'Kitten Space Agency', the Spiritual Successor to 'Kerbal Space Program' (2025)

TTomte about 3 hours ago 28 commentsRead Article on space.com

FR version is available. Content is displayed in original English for accuracy.

⚡ Community Insights

Discussion Sentiment

67% Positive

Analyzed from 801 words in the discussion.

Discussion (28 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

JLO64•about 2 hours ago

I’m primarily a coding instructor but I also teach lessons based around Kerbal Space Program. From that angle I’m pretty happy where these devs are going with the sandbox and level of freedom they plan on giving users. One reason my students seem to really like KSP are all the different things you can do/build (especially space planes). While it does have a high difficulty curve when it comes to the controls, once they master them they all seem to appreciate the level of control they have. From my perspective, I feel that instead of trying to make certain systems more accessible/simple they should go in the opposite direction and offer more control/options (preferably with a decent tutorial though).

However, something I really hope the developers plan on making a macOS port. I use a MacBook myself, but I’ve noticed the vast majority of my students also have Macs. I have no hard data to back this up, but I suspect a larger than average segment of users interested in this game are on Mac.

peesem•about 1 hour ago

somewhere they have an FAQ where one of the questions is about Mac support, i remember the response being something like "most of the developers use Macs so it might happen"

edit: here - https://kittenspaceagency.wiki.gg/wiki/Frequently_asked_ques...?

rowanseymour•about 2 hours ago

So excited to play this but also sad that they didn't get the IP to use Kerbals. Not loving the cutesy baby kittens.. should have gone with a more serious animal like capybaras.

stetrain•about 1 hour ago

'Kapybara Space Program' has actually already been done as an April Fool's post by the previous studio that worked on Kerbal Space Program 2:

https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/topic/216143-kapybara-s...

zamadatix•about 2 hours ago

I think the angle is at least partially that "Kitten"/"Kerbal" both start with a 'K' and are 2 syllables making the game names sound very similar (in both full form and abbreviation).

Of course, I'm sure there will be Kerbal mods if the game proves anywhere near as popular!

nerdsniper•about 2 hours ago

"Kapybara"

Zee2•about 2 hours ago

Giant tardigrades would have been fun. Serious, authentic space travelers... not so much on the cuteness factor, though.

amarant•about 2 hours ago

The next spiritual successor should allow us to customise the species, and let us deal with whatever consequences that might bring!

Like, you might have a aquatic space-faring species, which requires you to bring lots of water into space. More rockets (and struts!) will be needed, but at least you get really good radiation protection out of it!

Tardigrades ought to be a cheat code, you can just glue your crew to the outside of the booster and they'll probably be alright so long as you don't glue them to the fiery end!

tintor•about 2 hours ago

I'd like to play Minion Space Program.

throwaway27448•about 2 hours ago

Aren't the kerbals basically minions with dignity?

danilocesar•about 2 hours ago

Not mine. My kerbin's ocean is full of them now.

flohofwoe•about 1 hour ago

I bet there will be mods in no time to bring the Kerbals back :)

Rebelgecko•43 minutes ago

There was a mod within 24 hours of the tech demo being released :)

goda90•about 2 hours ago

Perhaps it will be moddable to have whatever animal a modder might choose to put in there.

libraryatnight•about 2 hours ago

I don't know why but I found myself thinking "Capybaras would make much more sense." And I meant it.

RankingMember•about 2 hours ago

Something about their resolute "ok I'll deal with this" facial expressions while being absolute units body-wise seem right for comical astronauts.

pohl•about 2 hours ago

Using kittens is a master stroke. If done right, the internet will reward them.

Gagarin1917•about 2 hours ago

I was surprised how much backlash there is over using kittens.

It turned out that people are worried they’ll get too attached to the kittens to be able to enjoy them becoming engulfed in massive explosions.

cfiggers•about 1 hour ago

Now that's funny.

"They're too easy to get sentimentally attached to, and then it makes me sad if I blow them up!"

Honestly this probably enhances the sandbox nature of the game by making the stakes more palpable.

w4der•about 1 hour ago

There is historical precedent tho: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%A9licette

throwaway27448•about 2 hours ago

Let me know when I can run it on my Mac. I realize I'm 1% of the world but I can't even be bothered to unfuck the gaming machines I own that are gathering dust. Just let me use my main workstation and I'll play the shit out of it

MarsIronPI•about 1 hour ago

I wish it were open-source, especially since it's being distributed "pay-what-you-want" anyway. If they released the source, they could get free labor to port to Mac or even console homebrew.

Svoka•32 minutes ago

They answered this on their wiki:

> Will KSA be open source?

The game is not expected to be made open source due to certain dependencies that are not also open source. Public code contributions may be opened up in the future pending concerns around effectively managing the potential volume of code contributions.

ryandrake•4 minutes ago

> The game is not expected to be made open source due to certain dependencies that are not also open source.

That's always kind of struck me as a silly excuse. So just release it without those non-open source dependencies. If there is a community need, they will be re-implemented. There's no law that says an open source release needs to be buildable from day one.

zamadatix•about 2 hours ago

I wonder what they'll do in that regard, has anyone seen an official comment on the intent? I know they already have a Linux build but they didn't have to create a new graphics API target (they use Vulkan) to do that.

throwaway27448•about 2 hours ago

You can target Macs with Vulcan. It's not ideal but it should be fine.

Svoka•33 minutes ago

You are not, in fact, 1% here. I saw numbers like 77% of players using Windows, 12% on macOS and 9% on Linux for the game.

Also, developers seem to have an experimental Linux build and code building for macOS according to the wiki:

https://kittenspaceagency.wiki.gg/wiki/Frequently_asked_ques...?

I have a lot of opinions on shipping games on macOS, but they mostly about lack of technical barriers to be honest, so I'll leave them with myself.

zamadatix•about 2 hours ago

I just started doing a final playthrough of KSP in anticipation by the time KSA is in a more complete state I'll have the itch for such a game again. It's looking to be in a much better direction than KSP 2 (very glad I managed to avoid that) both technically & in release approach.

mc32•about 2 hours ago

A nice segue for kids from the Catstronauts series…