While playing, the developer console will open, preventing me from using the keyboard or clicking on anything on the top half of the game window. I don't know how to close the console (or use it) so it has forced me to end many of my space endeavors early. Just wondering if there is a way to close it or stop this from happening.
We used to bind it to the ` (Backquote) key by default. Eventually we changed it to be unbound by default to prevent this exact sort of scenario from happening. Check the controls menu ('Other Controls' section) for the Developer Console. I'd suggested removing the keybinding altogether to prevent it from popping up when you don't want it to.