space-simulation
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Kerbal Space Program update opens the R&D wing for business
Kerbal Space Program has issued a new update, version 0.22, adding research and development functionality and scientific experiments to Career mode. The data gathered through research and scientific experiments furthers the player's abilities by unlocking access to new parts for potential spacecraft and space stations. New experiment modules, running a variety of experiments accruing even more data, may then be built to conduct tests around all celestial bodies found within the Kerbal solar system. This new functionality is available in the Career mode, where players can find a more structured introduction to Squad's indie space simulator's mechanics. Career mode is a new compliment to Kerbal Space Program's unguided Sandbox mode tasking players with building space craft and shooting them into space – a real trial and error game type that made up the foundation of the initial game. The 0.22 update also adds a lot of other minor features and tweaks to the existing game. Feel free to pore over it all in the patch notes past the break. Kerbal Space Program, Steam's first Early Access game, is available for the PC, Mac and Linux for $23 – both through Steam and the official KSP website.
The atypical story of Kerbal Space Program's indie flight to success
Making video games is what Felipe Falanghe always wanted to do. Unfortunately, that's not what his job was at Squad, an interactive marketing company in Mexico City, Mexico. Squad was responsible for creating multi-media installations to sell products from Samsung and Nissan to the Mexican market. So one day, in early 2011, Felipe approached his bosses and told them he wanted to make a game. "And it completely blew me away when they just said, 'Okay,'" Felipe told me during a meeting at PAX Prime. "I didn't believe them at first," he added, but his bosses were serious: If he brought them a good idea and a solid business plan, he would be free to go for it. This is when he wrote the design document for Kerbal Space Program, a sandbox space flight simulation game that has been quite successful since its launch through the Steam Early Access program in 2011. Felipe has been lead developer ever since.
