How to get a place in the COLONIZED closed alpha

The COLONIZED closed alpha is a Steam Playtest by invitation, run in small waves on our development server. The first waves are planned for winter 2026-2027, and applications are open now. There are three ways to get a place: the general queue, the community on Discord and the invitation codes of the creators programme. This guide explains each one and what you need before you start.

What you need first

The conditions come from the closed alpha terms:

• Free. Taking part costs nothing.
• 18 or older. The alpha is for adults.
• A pilot account on colonized.work, created with Discord.
• A Steam account in good standing, because access comes as a Steam Playtest.
• One place per person.

The alpha has not started. Nobody is playing it yet, and the build you would receive is an unfinished test build.

Way 1: the general queue

This is the main route. Go to the closed alpha page, sign in with Discord, choose your callsign and answer the application. It takes about two minutes.

Your place in the queue is your order of arrival plus 10 places for each friend who completes an application with your personal link. The team may also look at variety of hardware, regions, languages and playstyles, so two people who applied on the same day can get different answers.

Way 2: the community on Discord

Waves are announced on our Discord first. The team may also set aside places for active members of the community, because people who talk about the game are the ones who send the most useful feedback. Being there does not replace the application: you still need to apply.

Way 3: an invitation code from a creator

Creators admitted to the creators programme receive a place of their own and 10 invitation codes per wave, to give to their audience. If a creator you follow has codes, you enter the code on the alpha page with your own account.

Three things to know:

• A code is not a Steam key. It reserves a place in one wave.
• A code works once and expires when its wave closes.
• Codes are never sold. If someone asks you for money for one, do not pay.

What happens after you apply

1. Review. The team reads the application and decides who goes into each wave.
2. Approval. You are notified that you have a place in a wave.
3. Key. After a short review you receive a personal Steam Playtest key in your account, and by email if your account has one.
4. Activation. You activate the key in Steam, and the Playtest appears in your library when the wave opens.

Steam does not warn you when a Playtest becomes playable, so watch the announcements on this site and on Discord. How a wave works is explained in what a Steam Playtest is.

What you will not find

• Dates and numbers. The date of each wave and its places have not been announced.
• A guarantee. Applying does not guarantee a place.
• A finished game. Progress may be wiped, and nothing carries over to the final game unless we announce it.

For the day-to-day of a test, read what to expect from a closed alpha. The rest of the questions are in the FAQ.