Kerbal Space Program will live on as key staff leave the rocket simulator behind

The Kerbal Space Program mission isn’t over despite some key developers leaving.

Nathan Kell, one of the producers of Kerbal Space Program, posted a message to the game’s forum on Reddit today to inform fans that eight members of the development team have ceased their work on the project. The game is entering into version 1.2 right now, and developer Squad is rolling that update out to players on PC and other platforms soon. This has prompted Squad to assure fans that it has new talent working on Kerbal Space Program. And the company is even promising to increase its profile at industry events and fan conventions going forward.

Kerbal Space Program is a science playground where players can design and launch rockets into space. It started at Squad more than five years ago back when that company was still only a marketing firm. Creator Felipe Falanghe took the idea to his bosses at Squad, and they told him to go ahead. After launching on Steam as an Early Access game in an unfinished state, Kerbal caught on with a larger audience who stuck with it for years and through numerous updates. In May, Falanghe stepped down as director.

“All good things must come to an end, and so it is for us,” Kell writes in his Reddit post. “It is time for each of us to move on from Squad. Kerbal Space Program is an incredible game and has truly been a joy to create.”

Kell goes on to write that he and his team have of eight developers brought a lot of new ideas into the 1.2 update.

“And when Squad releases it, it will be a product of which we can be truly proud,” he wrote. “We hope you share that opinion, and we hope you enjoy playing it as much as we loved creating it.”

But while Kell and many of the other developers working on the game are finished, Kerbal Space Program will press on.

“Since the beginning of Kerbal, developers have been coming and going, some stay longer than others but development has never stopped,” Squad producer Nestor Gomez told GamesBeat. “Of course we are going to miss them, they did a great job, and we wish them the best.”

In a “Squad Staff post” on the official KSP message boards, the company talked about many of its ambitions for the future of KSP. The studio says it has brought in “new talent” with “fresh ideas.” The developer is promising free updates, full expansion packs, and “new technologies and platforms to expand the KSP experience.”

So, clearly, Kerbal is not finished with update 1.2.

“As a company we are prepared for these kinds of situations,” said Goya. “And we are already working on what comes next. The future is bright, and there is a lot more Kerbalness for many years to come.”