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Maia Steam early access release date set

"There's a lot of work to go in before we release the alpha to the masses."

Sci-fi colony building game Maia launches on Steam early access on 3rd December 2013, developer Simon Roth has announced.

"It's still quite far away, but we don't want to rush into it," he wrote on the game's Kickstarter page.

"With the direct pre-orders having scored us £12000 or so, we have a little more leeway and have no immediate need for a big cash injection.

"There's a lot of work to go in before we release the alpha to the masses. Although getting everyone of you Steam keys is very important to me, having anywhere from ten to a hundred thousand new testers overnight would be a bit much to handle."

Maia launched on Steam Greenlight back in July and a month later it was greenlit for release. It is a god game heavily inspired by the Bullfrog titles of the 90s, such as Dungeon Keeper and Theme Hospital, along with newer entries in the genre such as Dwarf Fortress. It's also inspired by classic sci-fi authors Isaac Asimov and Douglas Adams, as well as 1970s horror Alien.

The gameplay sees you build and manage a colony on a moon-like rock. Expect a 2km x 2km x 2km procedurally-generated world, a sandbox mode, a single-player campaign and a first-person exploration mode.

Last year Roth launched a successful Kickstarter for Maia, raising £140,000.

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