KSP2 Developer Interview Reveals New Team Structure, Performance Gains and Many More Details

After Kerbal Space Program v0.2.0 "For Science!" was revealed, I had a chance to sit down with the game's creative director, Nate Simpson. We had a detailed discussion about development process, why the game didn't work as well as it should at the beginning of Early Access and what to expect going forward.
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0:00 What you can expect
1:32 Interview starts
1:55 "For Science!" in December. When exactly?
2:25 Did you expect the fan disappointment?
3:59 How the team structure has changed
6:38 Arriving at better estimates in development
8:22 How are problems from KSP1 still in KSP2?
10:57 Is there really no KSP1 code in KSP2?
13:31 How does the Unity payment model impact KSP2?
14:32 Will Colonies and Interstellar take as long as Science?
15:50 What's the work ratio between bugfixing and new features?
16:55 How large is the team, really?
19:13 Does "For Science!" already include the new CBT terrain system?
20:44 What is multicore support going to22:28 mean for performance?
22:28 More details on team setup and Nate's influence
24:41 Will the publisher pull the plug on KSP2 because of negative reviews?
#ksp2 #kerbalspaceprogram2 #interview
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[@VCSythis]

hey Shadow, I almost never leave comments on youtube, but wanna take the opportunity now to tell you this. I’ve seen you sometimes get frustrated on twitter about trying to grow viewership for your videos. Just wanna say that you should keep doing what you’re doing, because you love it. KSP has been a big part of my gaming lifestyle for a decade, and you plus Matt are some of the few making consistent content around the game. We appreciate you!

[@ShadowZone]

Thanks, that really means a lot! I'm currently in a good place regarding doing videos. I do what I can and if it works, it works and if it doesn't, well then it doesn't. No use fighting windmills :)

[@dosmastrify]

Well all ride with you Mr Quixote

[@HeidenLam]

truest of words, imo his chill vibes and criticality as he comments on KSP2 development really makes his channel stand out

[@AgzamovAkhror]

I’m joining @VCSythis’s words. Keep up, Shadow!

[@Z80nerdcave]

As an engineer, I can confirm that estimating task times is notoriously difficult. Nate's description of a single line-item spawning a bunch of dependent tasks happens all the time and I totally feel his pain.

[@ShadowZone]

Yes, I really think he did a great job explaining this real problem in software development to everyone.

[@MTandi]

As an engineer, I can tell that every task can be estimated with a relatively small error when you decompose it properly and have a design. Especially if this is your sequel project.

[@GrumpyPapaJim]

Good teams manage to deal with it.

[@dosmastrify]

Can confirm, boss asks how long with analysis take and the answer is well how long should it take versus how long will Messy data make it take

[@Imbeachedwhale]

@@MTandiAssuming you actually have the necessary knowledge. I’ve personally taken on several tasks where I had functionally zero knowledge going in, so estimating how long it would take to complete was little more than a guess.

[@alexisguzfi5490]

Well it's nice to know CBT is still being developed, and I'm honestly really excited to see all of the performance improvements Nate mentioned, I can't wait for the update to come around. Also I really liked the green screen parts, I feel like it made the video a lot better, good job!

[@ShadowZone]

As I said in the interview: big claims! But off camera Nate really re-iterated how much the game has improved. I think he felt a bit sad that we used so much of our 30min time slot to talk about the team structure and less about the actual gameplay, which is more his job than organizational stuff. I hope I get a chance to talk to him again when "For Science!" is out.

[@thememery767]

MAYBE UNABBREVIATE THAT

[@Cyynapse]

im so happy theyre making CBT. I LOVE CBT

[@alexisguzfi5490]

@@thememery767 nah it's more funny that way lol

[@tacklemcclean]

We get it, everyone loves Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

[@TheBeardyPenguin]

Really well conducted interview, the green screen asides were a great touch. The announcement and subsequent interviews have done a lot to alleviate my concerns about this game.

[@l4bells851]

absolutely, I was doubtfull of a future of the game but now it seems likely

[@ondrejpolansky78]

If I were to describe this interview in one word, it would be professional. The questions were insightful and covered pretty much everything I would ask Nate myself. Thank you for diligently keeping us updated on the game's development. Your dedication to sharing this journey with us is truly appreciated. Can't wait to see more!

[@Hectorlph]

It has to be hard to be in Nate's position. Good on him for having thick skin and focusing on making a better game. I'm quite pleased with the performance improvements and game breaking bug fixes. My hopes are up for For Science!

