Indie developer Stelleas, led by ex-Ubisoft and Creative Assembly developer James Miller, has announced Stellar Reach, an ambitious new 4X strategy game a decade in the making.

Described as a Civilization-like game set in a fully 3D “galactic frontier”, Stellar Reach has been developed by Miller as a passion project over the past 10 years to be deep, replayable, and yet rewarding for genre veterans and newcomers alike,

Stellar Reach is in development for Windows PC (via Steam) with a release set for later this year, in September 2025.

Here’s a rundown on the game, plus its debut teaser trailer:

Stellar Reach is a 4X sci-fi strategy game where you control a machine-run faction vying for dominance across a hostile galactic frontier. Guide your empire through conquest, prosperity, or industrial power as you advance through six distinct tech trees and forge your path to victory.

Some time in our future, humans and their machine work force have reached a distant stellar neighbourhood and multiple factions are competing for dominance. Explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate across the nearby stars in a real-scale, fully-3D environment to overcome your rivals, mastering military power, prosperous governance, booming industry, wealth, resources, and their separate technology trees. Choose your faction and your path to victory, but travel it alone; you’ll find no friends in the hostile and dangerous depths of space.

Features

• Command your fleet – Take the reins of a machine-driven empire as you explore the stars and exterminate any foes who stand in your way. In this fully 3D starfield, you will build fleets of ships and planetary armies to colonize and fortify star systems. 
• Manage your faction – Your citizens may live in comfort, but prosperity is never guaranteed. As the architect of their future, you must keep them satisfied and secure. Balance growth and stability as you turn fragile colonies into thriving powerhouses.
• Develop your industrial might – In a universe where machines have replaced humans as the workforce behind the biggest empires, you must balance creating strong and efficient machines with growing their numbers and expanding to new planets and systems.
• Create a thriving economy – Wealth is the lifeblood of any powerful empire, and managing it is crucial to your survival. Maintain a delicate balance of income and expenditure to ensure your empire remains strong, whilst not crumbling under its own weight.
• Achieve technical mastery – Your faction will advance simultaneously through six distinct tech trees, each helping you move closer to interstellar dominance. From military innovations to industrial breakthroughs, each tree offers tools for success in different areas of empire-building. As you progress, you’ll need to strategically prioritize and balance your research to create synergies between the trees. Mastering the tech trees isn’t just about unlocking new technologies, it’s about finding the most effective routes to victory, whether through military conquest, economic prosperity, or industrial supremacy.
• Harness and exploit resources – In Stellar Reach, you will discover 13 unique resources that are scattered across the galaxy, each playing a crucial role in enhancing the effectiveness of your fleets, armies and industries. Scan planets to discover when resources lie within, and expand your territory to harness them. Control of these vital resources could be the key to your victory.
• Guide your conquest among the stars – Stellar Reach offers three distinct paths to victory, each with its own challenges and strategic opportunities:
  • Conquest: Dominate rivals through your relentless military might. Build powerful fleets, crush opponents and capture critical systems. Only the strongest will survive the worn-torn stars.
  • Prosperity: Focus on the well-being of your citizens by transforming a fragile colony into a bustling centre for culture and politics.
  • Industry: Harness the full potential of your industrial might. Develop advanced technologies and infrastructure to create an unstoppable empire of machines. Through superior production, rise to supremacy.

Choose your path to victory and adapt to the actions of your rivals!