Across the surface of Shoal, ten thousand guns sound at once. The keen of laser beams build, punctuated by the staccato thrum of orbital landings. A choir of voices rises as the armies of the galaxy’s oldest and newest civilizations meet in battle. From the vast reaches of space, the chaos is almost musical—a symphony, drifting into the void.

Cantata is a character-driven tactical strategy game that puts you in the middle of a spiritual, pragmatic war for survival. Play as a commanding officer from one of three factions - Machines, Humans or Aliens - and leverage your faction’s unique powers and abilities to slowly expand your hold on this alien world.

Each game you'll start with a small base and a couple of units and it is up to you to build up your base, giving you the ability to build more complex unit types. But watch out! Your base is also your supply network. If a crucial building gets destroyed, it may take down your whole supply chain and force you to rebuild to adapt to the new circumstances.

Every map you play on holds secrets you'll need to spend time to seek out and find. This isn't a puzzle game, you'll need to do proper reconnaissance to determine the best route across the landscape to your opponent. The planet of Shoal isn't one to let you idly move across its surface. Just like any other player, the planet itself takes a turn every round, giving it the ability to fight back against the war on its surface with weather, fauna, and other mysteries.

Every map that you'll play in the game will be made with the game's level editor that will be available to all players from day one! The easy-to-use, yet deep, editor will put the power in your hands to create challenges you can play through.

Cantata is now available through Steam Early Access allowing players to dive into the game’s deep story campaign and enjoy the first three chapters in a character-driven narrative centring on three factions: Humans, Machines and Aliens. 

The Early Access release contains Act 1 of the campaign, compromised of the first 3 chapters, and map modding, allowing you to create your own Cantata maps and scenarios to play on.

The full version of Cantata will include all Campaign Chapters (Chapter 1-9), a fully fleshed out skirmish mode as influenced by community feedback, Online multiplayer, UGC units and maps, a wealth of polish and quality of life changes as well as expanded modding support. And more!

Modern Wolf also kick off their Steam publisher sale this week. 

Fans of simulation and strategy titles can enjoy discounts on the following games:

• Cantata (20% discount) - turn-based tactics and strategy
• Mechajammer (25% discount) - cyberpunk thriller
• Rogue State Revolution (50% discount) - geopolitical roguelike 
• Kosmokrats (60% discount) - space-based puzzle sim 
• Ostranauts (20% discount) - space-ship life sim
• Necronator: Dead Wrong (60% discount) - deck-building roguelike

Cantata is coming to PC (Steam) in 2023.