[@Davidian1024]

Hear, hear. Nate clearly really cares about KSP and wants the game to be the best it can be. Before KSP2 was released in Early Access, my biggest fear was that it would be heavily watered down in terms of complexity. If Nate's guilty of anything, it's that he wanted too much.

[@BartWillems1969]

Excellent work, Shadowzone! You've clearly done the research before coming up with the questions. I like the critical tone, and ironically it makes Nate looking better, not worse. The mea culpa's are more heartfelt, the explanations for falling short sound more genuine and his unwillingness to commit to bold claims makes the actual claims more believable. More than anything else, this interview makes me slightly less concerned about what For Science will be vs what is promised.

[@Quasar2007]

Thank you ShadowZone for bringing this video to us! I really liked the intro format. Glad to see progress on the game! 😊

[@Caleb-qr6lo]

I think a lot of the delays and headaches come from the two things he admits at the start: 1. The project was managed top-down. No system above 20 or so people works well managed top-down. 2. The project was structured in a way that causes cascading issues. Sure a task can explode into a larger task. But if that is happening often, often it is the case that the code was poorly structured. I think this is evident as the primary game loop was not completed before they decided to add additional features. The project wasn’t foundationally stable before they started trying to build on top of it.

[@silmarian]

Nate seemed to have a very different vibe in this interview than he has had in the past. I appreciate that he’s upfront about the erosion of trust that he and the game have had in the last year, it feels like he’s paying attention in a way that he didn’t seem to be earlier this year.

[@Lys3rg1k]

I found the explanation of 3rd party integrations / Unity libraries to be very helpful in understanding why some parts of the community have accused the devs of copy-pasting KSP 1 code. I thought if they had literally copied code from KSP 1 and still made such little progress in 6 years or however long it's been, that would be egregious. This makes me feel a lot better about at least that part of the development 😅

[@tiberius8390]

True. The context is important. There surely are parts of the game that will be the same or at least an iteration of what was in KSP1, because as was said some of the libraries or physics engine used is the same as KSP1. That does not mean the game is copy/paste. Also it's not inheritly bad to do that where possible to save time, as long as you take care not to copy/paste bugs along with it.

[@derantorkiarig4592]

@@tiberius8390 It literally means that it's copy-paste; just like they copy-pasted Unity librabries into KSP1, they did with KSP2. And evidently, they copied over the same issues which plagued KSP1, like unstable orbit calculations, wobbly rockets, etc. This becomes doubly ironic when the whole reason to create KSP2 was to build a new bespoke physics engine from the ground up precisely to avoid these issues, since the stock parts which come with Unity were not up to the task. Instead of doing that, they basically programmed KSP1 *again*.

[@tiberius8390]

​@@derantorkiarig4592 thing is developing a new engine or even a physics engine is nothing a small development team can do. It's its own development which needs to be made rentable by using it on multiple games. There is no way these days to develop a new engine only for a single game. Only big companies like EA, Valve or Ubisoft can do that, probably also under great financial risk. So they went with unity again and encounter the same issues. It is what it is.

[@derantorkiarig4592]

@@tiberius8390 I mean, we're talking about a very specialized requirement here, namely, orbital mechanics and part interactions. That doesn't have to cover everything a general physics engine has to cover. And, if it's truly impossible to do that, which I have a hard time believing, they probably shouldn't have promised it (or hinted at it) in the first place. Or should have used a different engine than Unity which has known problems with these types of tasks.

[@tiberius8390]

@@derantorkiarig4592 it's not just the specialized part I'd bet and probably more complicated than anything. There are numerous different calculations that need to be done and that influence each other. I'd say you need a traditional pyhsics engine ("planet side" physics, neutonian physics, part interactions,...) plus some for pressure density of the atmosphere, aerodynamics, aerodynamic friction and heat generated by that, orbital mechanics, crash physics, thermodynamics, .... you can for sure hire a physicist to make a deep dive into the calculations involved and someone who can develop ways how to calculate that efficiently and in real time on a home computer. It's not impossible to do, but for a single game not viable to develop this kind of stuff on a deeper level. I still hope they can manage it.

[@Cakehead_Gaming]

I absolutely love this video! Ive only seen you and MattLowne interview Nate, but Matts seemed more focused on the game itself. Yours however seems to be more meta and hard pressed, you're not giving him any leeway or letting him get off easily with questions. Keep up the absolutely amazing work Shadow!

