Today at GDC 2102 we sat down with Colin Walsh of Celsius Game Studios and took a look at his upcoming galactic space trading game Drifter.

Drifter is a large-scale space action strategy title in the proud tradition of the legendary Elite. The game will feature a galaxy 100,000 lightyears across, comprised of 10,000 stars with systems both procedurally generated as well as custom-tailored for a specific play experience. The systems in question are populated with MPCs, pirates, miners, and even a band of black-hole worshiping religious fanatics that call themselves “The Song of the Infinite Abyss."

In Drifter, you start out in a small craft that you use to get from system to system, trading weapons, ores, and goods of all sorts in order to amass fortune that can be used to trick-out and trade-up your ship, in order to amass even more fortune. Your adventures take place in and among the Unaligned Planets, a Wild West sort of galactic zone, made up of colonies resisting the order of the Commomwealth of Free Stars and the oppression of the Solar Dynasty.

Gameplay involves commercial transactions in various orbiting settlements, as well as heated battles in the void of space, where winner takes all. Accompanying the action is a powerful audio track crated by Danny Baranowsky, known for his audio work in Canabalt and Super Meat Boy, among others.

Colin tells us that he is aiming for a summer release with Drifter, but that the title will definitely land before years end. Expansion packs that add to the game universe will follow the initial release.