In March of last year we took an early look at a very interesting upcoming turn-based strategy game called Exospecies from industry veteran turned indie developer Eric Zinda and his studio Inductor Software. There were several factors that made Exospecies stick out to me. First was its “Chess meets Magic: The Gathering" inspiration where you have the ability to combine various unit types to create new units with unique abilities, similar to combining cards in a CCG. Next was its “simul-turn" multiplayer which allowed both players to take their turns at the same time in multiplayer matches, making for a quicker pace than turn-based games where you’re constantly waiting for each other to move. Then there’s the full map editor which offeres the potential of endless levels to play. And finally I absolutely loved the art style of Exospecies, which looked like a bunch of ’70s sci-fi illustrations came to life as an early ’90s PC game. You can see what I mean in this new trailer.

Well if you thought Exospecies was looking pretty cool last year when we posted about it, then you’ll be happy to know that at long last there is a release date for the game, and it’ll be arriving next week on July 31st. Exospecies will feature online multiplayer as its focus, but will also feature two different single-player campaigns against two distinct AI opponents. Then of course there’s the Map Editor which will allow you to quickly generate random maps to play on or let you take your time and customize a map of your very own creation. Exospecies looks like all that and a bag of chips (that’s a ’90s reference) and I’m really looking forward to checking it out when it hits the App Store next week.