[@Datau03]

Lot's of great questions and great editing, thank you for that! Super excited for the For Science! update

[@nahf4m]

I enjoyed the interview and considering the context of the community's mindset before this last patch his questions were relevant and necessary. The community needed assurance on those topics and the only way to achieve that is by speaking publicly on them, which only goes as far as the trust goes, or showing the community progress that is undeniable like the most recent patch did. I'm glad there was discussion on the difference between reused code vs reused tools within Unity. It is my understanding as a lay person that refactored code is a streamlining of existing code and I think this is where an inflection point of understanding exists. I think the community assumed ksp2 was going to go the route of kitbash and search for new avenues to conquer the old and immense challenges a game as complex as ksp presents. In my mind, I think of ksp2 as a new wagon on the same winding road as opposed to building a monorail that goes to where the old road went and even further. I think intercept believes they are building a monorail, but as an outside observer witnessing the same bugs being present and the same solutions being applied it begins to appear more like a new wagon with a fresh coat of paint. Now, the way Nate describes the development, it sounds like a monorail that first had to reinvent the wheel which explains why they have had and continue to experience some of the same bugs that were present in ksp1. I find this both understable and yet disappointing when I consider the amount of time that has passed and opportunity lost in not consulting Harv as soon as development began about things he would have differently. That is not to say that I don't have faith in the talented team at intercept, but rather that their talents could have shone brighter earlier without having to reinvent the wheel or at least as much of it. Thanks for coming to my tedtalk.

[@zblurth855]

Well you pose some interesting and sometime hard question but Nate did a good jobs answering them with the info he could give us

[@ShadowZone]

And that despite being completely jet lagged. Poor guy flew from Seattle to Germany the day prior and left the morning after Space Creator Day. He was basically surviving on coffee the entire event.

[@ez_theta_z9317]

@@ShadowZone ha, maybe that's why he was being so honest, too tired to come up with anything else jokes aside, i do respect that he was open about the issues and the game's future, i've got a bit more hope now

[@mushylog]

Good questions, you also pressed Nate relatively well enough. I trust Nate and the team, as for the last 10 months have shown progress, and I believe KSP2 will get better and better! It already is, compared to Early Access day 1.

[@fridaycaliforniaa236]

I'm not so confident. And Nate has a known past for having been the creative director for many games that were never finished or even good... There's this video named "exposing KSP2 devs for what they are" on YT. Take a look, and you'll see why I don't trust this team. KSP 1 was great and will forever be the one imho...

[@HeidenLam]

@@fridaycaliforniaa236 damn that video was 5 months ago already... remembered it like yesterday since that video was made during the most desolate of times for the community between 0.1.0 and this announcement, I'd still choose to give them the benefit of the doubt, the update should really speak for itself when it comes out

[@mushylog]

I watched that "exposing KSP2 devs" video @@fridaycaliforniaa236 I still believe in this project.

[@mushylog]

That's interesting, I didn't know that. @@mastah39 That man in question seems very dishonest. I don't like his vibe one bit.

[@skier340]

at 6:27, what nate seems to be describing is the issues with highly coupled code. I wonder if it would not be possible to decouple their codebase and systems more to alleviate these sort of issues. Decoupled code has a lot of benefits in the future for being able to expand and add new features at a much faster pace while alleviating the sort of issues where changing 1 feature breaks 5 others.

[@quickfiredan]

As an engineer on a game team, I think it's _super_ important to note something: even on a 100-person team, the engineering cadre might only be a small fraction of that, and it really depends on the core technology and what type of game you are making. Games are made from a great number of disciplines, so you'll also have testers (HEROES!!), artists, technical artists (different), audio specialists, designers, product owners / producers, project managers, etc, and all are considered as "developers" on a game team. This is a really roundabout way of saying that a 100-person "developer" team might only have 20-25 "coders".

[@rileyhef]

Love the format of the intro, and the shirt! Someone tell me where I can buy that.

[@ShadowZone]

The shirt is available directly from ESA: www.esaspaceshop.com/t-shirt-with-jupiter-for-men-tsssjp010000.html They also have all the other planets in that style. I got Mars, Venus, Earth and the Sun for myself as well. And thanks for the positive feedback! I'm glad dragging out the old green screen was worth the effort :D

[@TriptonicKerbal]

Very nice, it didn’t leave me in the ShadowZone with this info!

