DayZ creator and RocketWerkz head Dean Hall has announced he and his team are working on a "Kerbal Space Program killer" by the name of KSA, or Kitten Space Academy.
Announcing the game on X (formerly Twitter), Hall says he's working on KSA with RocketWerkz alongside "former members of the Kerbal Space Program team and amazing modders".
Right now, the game looks to be in its early stages; the footage Hall showed off in his post simply shows a moon's surface, then zooms out (albeit seamlessly) to reveal a galaxy of planets, all soundtracked by some appropriately moody synth music.
In a Reddit post and accompanying comment, Hall goes into more detail regarding RocketWerkz's new project, as well as his own efforts to pitch Private Division on a Kerbal Space Program sequel.
Hall says that his studio was in "the top three bids" to work on Kerbal Space Program 2, but that because his team's pitch focused on the technical side of things and didn't contain any art, his studio wasn't chosen.
However, Hall says that for Kitten Space Agency, he and RocketWerkz have employed several developers who worked on both Kerbal Space Program and its sequel, as well as a mystery "key person" who is a "key individual in our industry".
There's also a little more nerdy technical information contained within Hall's comment, including how the video footage's seamless movement is achieved, how the team deals with floating point precision loss, and more.
If you're wondering why exactly a Kerbal Space Program killer would be needed, look no further than Take-Two's apparent shutdown of Kerbal Space Program 2 developer Intercept Games (although Take-Two itself denies closing that studio).
Reportedly, Take-Two is also looking to close down or sell its indie label Private Division, so despite the company's claims to the contrary, Kerbal Space Program 2 might not be a going concern for much longer.
There's a niche a mile wide, then, for someone like Hall to slide in with a game that's similar enough to Kerbal that people take interest while also being different enough to carve out a niche for itself.
We'll have to wait and see whether RocketWerkz achieves this, but in the meantime, you can join the project's Discord server if you want to keep up with things as they happen.
