Keen Software House

Keen Software House is an independent video game developing company based in Prague, Czech Republic. The company was founded by Marek Rosa in 2010.

Keen Software House
TypeVideo game developer
IndustryVideo games
Founded2010
HeadquartersPrague, Czech Republic
Key people
Marek Rosa
Products
Number of employees
50[1]
Websitekeenswh.com

Keen Software House's technological know-how and proprietary VRAGE game engine has allowed the company to create games that leverage elements of science into the gameplay. The studio's first game, Miner Wars 2081, focused on an open world with destructible terrain, while the second game, Space Engineers, presents volumetric physics as gameplay in a space-based environment focused on engineering, construction, and maintenance of space ships and stations. The company's proprietary VRAGE game engine powers both the titles, and is currently in iteration 2.0. Additionally, they have created a separate team charged with development of Medieval Engineers - utilitizing similar rendering styles, while adding in weight and block based destruction / deformation with physics based calculations set in medieval times. It offers both a single- and multiplayer experience including planets; from Space Engineers but with territory based grid system where clans can battle for ground to build on. Realistic mechanical contraptions such as catapults can be created to real-time damage structures.

Games
TitleYearPlatform(s)GenreDescription
Miner Wars Arena2012Windows, OS XArcade, actionArcade action game inspired by the game Tunneler.[2]
Miner Wars 20812012Windows, Xbox 360[3]Space simulatorSix degrees of freedom action game.
Space Engineers2013 (Alpha), 2016 (Beta), 2019 (Full-release)Windows, Xbox OneSandbox gameA game about engineering, construction and maintenance of space works [4]
Medieval Engineers2015 (early access), 2020 (Full-release)WindowsSandbox gameA game about engineering, construction and maintenance of architectural works and mechanical equipment using medieval technology [5]

Miner Wars 2081

The first big project for Keen Software House was Miner Wars 2081, which was presented at Game Developers Conference in 2012.[6] The game received mixed reviews by critics.[7][8] Miner Wars 2081 is an action-survival space-shooter set in the year 2081, 10 years after the destruction of all planetary objects in the Solar System. The story introduces the player to many types of missions: rescue, exploration, revenge, base defense, theft, transportation, stealth, search and destroy, pure harvesting or racing.

Open source

The source code for Miner Wars 2081 was released in March, 2013, under a commercial (non-copyright, restricted-use) license.[9] The code may only be redistributed to allow for "mods" of the original game, and the code must continue to perform a license-ownership check.

Space Engineers
Main article: Space Engineers

The studio's second project, Space Engineers, is a voxel-based sandbox game that launched on Steam Early Access on October 23, 2013,[10] and released on February 28, 2019. The game presents the player with an open world asteroid field with planets and moons wherein they can mine resources, build ships and stations, play with physics, and much more. Space Engineers is a sandbox game about engineering, construction and maintenance of space works.[11] The game sold more than 500,000 copies by May 6, 2014.[12] Space Engineers was well received by both critics and the gaming community.

During the majority of its developmental life, Space Engineers was updated on a weekly basis based on stated development goals and community feedback. Since initial launch it experienced major updates adding survival mode, multiplayer, dedicated server support and more. Space Engineers is open to community creation and modding.

On October 20, 2014, Keen Software House announced that Space Engineers had sold over 1,000,000 copies.[13]

On May 14, 2015, the development firm provided open access (but not making the game free) to the source code to accelerate mod development.[14]

On February 28, 2019, the game was officially released and continues to enjoy periodic software updates.

Medieval Engineers

On January 13, 2015, Keen Software House announced their third title and second engineering game named Medieval Engineers.[5] It was also announced that the game will be available on Steam Early Access.

Medieval Engineers is a sandbox game about engineering, construction and the maintenance of architectural works and mechanical equipment using medieval technology. Players build cities, castles and fortifications; construct mechanical devices and engines; perform landscaping and underground mining.

