Crying Suns, the FTL-inspired strategy space opera, comes out this month

The tactical rogue-lite space opera Crying Suns went to Kickstarter last year with a pitch for a game inspired by FTL, but more story-focused: The Galactic Empire has collapsed, and humanity's only hope for survival lies with a clone of Admiral Ellys Idaho, the greatest Imperial commander of all time. The crowdfunding campaign was a big success, nearly tripling its €25,000 ($27,400) goal, and very soon—as in September 19—the game will be upon us.

Your Idaho clone was awakened by Kaliban, the last functional Omni in the Empire. Omnis are massive, "god-like" machines that provide for all the needs of their human masters, and their influence was so entrenched that their sudden, galaxy-wide shutdown is what triggered the collapse of the empire. Your job, then, is to figure out what went wrong, and more importantly (in the short term, at least), to switch them all back on.

Fleet-based combat is real-time with pause, enabling you to put the action on hold while you figure out what to do next, while the story will unfold over six chapters, with more than 300 possible story events "to keep each run unique." The mix of "pixelart style graphics, 3D and HD special effects" seen in the trailer promises some very nice eye candy, and in case there was any doubt, developer Alt Shift warned that as roguelites go, Crying Suns is a tough one and players should "prepare to die very often."

Crying Suns will go for $25/€21 on Steam, and if you want to get a better feel for what it's all about you can pick up a demo there right now. There's also a website with more to look at up at cryingsuns.com, and the original Kickstarter video, which shows a little more gameplay, can be seen below.