RocketWerkz has offered a closer look at Kitten Space Agency, a spaceship engineering and management game that’s openly positioning itself as a spiritual successor to Kerbal Space Program. The pitch is hard to miss: build rockets, wrestle with physics, and try not to turn ambitious missions into expensive fireworks—only this time your brave little astronauts are cats.
### A Kerbal-like Space Sim From Familiar Talent
The project includes involvement from an original Kerbal Space Program developer, a notable point as many space-sim fans continue to watch the messy situation around Kerbal Space Program 2 and its uncertain future. With KSP2’s development turmoil leaving a gap in the market for accessible, systems-heavy spaceflight games, RocketWerkz appears eager to capture that audience with a fresh start.
### New Engine, More Consistent Physics
One of the headline promises is a new game engine designed to deliver a more advanced and consistent physics simulation. For players, that typically translates to fewer oddities when rockets flex, stages separate, or docking maneuvers get complicated—areas where physics quirks can make the difference between “challenging” and “unfair.” RocketWerkz is effectively betting that tech improvements (and a clean slate) can modernize the Kerbal formula.
### A SpaceX Flight Software Engineer Joins the Team
Adding extra credibility to the engineering angle, the team also includes Stefan Moluf, a former flight software engineer who worked on SpaceX launch vehicles in the 2010s. While game development and real-world aerospace are wildly different disciplines, having someone who’s written code for actual rockets is a strong signal that RocketWerkz wants its simulation to feel grounded, not just gamey.
### Community Funding Questions Linger
Kitten Space Agency is also tied to Ahwoo, a newer community-funding platform that has already raised eyebrows among some observers. RocketWerkz hasn’t shied away from community-driven support, but the approach invites scrutiny in a post-Early Access era where players are more cautious about where—and how—their money is used before a game is fully proven.
Kitten Space Agency matters because the “build a rocket, learn through failure” niche isn’t exactly crowded, and Kerbal’s cultural footprint is enormous. If RocketWerkz can ship a stable, modern physics sandbox with smart mission progression, it could become the next default spaceflight obsession for players who want something deeper than arcade thrills—but less forbidding than hardcore aerospace simulators.
Source: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/how-a-spacex-engineer-ended-up-working-on-a-spiritual-successor-to-kerbal-space-program |