The Castle Doctrine is a home invasion MMO - its alpha is out now

You can always rely on Jason Rohrer to create something different. He's previously given us the collaborative storytelling sketchpad that is Sleep is Death , and the infinite, recursive, procedurally generated shooter Inside a Star-Filled Sky . So that his tenth game, The Castle Doctrine , is an MMO about burglary and home defence is expectedly unexpected. It's available now as a pre-release alpha.

The Castle Doctrine is a game about being endlessly robbed, and in-turn robbing others to secure the funds to protect your home. Your goal is to create a security set-up intricate enough to keep the world out, but not so deadly as to kill any careless members of your family.

According to Rohrer , the game attempts to show the impact of an unknown thief intruding on your life. As such, players are anonymous. "Someone's put work into this house, y'know? Someone's amassed this collection of stuff that they've spent a lot of time on, and when we violate it we're actually doing harm to a person in a real way. The moral ambiguity of the whole thing is at the core of what the game is about."

The alpha is $8, and available for Windows, Mac and Linux. That price guarantees all future updates, and is 50% off the full release.

Thanks, Joystiq .

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.