[@alertred114]

Thank you Nate for the transparency⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 😊!!! Thank you Shadow for your hard work and time ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️☺️

[@blueskyjoker2946]

Greatly structured and really well delivered questions there! Thank you for that interview, Nate's words really calmed me down

[@thespacepeacock]

well conducted and transparent interview, always interesting to learn more about the inner workings of the team. you didnt hold back with your questions, but Nate answered them well. onwards to For Science!

[@bastienlaviolette5076]

I hope it gets fixed fast. Thanks for your work it isn't an easy task to ask questions that are "correct" but you did it well!

[@Kevinnaples53]

One question that I was surprised that you did not ask was dealing with the font choices and pixelated theme to certain aspects of the UI. You even mentioned this as an eye sore in one of your videos. Being that we are 9 months in and even new promotional flyers are still sporting this terrible pixel theme and TI-83 font, I would like to know if this is even on their radar? Scenes showing the new mission control and tech tree also sport this. I know there are bigger issues to worry about, but its surprising to me that more people aren't also talking about this design choice as needing a change.

[@MikeTaylor-tw5wb]

It's awful eh. I actually hoped map view would be alot more polished in the sequel as well.. especially since you spend alot of time in that view.

[@keithkaranu4258]

Interesting, personally I like it. But, to each their own I guess.

[@MBkufel]

I know I'm late here, but you really grilled him. But well - a difficult situation requires difficult questions. I admire Nate's dedication, knowledge and goodwill to really answer whatever he can. I am really, really hopeful that these guys will win the community back again. The game needs it.

[@paulsidhuUK]

Great video, both for content and the way you presented it. I really like this style. I must also commend you for the excellent questions and the diplomatic way you handled some tricky topics. Thank you

[@stonerfpv2014]

I really enjoyed the interview, it gave a big insight into what has been happening and what we can expect, I did feel a bit of that excitement I first got before the game came out, so hopefully they can provide what they are saying they can, really looking forward to For Science and some reentry heating.

[@TROPtastic]

I quite liked the green screen format, it seems to work really well with a sit-down interview like this. 🙂 Your questions were also led to good insights by Nate, so the thoughtful critical approach was appreciated. My one complaint was the IMO overuse of "that's a big claim" in response to Nate's... claims. It was accurate, but the video would have flowed better if some instances were replaced with "that sounds great, but we'll have to see what its like in the release" or "I'm looking forward to testing that in the update."

[@comedyatitsworst]

Can't wait until next month! So excited to see science!

[@Variety_Pack]

I really like Nate, he seems to be aligned with the community on what game to make. He also seems really genuine. You go, Nate. You go.

[@EstrellaViajeViajero]

It seems like it might be more informative to interview those product owners or team leads.

[@lucababnik141]

I have been waiting for the game to get more polished before buying it and i am very excited to see if for science is gonna do it

[@durbeshpatel3047]

Well its not going to happen, there are only about 300 people even playing the game at peak times. It will be abandoneded, sorry. No game has come back from this disaster, even ksp1 is still 5 to 10 times more popular than ksp2

[@lucyditee]

Interesting interview. Was nice to hear about some of the more technical aspects regarding bug fixes and shared bugs between KSP1 and 2. Also nice to hear that the upcoming roadmap features won't be taking as long to release as For Science! has. Wish we had gotten a rough time estimate though. Hope to see KSP2 and the team behind it succeed with the upcoming update. Very excited, albeit a bit cautiously optimistic for the next update. If the For Science! update goes well and adds enough new stuff, as well as performance fixes, then I'll probably get the game for myself and play KSP2 instead of Modded KSP1.

[@ez_theta_z9317]

frankly i'm glad we didn't get a time estimate for the roadmap features, because it would have almost certainly been wrong and potentially angered the community more because of that

[@kasuha]

That was really good interview, thanks for it!

[@pulsar729]

Thank you! I am very looking forward to your upcoming videos you mentioned!

[@maestro-zq8gu]

As someone who worked as a visual artist on a production team, one of the worst questions to get asked is, "How long do you think this will take?"

[@sciencecompliance235]

And yet also among the most pertinent.

[@mightylink65]

This game never should of launched even in early access without all the features from the first game.

[@ttvFairPlayerPL]

I just hope that we will be able to built ships with 1500+ parts without problems, KSP 1 is able to run 2000+ pats projects at 40 fps. So devs plz do not f it up

[@LucAbshire]

This is an amazing little bit of news. Thank you Shadow zone.

[@Michael-ix6es]

great interview 👍 a team of less than 20 explains a lot.

