Frequently asked questions

COLONIZED is a space survival MMORPG for PC, built in Unreal Engine 5: one persistent online universe, planets with atmosphere and ships you can walk through.

It is in development. Applications for the closed alpha are open, and the first alpha wave is planned for winter 2026-2027. You can apply for a key now, and the key facts are collected on COLONIZED in facts.

Yes. COLONIZED is a space survival MMORPG set in one persistent online universe that keeps running when you log off. The game runs on dedicated servers that keep characters, inventories and buildings.

Details such as server regions or the number of players per server have not been announced. If you are not sure what separates an MMO from an MMORPG, we explain it in MMO vs MMORPG.

Three genres at once: survival (you need to stay alive and build), MMORPG (a shared, persistent world where your character progresses) and realistic space simulation (ships and worlds described in metres, tonnes and real orbits).

Our guide What is a survival MMO? explains how those genres fit together.

These systems are confirmed in the current build:

• Survival.
• Base building.
• Crafting.
• Combat in first and third person.
• Reputation with the five Global Guilds.

Other systems, such as the economy, trading or faction warfare, are in design or in development. We will show them when they can be played, not before. The devlog says what is in progress.

Yes. The ships of COLONIZED have interiors you can walk through. The William's XASTER M has a bunk, a washroom and an armoury behind its rear ramp; the MVG RVN-1000T Revenant has a mezzanine with bunks, a washroom and a galley above a double-height hold.

The images of these ships on this site are renders of the models, labelled as such. What you can fly in each alpha wave will be listed in the alpha notes. You can explore every ship in the hangar.

Seven, from three manufacturers: the William's XASTER X, S, M, L and XL, the CHALLENGER ALPHA M and the MVG RVN-1000T Revenant. They range from a 7.14-metre escort snub to a dropship about 54.5 metres long.

Their specs are subject to change during the alpha. The full sheets are in the ship dossier.

Yes. The planets of COLONIZED have atmosphere, and the build already has spherical planets you walk on, from the ground up to the edge of space.

How much of each world can be played in each alpha wave, and how ships travel between them, will be shown when it is ready. The worlds themselves are described in the guide to the Aurin system.

It has not been announced. COLONIZED is built as an online game in a shared universe. If a solo or offline option is ever planned, it will be announced here first.

The business model has not been announced yet, and that includes whether anything will be sold in the game. When it is decided, it will be published on this site and on the Steam page first.

In development, with a very solid and ambitious technical foundation, ready for its first testers. There are three public phases: the closed alpha, a Steam Playtest by invitation, in small waves and on our development server, with the first waves in winter 2026-2027; the closed beta, in 2027, with more testers and a dedicated server; and Early Access, to be announced. Applications for the closed alpha are open.

Go to the alpha page, sign in with Discord (signing up with an email and password will be switched on later), choose your callsign and answer the application. It takes about two minutes.

Keys go out in waves to selected pilots. Your position on the list helps, but it does not guarantee a place.

When you apply you get a personal link. Every friend who completes an application with your link moves you 10 places up the list.

If a friend you referred deletes their account, the bonus for that friend goes with it.

The first closed alpha waves are planned for winter 2026-2027, by invitation through the Steam Playtest and in small waves. The exact dates and the number of places in each wave have not been announced yet. Selected pilots will be notified, and the dates will be published on this site and on Discord.

No. According to the alpha terms, taking part in the closed alpha is free of charge.

You need to be 18 or older, have a pilot account on colonized.work (created with Discord; email and password sign-up will be switched on later) and a Steam account in good standing, and use a PC that can run the test build. It is one place per person. The full conditions are in the alpha terms.

The closed alpha has no non-disclosure agreement: it is a Steam Playtest by invitation and you can share screenshots, videos, streams and opinions, under the usual code of conduct. The alpha terms let us lift confidentiality and we do so for the whole closed alpha. At launch you will see a test-build notice, and bugs go to the bug channel on Discord.

As for progress, yes: it may be wiped or reset during the alpha, and nothing earned in it carries over to the final game unless we announce otherwise.

