Since this game was brought up a while back by Roach, has anyone been playing or keeping up to date with it? It's been added to steam as a Early Access, but if you have purchased the game through the store they will give you a steam key, soon. There is an updated demo on KSP website.

I been pretty hooked on it. Since the last thread over a year ago they have made so many changes. Added more planets, re-entry effects, wheels ect.

Since the showcase forum looks pretty spooky I'll drop these albums here (All pre .19)
http://imgur.com/a/Iorfm
http://imgur.com/a/cAdIS

The subreddit also has some pretty good stuff
http://www.reddit.com/r/kerbalspaceprogram

Eeenteresting.

This thread did about as good as my first rocket har har. No but I really thought more people would've got into this.


Better explanation of game:
It's a build your own rocket/spaceship/airplane/vehicle sandbox game (Unity 4) with simulated orbital mechanics on a planet 1/11 the size of earth. Off the top of my head, 5 planets and a number of moons in the Kerbolar system. You build rockets part by part, fuel tank, capsule, engine, ect. Can be very basic or very complex. You blast through the stages of your rocket to get into orbit. You can leave your ship in orbit, get into another one, and go dock with the first. You can land craft on other moons/planets. So addicting. It's also extremely rewarding, that first time you land on Mün is like no other. The mod community is ridiculous. It really takes the game to the next level, once you get bored with the stock parts. There is this whole "garage" type feel to the game. Some of the part descriptions are funny, and the characters are goofy looking. You can see the Kerbals faces in flight and they make all kinds of weird faces. So the game doesn't take itself seriously. It's all about blowing **** up really. Download the demo!

It looks fun, but... I'm a cheap ******* and will wait until it goes on sale.

Good man, I'm sure it will. I picked it up on the christmas sale.

I'm in the same boat--it looks interesting but is still a bit pricey for me. I've also been waiting on that Kentucky Route Zero game to go on sale but when it did it was still a bit more than I was willing to pay (especially for something that I'm not quite sure I'd like).

I can honestly say if you enjoy the demo (available at kerbalspaceprogram.com), you will easily get your $23 worth of entertainment. I bought it a year and a half ago for $7, and have sunk hundreds and hundreds (honestly probably more than a thousand) of hours into it. The community is growing rapidly right now, and currently there is a lot of hoopla about what constitutes an update and what's an expansion (there are a lot of entitled kids out there...) but it's still a very friendly, and modding-welcoming community. They've also announced they are beginning to work on the career campaign, so there will be goals set for you soon if you so choose.

And there's a fairly large community that exchanges air/space-craft designs, there's a few thousand people using some of mine:
VTOL craft I made (heavily inspired by the Orca)


And a SSTO (it makes it into orbit on its own without dropping fuel tanks or spent stages...) series of aircraft I made



Seriously though, at least try the demo, you can see how the update orbital maps and projections work, and get the gist of moon-landing, and then move on to the full version with a full solar system to play around with.

(Edit: Oh, and hi again, everybody, nice to see this place is still somewhat active!)

I'd really like to play with this but really have no free time these days. Since I've heard about how educational the game is vis. orbital mechanics, I wonder if I could recommend to a friend to give to his son? (He is in 5th grade.)

I would recommend your friend have his son try the demo here first and then decide if his son likes it enough to pay for it. There is a bit of a learning curve, but that comes from people not intuitively grasping the concept that orbits are more about horizontal velocity than vertical. There are plenty of videos to help beginners (look for Scott Manly, he is an astrophysicist who has a nack for explaining the basics in layterms) on youtube.

Thanks! I'll definitely be giving him those recommendations.

Thread Bump. Kerbal Space Program is $15.40 (33% off) on Steam this weekend.