[@seesiedler1]

I like the editing in this video. Very nice :) (And of course also a very good inverview)

[@MikeTaylor-tw5wb]

Thank you for this interview ShadowZone. I have a concern about what Nate means about future expectation management... my worry is that rather than giving the community information, they will simply go radio silent, as its easier than getting the communication right. Id like to still see progress on upcoming features, but really what they need to do is show the current state as well, so expectations can better be managed. EDIT: Also your green screen edits worked very well throughout this, Nice work wearing the same clothes too.. great continuity !

[@mrjspeed]

This was a great interview and added a lot of context and content. Thanks!

[@ARiverSystem]

Great interview. I appreciate that you didn't hold back with your questions.

[@javierolazaran7227]

I've heard/read the question about the size of the team vs the output a lot. The whole idea of "Big team = Bigger Output" in software development it's just wrong, basically because you just can not parallelize everithing. There is a famous phrase in the community that goes something like this, "You can't make a baby in one month by getting 9 women to work at it". I don't have issues with the game taking longer than expected, the output or even the buggy state as I belive it is to be expected in early access. My issue is that they charged 50u$d for it wich is what some complete AAA games cost.

[@fridaycaliforniaa236]

Yup, 50 bucks for a late alpha is a shame

[@kapytanhook]

Agree with it all, I'm happy to pay 50 if it gets to be worth it. But that looks like it's a few more years for me. I really wanted multiplayer but I'll be happy if the polish and performance is there with colonies and science

[@danilocoelho9915]

I trully loved this Intro, shadow! kkkkk

[@DDoom33]

Very well conducted interview!

[@extremerbg6244]

Thank you Shadow and Nate for this amazing interview!

[@TechyBen]

Legit respect if the "no hold over code" quote is true. And it's actual emergent same difficult problems/solutions. Though I do wonder how much code was copied "by hand", from the general observations of the old games methods!

[@bustabusts]

It's been like 8 months or something if it really this slow it does not matter most people won't buy it till it's a quarter of the price

[@diogenesdirkx]

I'm a Software Engineer, and the issue with not reusing code is that, sometimes, to avoid a bug, you need to execute tasks in a specific way. A naive approach without thorough research can reintroduce the same bug. A few years ago, I worked on refactoring an app. The company's management was so dissatisfied with the original software that they didn't allow us to base the new version on its predecessor. After a year and a half, when we were finally migrating data from the old application to the new one, I got access to the source code and database. I realized that many of the problems we faced had already been addressed in the previous code. Months of developing and redeveloping features could have been saved if we had reviewed that source code earlier.

[@Infernal_Elf]

thanks again for an amazing video. il give nate simpson and itercept games that tho they do take time to answer questions and such from content creators. but we all have to w8 and see if the science update is done properly and if the game works then. im also sadly experiencing some high pitch noises from your home microphone would be great if you are able to look into that.

[@Charlie-gf4mv]

Also such a good interviewer!

[@hey_how_are_ya]

I was really hoping you would ask about some features that you were hoping to see but didnt. like if the plasma on reentry will all be one color or if it will change colors for different atmospheres from the start?

[@RayneAngelus]

I had fully intended to buy KSP2 right at EA launch, but then I saw the system requirements and I... failed them. But now I exceed them, so I'm really looking forward to this first roadmap update, which is now when I'll be buying into the EA. Maybe just a *little* sooner, so I can experience the performance improvements. By first experiencing the lack of them.

[@SpaceNavy90]

I had to come back to this video to reconfirm what I thought Nate had said. "They are funded, we'll be fine." Apparently not...

[@watchclark6482]

How strange to see my LinkedIn referenced in this video. Even weirder that the new Tech Director is not sent along on these meet & greets to answer technical questions.

[@ShadowZone]

Hi Paul! Didn't mean to startle you with that screenshot, but it was the only number I could really go off on for this question. As for the other part, someone at IG/PD seems to have decided that the only person doing interviews should be Nate. I'd love to pick the brains of a tech director or senior engineer on this project one day, since I am working in software dev myself for a decade. Not even for content, just to compare notes how they do things compared to what I have experienced myself in the industry.

[@Lexyvil]

The game's loading time was insanely long on my end, the tutorial videos somehow took even longer. Really thinking of getting an SSD and gonna re-buy this game once I see the "Recent Reviews" be at least 80%, to be safe. Still can't believe it was $67 CAD on Early Access no less...But now I'm more hopeful. I'm only tolerating the game's current condition because it's considered Early Access.