An alpha is an earlier, less complete build tested by a small invited group; a beta is closer to release and usually open to more players. In a closed alpha, access is by invitation only, and the goal is to find problems and gather feedback before the game is finished. Every phase, from pre-alpha to Early Access, is explained in how closed alphas and betas work.

Yes, later on: the closed beta arrives in 2027, with more testers and a dedicated server. The phase you can apply for now is the closed alpha, which comes before the beta. If you want to test COLONIZED, apply for the closed alpha: it is the earliest way in.

That has not been confirmed. Your callsign is unique on colonized.work and identifies you on the alpha list. If it ever carries over to the game, we will announce it here.

PC, through Steam. The development build runs on Windows with DirectX 12. No other platforms have been announced.

COLONIZED will be on Steam, but its store page is not public yet. As soon as it is, the wishlist button will appear on this site and on our Discord.

No release date has been announced. What is confirmed is the closed alpha: applications are open and its first wave is planned for winter 2026-2027.

The price and the business model have not been announced. They will be published first on colonized.work and on the Steam page.

The preliminary requirements are published, with a calculator that shows the tier to expect on your PC. They are preliminary and being optimised: they will change as we measure more hardware. The alpha application also asks about your hardware.

The performance numbers we share on the blog are development measurements taken at a stated resolution and on a reference GPU, not requirements. Our guide to PC optimisation and system requirements explains what to look for.

The game's languages have not been announced. This website is available in English, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), German and French.

Input devices and VR support have not been announced. We will say so here when they are decided.

Unreal Engine 5. The current build runs on version 5.8.

Yes. The build renders with Nanite (virtualised geometry), Lumen (dynamic global illumination and reflections) and Virtual Shadow Maps. Lumen runs in software mode by default; hardware ray tracing is not something we promise. We explain these technologies in Nanite and Lumen explained.

The development build integrates NVIDIA's DLSS package for Unreal: DLSS Super Resolution and DLAA, Frame Generation (with Multi Frame Generation on GeForce RTX 50 cards) and Reflex, switched on by default on compatible GPUs. It aims for image quality first: DLAA when the native resolution fits in about 2.25 megapixels and Quality mode above that, never Balanced or Performance by default.

On graphics cards without DLSS, the game uses Unreal's own Temporal Super Resolution. The options of the released game have not been announced. More in DLSS, frame generation and Reflex explained.

Not by default. Lumen runs with software tracing in the current build. Hardware ray tracing has been tested during development, but we do not promise it.

COLONIZED runs on dedicated Linux servers with a persistent database: characters and their appearance, inventories and buildings are saved on the server. Server regions and players per server have not been announced.

In the canon and in the game's star catalogue, the four planets of the Aurin system have radii between 6,000 and 6,400 km, close to Earth's, and the moons between 400 and 1,950 km. Distances between planets are compressed so the whole system fits in the engine's world. How much of each body can be played in each alpha wave will be listed in the alpha notes. We explain the method in How to simulate a solar system at scale.

We publish measurements, always with their conditions. At 3440×1440 native on an RTX 5070 Ti with 16 GB, the volumetric clouds cost 3.5 ms per frame, and an optimisation pass took a planet test scene from 12,480 MB to 5,256 MB of video memory. These are development figures, not system requirements.

In the Aurin system of the Parhelion galaxy, in Year 47 E.A. Two factions born from the same colony fleet, the Zenith and the Nadir, keep a cold peace that is starting to crack. The full story is in the Codex.

It is the settlers' calendar. Year 0 E.A. is the arrival of the Aura Fleet in the Aurin system; the war broke out in Year 1, the Ithera Armistice was signed in Year 12, and the present of the game is Year 47 E.A. The dates are in the timeline.

The two factions of Aurin. The Zenith (formally, La Cátedra de los Arquitectos) believe in order, merit and vertical progress, and their station is El Pináculo. The Nadir (formally, La Concesión) believe in community and making do with what others throw away, and their station is El Fondeadero. Both were born from the same colony fleet.

