Kerbal Space Program developer Squad loses 8 core team members

Eight members of Kerbal Space Program’s core team have announced their departure from developer Squad today, which has prompted some commentators to question what’s next for Kerbal Space Program after so many of its core team have left in a short period of time.

You can read the announcement on Reddit. The comments are as you would expect, a mix of grateful responses, worries about the game and rage. It’s light on specific details, and signed "your Kerbal developers Mike (Mu), Bill (Taniwha), Nathanael (NathanKell), Sébastien (Sarbian), Jim (Romfarer), Brian (Arsonide), Chris (Porkjet), Nathan (Claw)."

The post attracted a lot of speculation, until Squad’s community manager, posting under the name "UomoCapra" stepped in to respond to the fan worries:

"the foundations, the vision and passion that made the game possible in the first place hasn’t changed and it will continue to guide us in the future. Squad, the creator of the game, its team, alongside with the newcomers and collaborators, will continue making this the greatest game it can be."

Squad have just finished work on Kerbal Space Program’s 1.2 update, adding antennas, telemetry and other features. It also marks a change for the studio: the Mexico City-based developer is currently looking for new "talents" to help take the game forward, and will also be looking to attend more public events, UomoCapra saying in a forum post that "we want to have a closer relationship with our fans".

Kerbal Space Program left early access in the middle of 2015. Squad is listed as having between 11 and 50 employees on Linkedin.