[@vantadaga]

"Were not gonna get the plug pulled"

[@Harlock66]

Really good interview but i was looking for info regarding PS5 release : we know that nothing will be release before 1.0 but did someone starts to work on it :'(

[@fridaycaliforniaa236]

By the time it's ready, there will be a PS6 or PS7, I'd say... 🤔😂

[@Donald_Duck_420_69]

Oh man, i hope I will be able to play the game on my 1080ti :p

[@fridaycaliforniaa236]

Good luck with that XD

[@Zacho5]

My 1080 works okay now, so id guess a TI would be even better.

[@Donald_Duck_420_69]

@@Zacho5 That´s good to hear👍

[@tehPete]

Good catch with the third party engine plugin being the cause of the shared bug - they're easily overlooked!

[@magictoffee7066]

Nice.

[@tyleranthony5220]

Green screen work was top tier

[@brgimscht]

one thing i really have to say is, i feel the game is in REALLY good hands with nate! i feel like he is the best person ksp 2 can have for that position and i will trust him on this!

[@dansiegel995]

Can you please ask him time about important KSP1 functionality, not appearing at all in what they seem to have declared as KSP2 base functionality: Fuel Priority, Robotic Parts, EVA Construction, Crew Specialties and skills, etc (there are I'm sure many other small things that I am forgetting) - will they have plans to release these on future roadmaps drops (EVA Construction for example released with Orbital Construction?), or are they perfectly pleased with what they will deliver in 0.2 as a KSP1 replacement? Lots of these features didnt come up because the even most basic things were so FUBAR, however with 0.1.5 (with the exception of wobbly rockets and

[@Opusss]

I get the feeling that Nate was not delegating enough responsibilities and that started to create a crisis. I am glad it sounds like they got it straightened out.

[@cf453]

How hard is it to just cache the fuel flows and just recalc on vehicle change? It seems like the re-verify the entire vehicle every frame.

[@mranthonymills]

Hey SZ, thanks for doing the research and bringing the tough questions, and thanks to Nate for being honest and not ducking them. I hope KSP 2 turns a corner!

[@OzzyInSpace]

I think I speak for many when I say that it's good to see Nate looking a little healthier these days. He was looking worse for wear there for a while. Doesn't take a rocket scientist (see what I did there? lol) to understand why that might have been the case. Glad things are looking up, and I'm also excited for the future of this game.

[@Fieryxjoe]

3 Big things for me from this interview. 1. Things are speeding up internally. 2. Sounds like Science not gonna be Dec 30th, could have guessed this, they don't want to miss the holiday, 3. Huge for the future of the game. They think future milestones will be faster. Didn't sound like he was saying 9 months instead of 10. More like 6-7 months. If they can hit 2 milestones a year the game is alive. I think the Science -> Colonies gap will determine the games future TBH. If it is looking like this game willl be further from its own announcement than KSP 1 release was from KSP2 announcement its dead, who would want to wait 5 years to get out of beta, but if its 6 month milestones its 2 year Early access and we can actually hope for they "beyond" features too on the roadmap.

[@ThatRobHuman]

I've got to applaud Nate's stamina. You can tell he's tired at this point (I can't imagine (A) how many interviews he did, and (B) how hard those interviews were; to say nothing of the fact that he just got done doing one of the higher-pressure presentations he's probably given in quite a while). Despite that, he did his job, and well: which - says a lot about his work ethic and the ethic he must command.

[@ez_theta_z9317]

he was also apparently very jetlagged and running on caffeine, according to one of SZ's comments

[@ThatRobHuman]

@@ez_theta_z9317 even more impressive, then.

[@pandiculation194]

Twist it any way you want but until I can plug a simple flight stick as a lay person and have it work then nothing is important. I learned K1 with the keyboard and it is super precise but when I plugged in my joystick it felt like flying. It came with new challenges and in a way was more difficult but it was more fluid , dynamic more fun and not sterile but organic. You would think they could even subcontract this to a company who knows nothing about Kerbal. Aerospace 'foamers' have the equipment so we should be able to use it. Flight Stick Controllers

[@439sparky1]

I feel like you were.. how should I say this, direct with your wording.

[@fridaycaliforniaa236]

Yup, but it was fully deserved ;)

[@don_pavlov]

Well i can already play the game compared to launchday. I had 2-6 fps at the start. but now i get 15-30. So playable.

[@ShadowZone]

Are you on Patch 0.1.5? That improved things a lot!

