Expanding their horizons (yeah, we went there. Thought best to get it in early…), small Canadian studio L30 Interactive have joined forces with sci-fi publishing specialists Iceberg Interactive to launch turn-based space strategy game Horizon on Steam’s Early Access.

In search of feedback from gamers, L3O are inviting gamers to give valuable feedback and to participate in the discussion on their official forums, and who better to ask than the SCI-FI-LONDON audience? Currently in an advanced development stage with many of its features working but not yet fully complete, L30 CEO Raffi Parsekhian says of Horizon “We are very excited to be on Early Access! Making the game accessible during development is really important to us as we gather feedback from our gaming community. We are very much looking forward to interacting with all of you to help us shape Horizon into its final form.”

Exploring deep space, finding new frontiers and discovering alien artefacts hidden on long-abandoned planets await players who take on control of humanity’s destiny. A fully interactive galaxy will allow players to navigate open space between stars and planets, conduct planetary surveys and dig for artefacts, patrol borders and, when the need arises, defend critical territory by engaging in ship-to-ship tactical combat. Players can choose to attack from planetary and orbital defences or board other ships in their quest to expand their empire or engage in meaningful diplomatic choices that will impact the game outcome. Along the way, there are 10 known civilizations to come into contact with, all with their own story, history, culture, schemes and goals, including The Kor`tahz; one of the first and oldest civilizations to inhabit the galaxy. They claim to have spread the spores of life throughout the galaxy long ago, in effect, creating the many races in this galaxy. Players can do their own creating too, developing new colonies into galactic centres for trade, industry and science - and of course military bases, outposts and shipyards to build space battle ships with full tactical ship control including managing movement and weapons. There will be detailed economy and colony management systems, 80 technologies (each with 10 levels of upgrades) to research and allies to be made as Horizons is hoping to deliver an immersive galaxy storyline alongside some classic 4X mode gameplay.

Though the game itself is set in the not-so-distant future where humans have just begun venturing beyond the edges of the solar system, only to find that the universe is far from empty, players can get immediate access to play the game in its current form for an early admission price of £14.99/$18,99 via Steam.

For more information, check out the Horizon website.