@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
2791d

It’s a canon event for any game company that achieves moderate success

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
1191d

Kerbal Space Program 2 still hurts me.

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
241d

Hopefully Kitten Space Agency ends up being a true spiritual sequel.

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
211d

Although Kerbal space program 2 had major issues from the dev team, only for the publisher to pull the plug because of how bad the progress was, and leave the game in permanent early access.

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
521d

Uh, its more like a new publisher bought the IP, functionally fired almost all of the original dev team, and then hired a bunch of other people who had no idea how their insanely modified version of Unity worked…

And then the idiot in charge just started spamming out extremely grand and difficult to implement new core functionalities… with a team of mostly newbies who had no idea how anything worked.

So, basically, they started out where KSP started out… and would very obviously thus need years and years and years to get it out of Early Access / Alpha state… but it needed to make money NOW, and it didn’t, so everyone got laid off (other than the idiot in charge), and the game was functionally abandoned, but not totally abandoned, because MY IP MINE NO YOU CANT HAVE IT!!!

Or… maybe not? With regard to the IP rights?

Nobody seems to know who actually owns the KSP IP at this point.

https://techdriveplay.com/2025/01/03/kerbal-space-program-2-a-tale-of-corporate-neglect-and-failure/

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
47h

One of the original goals for KSP2 was the use of a new engine to get rid of the technical debt from the first game that caused issues like the Kraken…but then the publisher forced them to use the KSP engine because “it would speed up development.”

It was doomed from the beginning.

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
1
edit-2
3h

Yep.

Having worked in software dev and db management professionally, and having been modding (as in making mods) all kinds of games for even longer… yep, I knew it was completely fucked almost immedeately, as soon as it was:

Throw out most of the old dev team

We are gonna rebuild the engine/game from the ground up

Add in vastly complex features and capabilities at the same time

On a horrendously unrealistic timeframe.

Normally, any two of those is extreme danger zone.

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
16
edit-2
1d

I never understood the fixation on IPs. For a kick ass universe with amazing lore etc, ok sure.

I mean I love Jeb and the gang as much as the next guy, but they’re not core to my enjoyment of KSP1. The mechanics were.

AwesomeLowlander
link
fedilink
English
619h

Name recognition sells stuff. Somebody who loved KSP 1 will probably give KSP 3 a go, at least to a greater probability than an unrelated game in the same genre.

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
217h

Dean Hall and RocketWorkz of uh DayZ fame/infamy… are working on Kitten Space Agency… I dunno, maybe they could pull it off?

Dean’s track record is really hit and miss imo, but hey, at least they actually give a damn and try, often with pretty bold / niche concepts.

AwesomeLowlander
link
fedilink
English
217h

Hopefully! My comment wasn’t aimed at KSP / KSA though, just talking about why IP is valuable

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
521h

lol, RIP Jebs 1 - 48395.

But uh yeah, the… the lore is basically:

We made some cute little dudes and dudettes that are… possibly animated, sapient fungi? Or something?

Anyway they are sm0l and live in sm0l solar system.

And they have a space program.

And most of the characters are just obvious cutesy knock offs of famous humans in spaceflight.

Woo!

lol

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
81d

It was even worse than that.

They were basically given the KSP1 codebase and told to rewrite it to be better. However, KSP1 was still being developed, and they didn’t want to demotivate the KSP1 team. Therefore they were banned from even telling them it existed, let alone ask for help or advice with the existing codebase.

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
77
edit-2
1d

It’s a canon event for any game company that achieves moderate success gets acquired by investors

Very much not exclusive to the game industry

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
91d

True :3

I just said game to stay on topic tbh

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
4
edit-2
1d

Makes sense, wasn’t untrue and I wasn’t criticizing, just wanted to make sure everyone remembers that the problem goes up the chain due to capitalism.

Various companies/games were mentioned in the comments, but I think a good example is Hello Games. Clearly fumbled their game launch and were over ambitious with No Man’s Sky.

But it’s gotten an incredible amount of things that were promised, and many things that weren’t, all as free updates. Sure, they’re still making money, that’s the point, but instead of Micro-transactions, overpriced DLC, fucking over the devs, shutting things down, they just keep rolling. I’m sure they’ve gotten offers of acquisition that were probably very lucrative, but they didn’t take them, and have continued their slow roll of making gamers happy.

Pennomi
link
fedilink
English
291d

Except ConcernedApe, apparently.

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
231d

Individual devs seem to generally manage better I think :3. It’s once the companies expand is that stuff starts going awry

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
9
edit-2
1d

Coffee Stain’s another good example on the bigger end.

It does seem like there’s a danger zone behind a certain size threshold. It makes me worry for Warhorse (the KCD2 dev), which plans to expand beyond 250.

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
51d

Or the Terraria team.

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
51d

Didn’t sell out to a company or publisher with shareholder profit motives. Truly independent (not “indie” as slang for low budget) development teams don’t follow this pattern unless they sell their IP and studio outright.

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
131d

Rip ZA/UM

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
41d

I think Croteam has been able to have moderate success over the years, but being based in Eastern Europe might make them insulated from issues. Devolver only recently bought them, but they seem to be one of the few good publishers. I at least didn’t see their name on the Video Games Europe member list that’s opposed to SKGs.

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
21d

It would make sense for it to be canon in the subnautica universe. I think they were pretty much the epitome of authors with an anvil with the references to economics and governing.

Create a post

Welcome to the largest gaming community on Lemmy! Discussion for all kinds of games. Video games, tabletop games, card games etc.

Rules

1. Submissions have to be related to games

Video games, tabletop, or otherwise. Posts not related to games will be deleted.

This community is focused on games, of all kinds. Any news item or discussion should be related to gaming in some way.

2. No bigotry or harassment, be civil

No bigotry, hardline stance. Try not to get too heated when entering into a discussion or debate.

We are here to talk and discuss about one of our passions, not fight or be exposed to hate. Posts or responses that are hateful will be deleted to keep the atmosphere good. If repeatedly violated, not only will the comment be deleted but a ban will be handed out as well. We judge each case individually.

3. No excessive self-promotion

Try to keep it to 10% self-promotion / 90% other stuff in your post history.

This is to prevent people from posting for the sole purpose of promoting their own website or social media account.

4. Stay on-topic; no memes, funny videos, giveaways, reposts, or low-effort posts

This community is mostly for discussion and news. Remember to search for the thing you’re submitting before posting to see if it’s already been posted.

We want to keep the quality of posts high. Therefore, memes, funny videos, low-effort posts and reposts are not allowed. We prohibit giveaways because we cannot be sure that the person holding the giveaway will actually do what they promise.

5. Mark Spoilers and NSFW

Make sure to mark your stuff or it may be removed.

No one wants to be spoiled. Therefore, always mark spoilers. Similarly mark NSFW, in case anyone is browsing in a public space or at work.

6. No linking to piracy

Don’t share it here, there are other places to find it. Discussion of piracy is fine.

We don’t want us moderators or the admins of lemmy.world to get in trouble for linking to piracy. Therefore, any link to piracy will be removed. Discussion of it is of course allowed.

Authorized Regular Threads

Related communities

PM a mod to add your own

Video games

Generic

Help and suggestions

By platform
By type
By games
Language specific
  • 1 user online
  • 215 users / day
  • 936 users / week
  • 2.48K users / month
  • 6.63K users / 6 months
  • 1 subscriber
  • 6.69K Posts
  • 136K Comments
  • Modlog