As the commander of the defense of Earth's first colony, players must determine the best strategy to save the colony from the tens of thousands of alien machines that are rapidly approaching. Each victory against the enemy expands the colony to a new part of the planet which, in turn, is met by an increasing aggression by the enemy.

We first got the idea for the game while developing Ashes of the Singularity. With the engine's ability to handle tens of thousands of units, we wanted to design the ultimate tower defense game. Siege of Centauri incorporates classic features from the tower defense genre and combines it with the unique features and capabilities first seen in Ashes of the Singularity.

With our engine, there were so many new gameplay elements we could add. For instance, our engine supports hundreds of simultaneous light sources allowing us to design interesting choices for players when it comes to map vision. Similarly, by supporting so many units, we can make defense choices in different situations much more compelling, as there is a big difference between choosing a weapon that eliminates one unit at a time versus one that is designed to take out hundreds at a time.

Siege of Centauri will be deployed onto Steam Early Access on April 16th for $9.99.

Fans of tower-defense games can help shape its future by offering input on game mechanics, pacing, and overall balance.

"With tens of thousands of enemy machines pouring toward your base, we want to give players a very new experience of what it means to defend themselves against overwhelming odds," said lead designer Derek Paxton. "The benefits between a rail gun that fires one deadly round every ten seconds and a high-speed plasma arc array that does low damage, but to dozens of enemies at once is obvious to players, especially when they see a huge mothership surrounded by hundreds of escorts coming at them."

In the early access period for Siege of Centauri, players will need to:

• Defend Centauri: Gain access to new technologies and fight off enemy invaders from region to region.
• Deploy your Defenses: An arsenal of emergency rapid deployment defenses are at your disposal. Use them in strategic locations to halt the swarm’s progress.
• Strike From Above: When all else fails, use your ship’s formidable capabilities from orbit to destroy your enemies.