Stylish indie stompy robot FPS Hawken is locking onto a December 12 launch on PC under a free-to-play model (12-12-12, snazzily). Developer Adhesive Games also announced that beta testing signups are now open, if you fancy giving it a go before then.

Sign up for the beta over at PlayHawken.com. If you can get three people to themselves sign up through your referral link, you'll be able to reserve your callsign in advance. Shackers are already organizing referral chains, if you want to join in the fun and help someone out.

"Hawken is a passion project for myself and the whole Adhesive team; giving it away for free is icing on the cake," said Adhesive CEO, co-founder and creative director Khang Le in the announcement.

While there are no details on how the free-to-play model will work, given that Hawken has a variety of mechs and weapons, presumably players will be paying for customization options. Balancing power and pleasure between players who buy perks and those who don't is tricky, but let's hope Adhesive are up to it, as Hawken does look jolly nice.

Here's a gameplay trailer from back in August: