Get ready for the space strategy game we’ve always been waiting for: On May 9, Paradox Development Studios will release Stellaris, the most ambitious game the studio has ever made. It’s a major step for the studio—out of the historical era and into space, for one thing. The studio’s prominence has steadily increased over the last few years, and Stellaris may be the strategy game that truly breaks out—and fills a void, for great space strategy games are few and far between.

Stellaris Release Date: No Feudalism Here

In the last few years, Paradox Interactive has become a juggernaut in the indie publishing sphere, thanks both to its own games—including Crusader Kings II and Europa Universalis IV—and those it publishes, like Cities: Skylines and Pillars of Eternity. Stellaris is both a natural evolution for the studio in terms of ambition and scope, and a major departure. The game is a 4X strategy game set in space, in a procedurally generated galaxy. It supports up to 32 players in multiplayer, features a wide variety of playable species, and the same sort of strategic gameplay that has made the studio popular among the strategy set. Except, instead of being set in real world history on a set map, with set circumstances, it takes us to the future—while keeping that same focus on diplomacy, war and emergent storytelling. But with aliens.

Stellaris aims to reflect the future of human history… and the future of Fungoid history, and all the other major species groups involved. The game’s tagline, “Grand strategy on a galactic scale,” really says it all—and check out the trailer above, it’s really something. If the game fulfills its promise, it will be the most exciting 4X space game in a long time. And we only have to wait until May 9 to find out.