number of workarounds to avoid numerical stability issues. Some bugs of this nature are still not completely solved as of now.

Planned features

According to the game's website, several features are planned for KSP in the future:

• Spacecraft docking, planned for version 0.18.
• Officially supported rover
• Space station construction
• Space program economic management, with the 1993 space simulation game Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space as an acknowledged inspiration
• The ability to create flight plans, in mission control.
• Electrical systems.
• Weather systems.
• Research and development.
• Astronaut Complex.

The game is currently in the alpha stage of development, with the current software being only a very small approximation of the final product. The current game can be purchased through the developer's 'Kerbal Space Program Store' at a cost of US $18.00. Version 0.13 will remain free as a demo, and will never be updated.

Reception

The game has not yet been released so there are no reviews of the game to date. The game has received acknowledgement though. The game has had many positive articles written about it. IGN has included the game in an article "Five Ridiculous Upcoming Games", where upcoming games for the pc without major publisher backing where discussed.

Other publications have also been positive about the game. With PCGamer saying "Kerbal Space Program has a long way to go before it’s the galaxy exploring management game it wants to be, but it’s already amazing." and Unbored saying "I loved every minute of it"

The game has received large amounts of praise with the acknowledgement that the game is only in early development and therefore not complete.

Version History

The game is rapidly going through development, with new versions being released to the public on a regular basis. The first version to be released to the public was 0.7.3 on 24 June 2011. The latest version of the game, 0.17.1 was released on 30 October 2012.

V0.17

V0.17.1 This version was released on October 30, 2012. New features included: User interface now scaled to different resolutions. Menu and credit music. V0.17.0 This version was released on September 19, 2012. This was an other major update to the game with the introduction of other planets in orbit around the sun, to travel to. These new planets where also accompanied with new moons. The update also included tutorials to make the game more user friendly and so new players would not feel overloaded with the game. New features included: Internal cockpit view. Multiple saves. Tutorials. Pre-build ships. New stock parts. Physical timewarp. An other method of Timewarp that this time does not put the simulation on rails during it. New planets and moons Visual cues for building ships.

V0.16
This version was released on July 20, 2012. New features included: Extra-Vehicular Activities, EVA Internal cockpits.

V0.15

This version was released on May 17, 2012. This was a significant update for the game. It brought the ability to create and fly space planes, as well as a new moon for the planet Kerbin called minmus. New features included: A runway. Space plane hanger. New air breathing engines. Context menu on parts. So the details of the part can be seen during game play. This also allows for actions to be taken. The ability to manually place position parts in game. A new moon for the planet Kerbin, Minmus.

V0.14

The versions 0.14.1 and 0.14.3 are not listed here, as they where just bug fixes and contained no knew features. V0.14.4 This version was released on April 3, 2012. New features included: Adaptation for older video cards. V0.14.2 This version was released on March 27, 2012. New features included: A new terrain engine. V0.14.0 This version was released on March 3, 2012. New features included: Autosave. Support for multiple missions at the same time. More crew members, instead of just the original three. To allow for multiple missions. A tracking station. Landing gear.

V0.13

V013.3 This version was released on March 3, 2012. This update was mainly to fix bugs in the demo version, with V0.14 arriving the same day. This is the current version of the demo. New features included: A Stats Tracking System, so we can collect information of the game for statistical purposes. V0.13.2 This version was released on January 26, 2012. This is the demo version of the game and can be downloaded for free at the developers website. As of now there is no commitment to update, or improve the demo version of the game. V0.13.1 This version was released on January 11, 2012. New features included: Added in-game credits. Holding Ctrl and clicking on a part on the ship at the VAB will now automatically flip the parts list to the selected part's page Changed the Fuel Line flow direction, so fuel will flow from the first-placed end of the line to the second end. Recompiled on the latest version of the Unity engine, to add multithreaded rendering support and better memory management. V0.13.0 This version was released on December 16, 2011. New features included: A fuel line. To allow transferring of fuel around the vehicle. A progress bar for loading screens.

V0.12
This version was released on November 11, 2011. This was the first version of the game to include an extra terrestrial body. The planet Kerbin's moon, the mun. New features included: The mun ( A moon).

V0.11

V0.11.1 Released on October 13, 2011. Version fixed a critical bug where the game would crash when an menu item was clicked. V0.11.0 This version was released on October 12, 2011. New features included: In-Flight Time Compression. RCS (Reaction Control System) Module Part. Advanced SAS Module Part: Uses input-enabled parts (like winglets and RCS) to stabilize flight, but applies no forces of it's own. New "Atmosphere" Gauge in the user interface, indicates how deep the ship is in the planet's atmosphere. Parts can now cast shadows on themselves. Improvements to the orbital system. Splash down effects. Optimization of the terrain rendering system.

V0.10

V0.10.1 This version was released on September 13, 2011. This update was mainly bug fixes. New features included: Improved atmosphere model. V0.10.0 This version was released on September 6, 2011. Support for OSX was implemented in this update as well as support for joysticks. New features included: Changes to the world generation system. All terrain can now detect collisions. OSX support. Joystick support. Increased anti-aliasing, up to 8x.

V0.9

This version was released on August 12, 2011. New features included: Stages can now be manually created. Whole stages can now be dragged and repositioned. Parts now display their details when hovered over while in the VAB (Vehicle Assembly Building). Parachutes now open at appropriate altitude rather than as soon as deployed. The ability to change settings in-game. Icons for symmetrical placed parts are grouped under one icon. Modification of the staging system.

V0.8

V0.8.5 This version was released on July 18, 2011. New features included: New textures. The ability to copy parts. Parachutes to deploy automatically once jettisoned. Cleaning up of the user interface. A debugging console. Pitch, Yaw and Roll gauges change color to indicate mode (orange for instant, cyan for precision) Added some sound effects for the parachute opening V0.8.3 Version was released on July 14, 2011. This was mainly a bug fix to correct bugs produced in prior 0.8. updates. The new features included: New tips on how to use the in game tools. A key to lock staging to prevent accidental stage jettisoning. V0.8.2 This version was released on July 13, 2011. This version was mainly to fix bugs that were produced in the V0.8.1 update. V0.8.1 Version 0.8.3 was released on July 12, 2011. New features included: Part snapping and symmetrical placement during construction in the vehicle assembly building. V0.8.0 Version 0.8 was released on July 7, 2011. This was the second release of the game, it contained many improvements and bug fixes. The new features added in this iteration are: Undo and Redo functions in the vehicle assembly building. The ability to simulate the physics in the background. New textures for parts and the user interface. The ability to save and load ships as well as give them names. New splash screen The ability to stack fuel tanks. An basic updater.

V0.7.3
Version 0.7.3 was released on June 24, 2011. This was the initial release of the Kerbal Space Program.[8]

See also

• Orbiter (simulator)

External links

• Kerbal Space Program Main Website
• Kerbal Space Program developer's blog
• Destructoid: Hands-on: Kerbal Space Program
• Rock Paper Shotgun: Trans-Lunar: Kerbal Space Program
• IGN: Kerbal Space Program
• Kotaku: Will You Help These Stupid Aliens Into Space?
• Giant Bomb: Quick Look - Kerbal Space Program
• PCGamer Now Playing: Reaching for the stars in Kerbal Space Program
• Kerbal Space Program Wiki