[@factsforlife0O0]

They need to expand the Dev team by 40% the more people working on it the more faster things will get done. They really need to start getting the Massive Mod devs on the team more of them need to be on the team and stuff will happen Much MUCH faster

[@joshuasims5421]

To err is human; to try, try again, is Kerbal.

[@MTandi]

6:00 It's funny when developers learn that you need to have an HLD for tasks after the release in prod. Lack of planning is no magic.

[@fridaycaliforniaa236]

Or lack of efforts in this case. But still, I agree, that doesn't smell good for the following months or even years...

[@MTandi]

@@fridaycaliforniaa236 exactly, it really sound like they try to find excuses. Software development is hard, hurr durr... We know that much. But unfortunately for them, we see how much better other company perform with comparatively the same amount of resources. And the fact that he avoided the question about the team size means that they're conscious about their bad performance.

[@TROPtastic]

​@@fridaycaliforniaa236 It's silly to see all the things the devs have worked on and believe there's a "lack of effort." You can think there's a lack of planning or lack of competence, but a "lack of effort" is an irrational belief.

[@cf453]

@@TROPtastic The fun thing about putting effort into planning is that you end up not having to put in emergency effort later.

[@thebigonioninstitute2404]

Is it me or are the ads insane on this video? It's like after every question I'm getting an ad break. I'm okay with midroll ads, but having 4 pairs of ads by the 11:00 minute mark is pretty extreme

[@Rodhern]

I got far less. Just a few during the full video.

[@christophertarantola7238]

I work in software dev. I feel and see Nate's pane. Nate clearly is eating a TON of crow in this interview, and others, and he's pushing through the discomfort like a champ! I for one may not take the time to play the game as much till some of the features are complete, but am here, patiently waiting, and will be there when they do come. I can tell, they will come, and this team seems to be pretty darn legit. Nate in particular certainly is. Win, lose, or draw: keep moving forward.

[@mikekopack6441]

I'm hopeful. But that being said, they kinda have to nail it, or it's going to put the nail in the coffin - I don't see the fanbase giving them a 3rd chance if they screw this up. And yeah, it's ALL based on communications - Nate has been telling us for YEARS about all these things they've had in the works, and when we finally get the early access it was a buggy mess with very little to do, and very slow roll out of fixes, let alone feature release. So, yeah, PLEASE knock our socks off guys!

[@dolphfin]

Great interview, thanks. I liked the insert of the green mess. 😂

[@Davidian1024]

All the people complaining about there being some ethics issue skipped right past the Early Access statement. Which is huge and impossible to miss. In case you still haven't read it, here it is: "Early Access Game: Get instant access and start playing; get involved with this game as it develops. Note: This Early Access game is not complete and may or may not change further. If you are not excited to play this game in its current state, then you should wait to see if the game progresses further in development." Oh, and let's not forget that the music for the original trailer was "Howard Jones - Things Can Only Get Better". They couldn't have been more clear that this is a work in progress. I've been following this since long before it was released in Early Access. I knew exactly what I was getting into. And my excitement for the games future has never waned. If you're mad, just chalk it up as a life lesson. From now on, make sure you know what you're getting into before you commit to something.

[@ulle85]

So is 20 software people or less normal for a 60$ title? Would have liked to know if they are still “having a lot of fun in multiplayer internally” as stated at the announcement in 2019 😁

[@mathieubouchard5117]

I really like that he said Wobbly rockets Very high priority. What I have been hearing in the past has been ,Wobbly rockets are fun ,to we are looking at how to make wobble work. Its keeping me from enjoying the game right now. Dare I say I am hopeful for the Science update. I Put just shy of 6000 hrs. in KSP 1 and I really want this game to succeed. I have been worrying that the development could stop and we get a tweet a year down the road: sorry do to circumstance out of our control we have decided to stop KSP 2 dev..............😞

[@Zacho5]

Lot of toxic people in the KSP community sadly. Thanks for the Interview!

[@joshuajackson472]

And yet the as you claim "toxic community" wasn't what killed it. Perhaps the criticism was warranted. How many more years and how may more millions of $ would be reasonable?

[@Zacho5]

@@joshuajackson472 case in point. Thanks for proving me right.

[@joshuajackson472]

@@Zacho5 always happy to help

[@awilliams1701]

One thing I'm curious about is why did they say "we've slain the cracken" when it's clear they haven't.

[@ShadowZone]

"Our ultimate goal is to slay the Kraken" was the exact quote from Tom Vinita, I think in Episode 5 of the feature videos. They never said that they have already reached that goal.

