All Games > Strategy Games > ARB: Alien Races Battle
Community Hub
ARB: Alien Races Battle
Every alien race in this game is real. Pick a faction, deploy waves of canonical aliens onto one shared lane, push to destroy the enemy base. A real-time auto-battler grounded in The Alien Races Book.

Sign in to add this item to your wishlist, follow it, or mark it as ignored

Features
Languages:
Interface Full Audio Subtitles
English ✔ ✔ ✔
Content
Includes Interactive Elements

Online interactivity

Coming Soon To Early Access

The developers of this game intend to release as a work in progress, developing with the feedback of players.

Note: Games in Early Access are not complete and may or may not change further. If you are not excited to play this game in its current state, then you should wait to see if the game progresses further in development. Learn more

What the developers have to say:

Why Early Access?

“ARB is a real-time multiplayer strategy game built on a custom lockstep determinism engine. That kind of multiplayer can't be fully tested in private — it needs hundreds of real players on different machines, networks, and skill levels finding the edge cases together.

We're going to Early Access because the game is already playable and fun (all 5 factions, full single-player + 1v1/2v2 multiplayer working over Steam), but the path to a polished 1.0 — 3v3 ranked, matchmaking, replays, balance tuning across 66+ units — needs the community more than it needs more time in a closed room.

Early Access also lets us ship faster. ARB's content architecture is designed for it: new units, doctrines, and balance changes are data edits, not engine work. We can get player feedback Friday, ship a fix Monday.

If you're the kind of player who wants to influence what ARB becomes — by playing, reporting, voting, and breaking it — Early Access is for you.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“We're targeting approximately 3 to 6 months in Early Access, depending on how the community-led balance and multiplayer scaling goes. The hard milestones for 1.0 are 3v3 ranked multiplayer with disconnect handling, a replay system, and a balance pass informed by real player data.

We'd rather take a few extra months and ship 1.0 right than rush the exit.”

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

“We plan to expand ARB significantly between Early Access and 1.0. Planned additions include:

• 3v3 ranked multiplayer with Steam matchmaking
• Disconnect / reconnect handling with AI fallback
• Replay system and spectator mode
• Additional units within each faction, drawn from the book's canon
• More T2 and T3 doctrine upgrades
• Steam Workshop support for community-created factions
• Tournament and scrim infrastructure
• Cross-platform Steam Deck official support
• Audio polish and a fuller soundtrack

We also plan ongoing balance refinement informed by Early Access player data, an AI difficulty rework, and additional accessibility options.

We can't promise every item above will ship, or ship in this exact form. Plans evolve as we learn what the community actually wants. The roadmap will live publicly on our Discord and in pinned Steam discussions, and we plan to update it monthly.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“ARB is fully playable in Early Access — this isn't a vertical slice, it's a real game with most of its content already in.

What's in the build today:

• All 5 factions playable: The Draco, The Maitre, The Anunnaki, The Council, The Unseen
• 66+ units across the rosters with 60+ abilities
• Single-player vs AI with three difficulty tiers (Rookie, Standard, Brutal)
• 1v1 and 2v2 online multiplayer via Steam Lobbies + Steam Networking
• Custom lockstep determinism engine — every match replayable from inputs
• Star Map: interactive sky with 42 documented alien homeworlds
• Earth Log: geographic catalogue of 107 documented sightings
• Field Manual codex with every race's full lore, stats, and animated portrait
• 17-track original soundtrack by NPNS
• Daily playable on Steam Deck

Known limitations at launch: 3v3 multiplayer is in development. Disconnect handling falls back to "match ends" rather than AI takeover. Some balance outliers will exist that we'll tune through Early Access. The replay system is not yet shipped.

Early Access pricing reflects this — you're getting a complete and playable game now, with significant content and feature additions coming through the Early Access window.”

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?

“We plan to raise the price when ARB exits Early Access and launches at 1.0. The Early Access price reflects the current scope; the 1.0 price will reflect the additions made through Early Access — 3v3 multiplayer, replay system, expanded rosters, and the polish that comes with a full release.

Players who buy during Early Access pay the lower price and keep the game forever, including all content updates.”

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?

“The community is the entire reason we're going to Early Access. Here's how we plan to involve players:

• Discord — our primary channel for bug reports, balance discussions, and faction tier lists. Direct line to the developer.
• Public roadmap on Steam discussions and Discord, updated monthly.
• Public test branch for major balance changes — opt-in patches you can preview before they go live.
• Community polls on direction questions: which faction gets new units next, which doctrine to tune, what kind of new content to prioritize.
• Patch notes for every release, with rationale for balance changes and credits to the players who reported the bugs.
• Tier lists, deck builders, replays — we plan to support and amplify community-built tools.
• Names in the 1.0 credits for everyone who bought during Early Access.

