Hundreds of years in the future, humans have engineered a prosperous new civilization on the distant planet Beacon, where the sun never sets. Meanwhile, the planet's frigid dark side has been colonized by an enigmatic faction of intelligent machines that threaten humanity with conflict.

In these new cybernetic times, human soldiers are obsolete. Instead, warfare is conducted swiftly with massive armies of robots. The Swarmwielders—human commanders of these mechanical forces—are the defenders of society, training relentlessly for the day when the machines strike again. However, when their own robots start to mysteriously malfunction, the humans find themselves endangered by something much closer than the machines lurking beyond the fringe.

In Prismata, you'll build a powerful cybernetic army to outsmart and ultimately defeat your cunning foes. Compete online against humans or test your wits against brutally efficient AI opponents. Plan out your most devastating attack in a series of rapid-fire turns. Will you strike at the perfect moment or land squarely in your adversary's shrewd trap?

Lunarch Studios' Prismata, currently available on Steam Early Access, is becoming free-to-play on September 26.

While the mere mention of such a change might make some quake in their boots, Prismata will retain its competitive integrity through its free-to-play transition, offering no paid advantages to players. All purchases in the game are completely cosmetic, with no card packs to buy and no pay-to-win items on offer.

Prismata was designed by a team of poker players and mathematics researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who had grown frustrated with the inaccessibility of RTS games and randomness of card games. Thanks in part to a strong endorsement by professional poker player Mike "Timex" McDonald, Prismata went on to develop a community of thousands of online players who became entranced by its easy-to-play, yet difficult-to-master mechanics.

Key Features:

• State-of-the-art enemy AI created by Professor David Churchill, winner of the 2013 StarCraft AI competition
• A custom replay browser where you can watch, share, and analyze game replays
• New Prismata units added regularly, each with a unique role and purpose in combat
• 100+ Steam Achievements to unlock
• Real-time spectator mode: watch live matches featuring top players
• Absolutely zero pay-to-win—no card packs to open; all units are free for all players
• Over 500 customizable emotes and 250 awesome unit skins to collect
• No randomness! Your fate is determined by your skill alone
• Over 100 trillion unique gameplay scenarios, each with a different optimal strategy to discover
• Various game modes
  • Campaign: an enthralling 40-mission story-based single player adventure
  • Casual Match: play friendly games against other humans or one of 30 different AI personalities 
  • Combat Training: over 50 hand-crafted puzzles and scenarios dripping with fascinating strategy insights
  • Ranked Play: get paired against opponents of similar skill and compete for a spot on the leaderboards
  • Custom Games: play bots or friends with fully editable unit pools, time controls, handicaps, AI difficulty, and more
  • Expert Challenge: ultra-difficult mission variants for players seeking extreme challenges
  • Event Mode: heart-pounding blitz brawl tourneys and crazy mode-of-the-week events with prizes