A couple days after the initial reveal of the Kerbal Space Program sequel, we got the chance to talk to Nate Simpson, Creative Director of the game. We spoke to him about the ultimate goals of the Kerbals, the company itself, and of course, all the new features coming to the game.

Below you'll find our questions in bold and Nate's answers in cursive.

What is the Kerbals’ ultimate goal? Why do they love space so much?

That’s a question I’ve never gotten before! I don’t know that they have an overarching goal, so much as they have an innocent curiosity about everything from “what is that little bright dot in the sky” to “what happens if I mix methane and oxygen and set it on fire?” Everything they do has an uncomplicated optimism built into it. And they clearly have no notion of their own mortality.

In your perspective, how important are the Kerbals to the success of the game? Would the game be as successful if it was ‘just’ a space simulation game?

The Kerbals are THE ingredient that makes the game special. They’re there to remind the player not to take failure too seriously. Failure is a critical part of the build/fail/iterate loop at the heart of the game. If the Kerbals weren’t there, I’d probably end up imagining that my exploding rocket contained a crew with families back home, and that would be pretty tragic. But when it’s a bunch of little happy green dudes who seem not to mind being blown up all that much, it’s much easier for me to enjoy the wild variety of explosions this game has to offer.

Why did you decide to make the next iteration of the game rather than, say, an expansion pack?

Specifically, it was the inclusion of multiplayer that necessitated a major architectural overhaul of the game’s code. And since we were rebuilding so much from scratch, we’ve also gotten a chance to build a good foundation for improved performance, increased moddability, and much nicer graphics and sound. Really, there’s no part of the game that has not seen a radical redesign.

I don’t know that I’ve seen any two players progress at the same rate, nor have I found two players who would agree about what “success” even meant.

What are some of the most distinctive new features in KSP2 compared to KSP?

KSP2 brings interstellar travel, surface and deep space colonies, and multiplayer. We’ve also redesigned the first-time user experience to include animated tutorials that teach the game’s core concepts in a more intuitive way. The core of the game remains as challenging as it ever was, but we’ve made great strides in teaching new players what they need to know to enjoy the game.

For someone that has never played KSP, how many hours, or how many failures does it take to eventually succeed?

I don’t know that I’ve seen any two players progress at the same rate, nor have I found two players who would agree about what “success” even meant. After all, some people just build spaceplanes in sandbox mode, and by their standards they’ve achieved great success! That said, we’ve spent a lot of time figuring out the difference between fun failure and frustrating failure, and we’re doing our best to minimize the latter. We don’t want people to get stuck banging their head over and over on the same problem because they’re not getting the information they need to learn from their setbacks.

KSP2 takes place in the near future. Have you thought of going far into the future for some weird expansion packs, or maybe go back in time?

I don’t think I can say too much about the long-term plans for the franchise, other than to say that we’d love for the sequel to continue to grow in the same way that the 8-year-old original game has. It’s pretty hard to pin down what we (or modders) might be doing with this platform a decade from now. That said, our current part guidelines emphasize scientific plausibility, which means no warp drives or magic technology. If some new research suddenly places the Alcubierre Drive within the realm of plausibility, you can bet we’ll add it as a part in the game!

Some of the added features include colonies, to expand the gameplay even further. Where does the game finish for KSP players, what is the end goal?

We’re staying mum about the details of the interstellar progression, specifically because we don’t want to rob players of the thrill of discovering what’s out there. That said, we believe that their exploration will be richly rewarded.

We also can’t wait to see what kinds of unexpected structures people build using the colony parts -- given the radical diversity of vehicles folks have built in the original game, we fully expect to see everything from theme parks to race tracks to cliffside super-cities. It’s going to be exciting to see the interaction between players’ creativity and the increased topological diversity enabled by our new terrain system!