Make clones, colonize planets, and prep for the Holy Crusade in this new sci-fi strategy game

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Ragnorium sounds like an unusual sort of colony-building game. In the distant future, space exploration has been privatized, and far-flung human colonies are established by clones. Your job is to create them, lead them to their new home, establish an outpost, guide it through technological eras, and deal with the problems that will inevitably crop up—including a Holy Crusade, which is apparently headed your way with ill intent.

It sounds a bit like Sim City in space, with a Warhammer 40K-inspired narrative layer (which, now that I'm thinking about it, is a pretty great idea for a game), but the Steam page also promises RPG mechanics on a more granular scale, enabling players to customize colonists through experience, scavenged equipment, and crafting. There's also an "innovative event system" that will advance the game's story based on choices players make as their colony expands.

Development isn't too far along yet—the current state of Ragnorium "introduces the base game loop of creating your clone colonists, preparing the dropships with cargo, and then building out a base level colony"—and it's expected to remain in Early Access for 12-24 months. Interestingly, while the Early Access release technically took place today, the game has apparently been in "earliest access" for a couple of months previously, during which time it didn't appear in search results and could only be accessed through a direct link. That enabled developer Vitali Kirpu to work out the basics, like graphics, sound, and UI, before going public with the Early Access rollout.

In a cosmetic update released just before Ragnorium went live, Kirpu said that a major update, which will apparently bring the event system into place, "is right around the corner." You can find out more about the game at ragnorium.com.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.