Small team Cubic Timeline Productions have brought their long-time project NCG-19: Gravitus to Open Beta in hopes of helping to draw additional funding on Kickstarter.

In space, no one can hear you desperately pitch your crowdfunding campaign.

Three-man team Cubic Timeline Productions have taken on a lot in their ambitions for NCG-19: Gravitus, and now, after two years of effort, they have turned to Kickstarter to try and bring their vision of a free-to-play MMO strategy game to life.

For many gamers “Free-to-play” might as well be a four letter word, since in most cases “free-to-pay” or “pay-to-win” are far more accurate descriptions of what is likely to be found underneath. In the case of NCG-19: Gravitus, the free-to-play element is represented by constraints on the player’s available fleet size and upgrades. These can be improved through gameplay, but boosts to both can instead be purchased if you’re the impatient type. Given the game’s emphasis on a win condition per in-game “season” based on a player’s fleet’s Networth, of value of upgrades, ships, and controlled space, it will be hard for the game to avoid falling into the latter of those two categories.

The game’s core mechanics are already in place, with players taking control of one of three races — Terrans, Bioswarm, or Machines — and setting out to secure their own little portion of the game’s galaxy. With an emphasis on PVP and a rock-paper-scissors balance system in place, what makes NCG-19 somewhat unique is its use of pure strategy/tactical gameplay mechanics as opposed to more typical RPG mechanics along with a promised persistent world by the developers, where your colonies and fleet continue to work and interact with others even when you are away from the game.

NCG-19: Gravitus has its beta available at the team’s official site, and can be played on PC, Mac, or Linux. If the concepts behind it interest you, give it a shot, and if you like it, the team’s Kickstarter has less than a month to go to raise around 35,000 dollars.