This milestone marks the first time a video game has ever received a Hi-Tech Award, validating the technology, community, and educational mission behind the project.

Kitten Space Agency is a free spaceflight simulation game built by RocketWerkz to make real-world orbital mechanics, rocketry, and spacecraft systems accessible to everyone. While the game is still in pre-alpha, it has already unified players, educators, and aerospace professionals around a singular belief: games can inspire, and that inspiration should be free.

Our vision is that the first people to set foot on Mars may one day trace their journey back to this game. It is an ambitious goal, but it is exactly what we are building toward.

Built for the scale of space

Standard, off-the-shelf game engines simply weren't built to handle the immense scale, accuracy, and performance required for true space simulation. To solve this, RocketWerkz engineered a proprietary framework called BRUTAL.

Kitten Space Agency simultaneously simulates Kepler planetary dynamics and Newtonian physics across an entire solar system. This allows players to design intricate vehicles, simulate complex propulsion, plan long-duration trajectories, and execute precise orbital maneuvers.

The Hi-Tech Awards judging panel specifically praised the project’s technical achievements, highlighting its "world-first Kepler+Newtonian simulation," "novel analytic solutions," and "outstanding graphics and simulation technology." By avoiding costly, step-by-step numerical approximations, the BRUTAL framework keeps the simulation perfectly stable without melting the player's computer.

Free, open to play, and supported by the community

Central to KSA's mission is accessibility. By eliminating purchase costs, subscriptions, and licensing barriers, we have ensured that any student, teacher, or space hobbyist can download the game for free via Ahwoo.

Instead of a traditional commercial model, the project relies entirely on voluntary contributions from our community. The judges recognized both the courage and the inherent risk of this approach, challenging us to prove the long-term sustainability of the model.

We welcome that challenge. It gets to the heart of what we are trying to answer with KSA and Ahwoo: Can a game built around education and accessibility be sustained directly by the people who believe in it? So far, the community's generosity combined with studio support says yes.

A mission shaped by players, educators, and space professionals

Since its inception, Kitten Space Agency has grown through direct collaboration with the people who live and breathe spaceflight. The project has attracted active interest and feedback from individuals connected to some of the world’s leading aerospace organizations and universities, including NASA, SpaceX, ESA, Blue Origin, and Rocket Lab.

To honor that collaboration, our team has worked completely in public from day one. We regularly share open commit logs, behind-the-scenes development updates, and frequent builds for community testing.

This radical transparency is core to our philosophy. Showing the work matters. By inviting players, engineers, and educators into the engine room, the community has directly helped us shape features, test boundaries, create mods, and push the limits of what this simulation can achieve.

Recognition for New Zealand game technology

This award is a proud moment for RocketWerkz and Ahwoo, but it is an even bigger moment for the New Zealand gaming landscape. It proves that games are no longer just entertainment, they are serious pieces of technical innovation and vital tools for global learning.

The local game development sector is experiencing a massive boom, generating NZ$759.57 million in pre-tax income in the 2024/25 financial year (a 38.6% year-on-year increase) and supporting over 1,400 full-time professional roles. Because the vast majority of this revenue comes from international audiences, games have become one of New Zealand’s most valuable technology exports. KSA is proud to push the boundaries of what this sector can achieve.

Thank you to the NZ Hi-Tech Awards judges, our community, our contributors, our educators, and everyone who has supported the mission so far.

Kitten Space Agency is still in pre-alpha. There is a lot more to build, test, improve, and prove.

But this award is a proud moment for the team, and a recognition of what KSA is working toward.

Learn more about the NZ Hi-Tech Awards

A NZ Hi-Tech Award is one of the technology sector’s most sought-after accolades. They have been awarded over the years to New Zealand’s most successful high-tech companies, and highest achieving individuals.

Before the doors opened and nearly 1,300 guests filled the room, TVNZ’s Seven Sharp snuck behind the scenes of the NZ Hi-Tech Awards Gala Dinner.

Watch as they capture the pre-event buzz and sit down with NZ Hi-Tech Trust Chair, Marian Johnson, to discuss the incredible growth of Aotearoa’s tech sector, a record-breaking year for entries, and why Kiwi innovation continues to make waves on the global stage.