>>10920396>>10920815>>10921390>>10921509>>10921604>>10921723The games original creator, Harv, made it as a hobby project while working at an ad agency in Mexico. After it got popular the ad agency used a clause in his contract that anything he wrote was owned by the company to take control of the project. The producers forced the game into a more child friendly experience rather than the more hardcore experience that Harv desired, for example preventing Kerbals from permadying, just popping up MIA then respawning later. They also halted any plans for complex resource and refinement chains and life support in exchange for a half assed rock = fuel system and baby tier career mode. When sales started dwindling the producers forced the game to 1.0 in a wholly incomplete state, so they could justify pumping out DLC. Harv left when he smelled what was happening.
Before that could happen, every single developer bar a newly hired scripter and a part time modder quit the company, and revealed that the development team had an extremely rapid turnover rate due to the ad execs paying developers Mexican Minimum Wage ($4.80 per DAY), that some had resorted to living in their vehicles, and others with their parents.
A further look into the finances showed that all the money from purchasing got funneled into a Belgian shell company that the execs had sole control over, with only a trickle being used to actually develop the game. After the walkout the scripter and modder finished the first DLC on their own, and the entire ad agency, now practically a husk, was sold off to Take-Two while the execs fled with the money in the Belgian shell company.
Take-Two promptly shoved spyware into the game to track internet history to determine how the game was purchased and where people heard about it. They took it out after backlash but it poisoned everyone on the company. That said they're practically the lesser evil by default.
