Kitten Space Agency is the spiritual successor to Kerbal Space Program

Kitten Space Agency is an in-development spiritual successor to Kerbal Space Program from RocketWerkz that you can try right now for free.

It's using a crowdfunding model to pull in supporters via ahwoo, which allows you to try the game completely free without paying a penny and it's your choice to donate after if you feel it's worth it. With what happened to Kerbal Space Program 2 where we still don't entirely know what's going on but the game is basically dead, another developer picking up the torch seems like an interesting idea for fans of the original.

More about it: Kitten Space Agency is a space-flight game that turns real aerospace concepts into something you can learn, test, and explore. Built in Auckland, New Zealand by RocketWerkz, the project aims to inspire future explorers while giving players deep control over engineering, mission planning, and flight execution. KSA is powered by RocketWerkz's new BRUTAL development framework, designed to enable moddability, high performance, and long-term scalability.

A popular idea it seems even this early-on, with the developer recently announcing their campaign has crossed over $100K in funding from people. The project is led by DayZ and ICARUS creator Dean Hall, joined by Felipe Falanghe (HarvestR), original creator of Kerbal Space Program, and Stefan Moluf, former SpaceX flight software engineer.

Pictured - Kitten Space Agency on Linux

"The support for Kitten Space Agency has been incredibly encouraging. We set out to try a more open way of building games and it’s clear people want to be part of that mission. Contributions through Ahwoo help us keep developing the project, but so does playing our other games like Stationeers or Icarus which help fund the work behind Kitten Space Agency. However people choose to support us, we’re grateful. It all helps us keep pushing this mission forward." — Dean Hall, CEO of RocketWerkz.

The game in the current development build appears to work on Linux. I tested it adding the installer directly into Steam, and setting it to use Proton Experimental and it loaded without an issue.

One to keep an eye on if you love your simulation games.