Medieval Engineers is inspired by real medieval technology and the way people survived and built architectural and mechanical works in medieval times. Medieval Engineers strives to follow the laws of physics and real history and does not use technologies that were not available from the 5th to the 15th century.

VRAGE

Keen Software House developed and utilizes a video game engine called VRAGE. VRAGE stands for "volumetric rage" and/or "voxel rage".[15]

The first iteration of VRAGE, VRAGE 1.0, was built and tailored specifically for Miner Wars 2081 and the game's need for destructible voxel terrain and an open-world. With the open source release in 2013 of Miner Wars 2081, the VRAGE 1.0 engine was also open sourced, under a restrictive commercial license.[9] The second iteration of the engine, VRAGE 2.0 is currently in development and powers the studio's latest games, Space Engineers and Medieval Engineers.

VRAGE 2.0's core feature is volumetricity within the environment. Volumetric objects are structures composed of block-like modules interlocked in a grid. Volumetric objects behave like real physical objects with mass, inertia and velocity. Individual modules have real volume and storage capacity and can be assembled, disassembled, deformed and destroyed. Due to Medieval Engineers development, VRAGE received a fresh upgrade: structural integrity and DirectX 11 rendering.

On April 25, 2022, Marek Rosa announced that VRAGE 3.0 is expected to add volumetric water on a planetary scale, with support for flow simulation, gravity, pressure, buoyancy, and surface tension.[16]

Controversies

Medieval Engineers

On March 17, 2020, Keen announced that Medieval Engineers would leave the Early Access stage, even though the game had no major updates since February 2019, and with only an update to fix major bugs and stabilisation on release date.[17] This caused an uproar in the Medieval Engineers community, causing players to leave many negative reviews.[18] The game received an 85 percent negative review rating in March 2020.[19] Medieval Engineers development was restarted in April 2022 as 'Community Edition' by team of community volunteers. [20]

References
  1. "Keen Software House is moving and expanding: New Prague and Brno offices".
  2. "Miner Wars Arena". Arena.minerwars.com. Retrieved 2014-01-11.
  3. "Miner Wars 2081 for Xbox 360 Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2014-01-11.
  4. "Announcement Press Release - Space Engineers" (Press release). Spaceengineersgame.com. 2013-09-09. Retrieved 2014-01-11.
  5. "Keen Software House announces Medieval Engineers, the studio's second engineering title!".
  6. "Keen Software House - Press Release: Meet the Miner Wars Team at GDC in San Francisco(960250)" (Press release). Gamershell.com. Archived from the original on 2015-09-19. Retrieved 2014-01-11.
  7. "Miner Wars 2081 for PC Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2014-01-11.
  8. "czech". Hodnoceniher.cz. Retrieved 2014-01-11.
  9. "Miner Wars 2081 on Github". GitHub. Retrieved 15 December 2014.
  10. "Space Engineers – Released on Steam Early Access". 23 October 2013.
  11. "About - Space Engineers". Archived from the original on 2014-08-16. Retrieved 2014-08-20.
  12. "Keen Software House - Press Release: Space Engineers Lifts-Off on Steam Early Access with 500,000 Copies Sold(1311887)". Archived from the original on 2015-09-06. Retrieved 2014-08-20.
  13. "Steam Early Access game Space Engineers sells 1 million". 20 October 2014.
  14. "Space Engineers – full source code access, total modifications and 100,000 USD fund". Marek Rosa Blog. Marek Rosa.
  15. "VRAGE - Keen Software House". www.keenswh.com. Archived from the original on 2013-09-11.
  16. "VRAGE: Volumetric Water".
  17. "Medieval Engineers - Update & Leaving Early Access - Steam News". 17 March 2020.
  18. Maher, Cian (19 March 2020). "Medieval Engineers leaves Early Access and players are not impressed". PC Gamer.
  19. "Medieval Engineers on Steam".
  20. "Medieval Engineers Community Edition".
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