[@awilliams1701]

@@ShadowZone ohhhh ok

[@matthewcoetzee3413]

Finally yay 😁

[@Alewxx]

That is quite a different kind of interview compared to what jason weimann did with the unity suit. But i find Nates answers still too much PR deparment like.

[@TormodSteinsholt]

Also, multiplayer seems to be something that would be hard to add later in a game. KSP1 failed at that. The fuel part-to-part performance issue seems trivial compared to network machine-to-machine game state synchronization. I still hope that the future holds a multiplayer mun mission first person experience with two kerbanauts IVA/EVA and one at mission control.

[@fridaycaliforniaa236]

That's positively great ! We should have a release candidate for KSP 2 in 2027. I can't wait to buy my RTX 7090Ti to play this game ! 🤗

[@GSF404]

I play it right now just fine on an RTX 3060M, so I think you're being a *slight* bit pessimistic there.

[@fmo94jos8v3]

Please fix orbit drift bug. Don't own 2 yet but its in both 1 & 2 and makes game unplayable. Has something to do with floating points and rounding errors I think. The AP/PE will just drift on you no input needed.

[@Davidian1024]

On the point about code reuse. There is a particular behavior in KSP2 that is identical to KSP1. The navball switches from surface velocity to orbital velocity when your craft goes above a certain altitude. The altitude is different for each planet. On Kerbin it's 36000m above sea level. I know this number very well becuase I've been working around this behavior since KSP1. I don't know if this is an example of code reuse or an example of functionality reimplemented to work essentially exactly the same way.

[@merinsan]

Colonies are the only thing I am waiting for. Until then, KSP 1 is better.

[@mushylog]

KSP1 Stock?

[@fridaycaliforniaa236]

@@mushylog With mods. But still. At least this one is not an alpha, right now.

[@WIKUS70]

Just thankful someone finally does KSP2 and that we get access during development. I will never understand people being impatient with great art. This to me feels more like an interrogation instead of an interview but still some good information here.

[@fridaycaliforniaa236]

You must be one of those guys that are happy to get scammed by lazy devs when they tell you you are "privileged" to pay full price for a late alpha release that is 3 years late... mmhhhh ? 🤔

[@TROPtastic]

​@@fridaycaliforniaa236 Who forced you to buy KSP2 in Early Access? I was waiting for years, but when I saw the game was going to launch missing most of its features, I decided to save my money and wait. The devs didn't even have pre-orders for their broken game, unlike Cities Skylines 2.

[@TerrainiumKSP]

2 brothers sitting down 💀💀

[@joshuajackson472]

So sad going back and looking at these after the fact. Did he believe what he was saying, or was he just blowing smoke?

[@ShadowZone]

Based on how he talked about especially the "pulling the plug" thing after the cameras were off, he truly believed what he said.

[@joshuajackson472]

@@ShadowZone thanks for the reply to a new comment on an old video. Seems like such a tragedy, can only imagine the emotions of the people who worked on this for years, only to have it collapse. Thanks for the content.

[@marekkos3513]

He is such a good guy , and visionary guy.As long KSP2 is on early access , I can forgive everything.I really like KSP2 as it is , but the science and re entry heat will give this game a boost

[@youtubevanced4900]

I’d drop the screen interaction stuff. It doesn’t work.

[@BenTajer89]

His answer to the team size question makes me think the team really is like 4 people…

[@JohnLagerling]

Sounds like they have about 12-14 people.

[@GSF404]

​@@JohnLagerlingthing is, with a project like KSP2, I don't think it's a case of the amount of people that matters, but the capabilities of those individuals. Look at what modders (a number of which are on the team) have accomplished in what is essence, their free time. Nertea is a great example, he has what a dozen mods? Of absolute top qualities, and most of them bring some kind of fundamental change to the game. Blackrack, as a solo act elevated KSP1 with Scatterer. I think one of the absolute biggest faces missing there, and someone who has had a lot of solid input on where the problems lie, is GamesLinx. He is perhaps 'the' chief modder for me, Parallax and Beyond Home are exquisite pieces of work for someone's personal 'passion project'. So, I think it's a solid case for individual qualities over quantity, which might seem counterproductive but it can often be the most effective setup.

[@BenTajer89]

@@JohnLagerling Yeah that's what I figured after he showed the graphic with the team leads.

[@sciencecompliance235]

I find it hard to believe he doesn't have a decent estimate of how large the team is.