In the current build you choose your side when you enlist, and the choice is permanent on the server. Faction warfare is still in design. Read The Zenith and the Nadir for the long version.

Neutral organisations founded by the survivors of the Ark Aurora: The Pioneers (settlement and medicine), Apex Syndicate (hunting), The Forge (mining and industry), The Vanguard (security) and The Pathfinders (exploration). Reputation with the five guilds is part of the current build. More in The five Global Guilds.

A G1V star, four habitable planets (Ormek, Kharsis, Ithera and Kaldrek), ten moons, a captured asteroid (Ashkar) and three bands: the Cementerio de Aura, the Rings of Kaldrek and an outer ice belt. Read the guide to the Aurin system or the Aurin entry of the Codex.

In the lore, the Compis are auxiliary cores of the Aura Fleet, rescued and put back to work as companion drones. There are five, one for each guild. As a game system they exist in a development branch, with roles, signature abilities and talent trees, but they are not in the main build yet. Read The Compis.

Yes. The Aurin Chronicle is the serialised novel of COLONIZED, free to read in the Codex, in English and Spanish. Book One, Holding, is complete: a prologue, 13 chapters and an epilogue, about two and a half hours of reading. It is set in Year 47 E.A. and adds characters and events of its own without changing the canon. Start with our spoiler-free guide.

Yes. The current build has alien fauna with its own AI, and human enemies that take cover, flank and reload. In the canon of the universe there are four creatures: the Ombrask, a six-metre predator that attacks on sight; the Rolvak, which lives in herds and only attacks if attacked; the Lumbro, which never attacks; and the sentinels, Fleet machines hostile to everyone. Which creatures appear in each alpha wave will be in the alpha notes. Read the Aurin fauna guide or the bestiary.

The most used of the five ores of the Aurin system (technalite, metazinc, neolith, vibrosteel and flux): black-violet glass in young lava flows and amethyst druses in geodes, which in the design goes into ingots, screws and ammunition. In the canon it is richest on Kaldrek and Kharsis. Resource gathering is in development. Read where to get technalite or the resource and loot guide.

In the canon, unlicensed salvagers who ambush mining crews just as the job is done and shoot the Zenith and the Nadir alike. With the smugglers, the Cementerio de Aura pirates and the automated security of Ípsilon-7, they are the groups hostile to everyone. Read who's who in Aurin.

Yes. The Codex is written from the official canon of the game and cites the source of every entry. When this site adds texture to the canon (in-world documents, for example), it is marked as an extension. Codex entries describe the universe; what you can play in each alpha wave is listed in the alpha notes.

Yes. The official COLONIZED Discord is where we post news and talk with the community: join the Discord.

The official accounts on other networks will be linked from the footer of this site when they open. Until then, an account that claims to be COLONIZED somewhere else is not ours.

Yes. The roadmap is synced with the team's development board and shows what is done, what is in progress and what comes next.

In the devlog, the blog and the roadmap. Devlogs are dated and signed, and they say what exists and what is still in development.

Access for creators has not been announced yet. The alpha application lets you add your channel, so we know who you are when that is decided. Creators can also ask for specific publishing permissions under the alpha terms.

In the press kit: fact sheet, logos and labelled renders. Verified facts with their dates are on COLONIZED in facts, and the contact is on the studio page.

Your pilot account: if you create it with Discord (the recommended way), its identifier, your user name and your verified email; if you create it with an email and password, your verified email and the password stored only as an irreversible hash. Also your callsign and, if you apply, your alpha application. Your Discord avatar is not stored. The details are in the privacy policy.

On our own servers in the EU.

No. The site uses no tracking cookies, and its analytics are anonymous and our own. The only cookies are functional: your session if you sign in, and your language if you choose one. See the cookie policy.

From your pilot file, at any time. You can also download a copy of all your data from there.

Only if you ticked the box for news when you signed up. Every email has a one-click unsubscribe link, and you can switch news off from your pilot file.