Kerbal Space Program heading to the classroom in a big way

Like Mojang's Minecraft before it, Kerbal Space Program is receiving a formalized educational version for use in classrooms. PCGamesN reports that TeacherGaming, the same parent company behind MinecraftEdu, is putting together a new team to develop a classroom edition of KSP, with tweaked features and distribution through a specialized marketplace tailored toward educational institutions. "Although we are maybe learning the hard physics underneath, it's still the fun that's a big part of why the game works," said TeacherGaming CEO Santeri Koivisto. "Our point of view for education in general and with Kerbal is not that we should teach you force and mass or Newton's laws, but to get people interested and understanding some of the very basic concepts." Developed by Mexico City-based independent studio Squad, Kerbal Space Program is a sandbox spacecraft building game that has met with enthusiastic reception since launching on Steam as an alpha in 2011 -- well before Valve had formalized its Early Access feature. The educational version, KerbalEdu, will at first remain very similar to the Steam edition, with more significant modifications and editions coming further down the line, following feedback. It is currently targeted for a mid-November release to around 50 schools.