Gratuitous Space Battles Beta Opens to Pre-orders

One-man outfit Positech has opened pre-orders for Gratuitous Space Battles (PC), offering immediate beta access to those that pay $19.99 for the strategy game.

"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.