"We are effectively selling the game early for people who want to play it while it is still in beta," sole developer Cliff 'cliffski' Harris noted on the official site. In a blog post, Harris said he "will probably overhaul a few sections of it before it's actually given a proper release" and will use the beta to balance the "massively singleplayer" game.

The developer also cautioned that it's "literally a bedroom coder effort," explaining:

This is an indie game, it's literally a bedroom coder effort, so be gentle on the shouting when you discover something that crashes or won't work. It's purely because it's something that never happened at my end, I will endeavour 100% to fix it as quickly as I can if you have any problems. If you are not happy to try out a beta copy of the game, or genuinely think your PC isn't up to it, then please don't get it yet, wait for a demo and the full games release.

"This is not a tactical game, it is a strategic one," the official site reads. "These gratuitous space battles are not won by plucky heroes...but by the geeky starship builders who know exactly what ratio of plasma-cannons to engines each ship in the fleet will need."

For a glimpse of the promised gratuitous space battles, check out the below trailer. Should you want more gameplay details, a .PDF of the manual can also be had.

Thanks to Damodred for the heads up.