Developer Insights #16 - Kerbal Community Program

Hello Kerbonauts! My name is Virginia, but you all know me as Ghostii-Space on the forums, and I am one of the Community Managers for Kerbal Space Program. I am responsible for many of the social posts to our accounts, and for reading and responding to many of your comments.

Now, you may be asking yourself, why are they doing a Dev Diary for the Community team? I am glad you asked! The community team is the main liaison between the community and the devs. This means that throughout Early Access, we will be instrumental in relaying your feedback to the development team. We also help the development team communicate with the community, such as facilitating Dev Diaries, Show and Tells, and sneak peeks into KSP2. During KSP2’sEarly Access we want to make sure to highlight all the awesome experiences you have!

So, what does a day in the life of a community manager look like? Well, I wake up 30 minutes before work starts and brew a cup of coffee while I review my emails and warm up my scrolling thumb by deleting the hundred promotional emails I get daily. My workday starts with reading comments and questions from our social media accounts and responding to my work emails. After that I usually scroll through twitter or reddit for news and memes. Then, I attend some meetings and create content for our social media accounts. Finally, I finish off with more work emails and responding to more comments/questions. Occasionally, I flounder around our office to film TikToks with local celebrity Jeb Kerman.

Glamorous, I know. So how did I get here? Well, I took a super roundabout route and started with a degree in Anthropology and Museum Studies. There I was, all bright eyed and ready to spend the rest of my life in a dusty museum storage room. But I happened to be unemployed and came across a role open for an Assistant Community Manager for Kerbal Space Program. Figuring I was not going to be able to make a living as a professional Final Fantasy XIV player (which I was obsessed with at the time),I applied for the role fully expecting to get ghosted because I barely had any experience in social media other than personal use. But fortunately, I play a lot of simulation titles such as Oxygen Not Included, Satisfactory, and Astroneer. I also have a lot of outside skills thanks to my years in customer service and my degree in Anthropology that relate to being a community manager! Anthropology is a huge part of what I do daily, as I am constantly gathering information for our community and from the internet as a whole!

So, what does this have to do with Kerbal Space Program 2? Well, I have to say, this is one of the best communities I have ever seen, and I am passionate about supporting this community as it continues to grow with Kerbal Space Program 2. Working with all of you during Early Access is going to be a wonderful journey that I am glad we get to launch together. We appreciate all of you and want to make KSP2 the best game it can be!!

So happy launching and don’t forget your parachutes!

-Ghostii (AKA Virginia)