Rocket science isn’t just for NASA and Elon Musk anymore. Indie hit Kerbal Space Program brought the concept of building space-worthy vehicles to the masses when it first released for PC in 2011. Now, inspired by KSP, developer Jundroo’s SimpleRockets is bringing rocket-science gameplay to mobile devices.
SimpleRockets is a 2D space-flight simulation that has players designing and flying their own spaceships. Challenges push players to get into orbit around planets and moons or to land on different worlds. It also has a sandbox mode where players can decide to do whatever they would like. SimpleRockets takes place in a solar system that is 10 percent the size of our own and features celestial bodies like Smearth, Smuranus, and Smars.
SimpleRockets is available now on iOS, Android, and Windows Phone for $1 and PC for $3.
SimpleRockets lead programmer told GamesBeat that he didn’t realize that regular people could enjoy rocket science until he played Kerbal Space Program.
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“I knew immediately that my fans would love a rocket-science game on their phone, and after searching the app stores, I realized that there wasn’t really anything available in the mobile space,” SimpleRockets programmer Andrew Garrison told GamesBeat. “I also wanted to learn more about orbital mechanics, and the best way for me to learn about something is to write about it … in code.”
Garrison isn’t just trying to leech from Kerbal Space Program. The developer links to that title on the main menu of SimpleRockets. We asked him why he felt the need to do that.
“I wanted players to know where to go next if they wanted more rocket science goodness,” he said. “KSP is the ultimate rocket science game, so I hope to fill this gap where I take a player who would never play KSP, show them with my game that rocket science is actually pretty awesome, and then send them off to play KSP. Hopefully less Kerbals will be killed too, since they will have a basic handle on rocket science before starting KSP.”
Check out SimpleRockets in action below:
