Talk about a shadowdrop. Last Friday, the pre-alpha build of Kitten Space Agency was released, for free.
For those not in the know, Kitten Space Agency is a spiritual successor to Kerbal Space Program (and its maligned sequel stuck in Early Access) with developer Felipe Falanghe (a.k.a. HarvesteR, the creator of Kerbal Space Program) and backed by RocketWerkz, the team lead by DayZ and Icarus creator’s Dean Hall.
Kitten Space Agency has been in development for over a year, and RocketWerkz is now sharing the current progress of their game, and invites the community of aerospace enthusiasts and professionals to contribute to the game not through sales, but “direct contributions”, that’s pay as much as you’d like to the game.
“Kerbal Space Program inspired a generation of players to think differently about space,” said Dean Hall, CEO of RocketWerkz. “With Kitten Space Agency, we want to carry that spirit forward. To build something bold and community driven, shaped directly by the people who play it. This is not just a game we’re announcing; it’s a mission we’re inviting everyone to join.”
Kitten Space Agency continues the traditions of sending cute things to space, and is running on an in-house “development framework” (more or less a game engine) called Brutal. The use of in-house tools is said to give the development team “complete agency” when it comes to bug fixing.
The release of the Kitten Space Program pre-alpha is through a new platform Ahwoo. Yes, it’s another launcher that isn’t Steam, but this platform has the ability to directly contribute to the game’s development which is a Ahwoo’s unique selling point.
Kerbal Space Program 2 has landed into a long and troubled development cycle since the IP was purchased by Take-Two as part of Private Division, to say the least. You can refer to content creator ShadowZone’s video which details what happened to Kerbal Space Program 2’s development right up to May 2024 when the game (and Private Division) went dark.
So it’s nice to see the enthusiasts that believe in making spaceflight sims to continue making one, despite everything.
Download Kitten Space Agency here. You can also contribute money to the project (at any amount, though they only accept USD) and monetarily help its development.