ARB is built solo, which means decisions move fast and feedback loops stay short. We can ship a balance change a few days after the community surfaces an issue. We plan to keep that velocity through Early Access — and reward the players who showed up early.”
Read more
This game is not yet available on Steam

Planned Release Date: June 2026

Interested?
Add to your wishlist and get notified when it becomes available.
 
See all discussions

Report bugs and leave feedback for this game on the discussion boards

About This Game

EVERY ALIEN RACE IN THIS GAME IS REAL.

The Reptilians. The Tall Whites. The Anunnaki. The Greys. ARB: Alien Races Battle is a real-time auto-battler set in the universe of The Alien Races Book — a catalogue of 60+ alien races, their homeworlds, and their first-contact records with humanity. Every race in the game comes from the book. Every homeworld is mapped to a real star. Every first-contact date is the date the book records.

WHAT YOU ACTUALLY DO

Pick a faction. Place units on a 14×14 formation grid. Every 30 seconds, a wave auto-deploys into a single shared lane. Your army marches. The enemy's army marches. They collide.

You don't control individual units. You don't click in combat. You compose. Spend mana on better units, doctrine upgrades, faction specials, and defensive towers. Hold mid-lane for income. First side to destroy the enemy base wins.

It's the Direct Strike auto-battler tradition — proven mechanics, distilled — wrapped in an alien universe no other indie studio can put on their box.

THE FIVE FACTIONS

Each faction is a book-canonical agenda — grouped by what its races actually want from Earth, not generic sci-fi templates. Each plays distinctly:

  • THE DRACO — ancient reptilian bloodline. Big silhouettes. Devour mechanics. Infiltrators that shape-shift into your own units to break your targeting.

  • THE MAITRE — parasitic terror. Fear-aura totems that send your units running in a panic. Skeletal horrors. Catastrophic crash-runner ships that explode on impact.

  • THE ANUNNAKI — returning gods. Pyramid motherships. Spirit-link gold-mining duos. Fairy-dust trails that heal whoever walks through them. Mothership cloud cover that protects sieged units.

  • THE COUNCIL — the protectors. Gold-armored last-message martyrs that buff allies on death. The Council of 5 in active session. The peaceful diplomats who win by being unkillable.

  • THE UNSEEN — the rule-breaker faction. Cigar-shaped underwater submarines that submerge mid-combat. Flying Egyptian pyramids. Psychic Greys that convert your units to their side without dealing a single point of damage. The "we don't play the same game you do" army.

WHAT YOU GET IN EARLY ACCESS

✓ All 5 factions fully playable (66+ units, 60+ abilities)

✓ Single-player vs AI with three difficulty tiers (Aggressive, Balanced, Turtle)

✓ 1v1 and 2v2 online multiplayer via Steam Lobbies + Steam Networking

✓ Star Map — interactive sky with 42 documented alien homeworlds

✓ Earth Log — geographic catalogue of 107 documented sightings

✓ Field Manual codex with every race's full lore, stats, and animated portrait

✓ 17-track original soundtrack by NPNS

✓ Daily playable on Steam Deck

WHAT'S COMING TO 1.0

→ 3v3 ranked multiplayer with Steam matchmaking

→ Disconnect / reconnect handling with AI fallback

→ Replay system + spectator mode

→ Additional units within each faction (drawn from book canon)

→ More T2 and T3 doctrine upgrades

→ Steam Workshop support for community-created factions

→ Tournament + scrim infrastructure

THE GAME AND THE BOOK ARE THE SAME UNIVERSE

ARB is built solo by Raphael Tremblay — the curator of The Alien Races Book. The game and the book share the same canon, the same races, the same homeworlds, the same first-contact dates. Other indie auto-battlers invent their lore. ARB inherits one.

Find the book at .

The game lives here. Wishlist to follow development as factions, units, and multiplayer modes ship through Early Access toward 1.0.

AI Generated Content Disclosure

The developers describe how their game uses AI Generated Content like this:

ARB: Alien Races Battle is developed by a solo human author (Raphael Tremblay) with assistance from Anthropic's Claude AI as a coding, art, and writing collaborator throughout production. Specifically:

- Some pixel-art unit sprites, ability icons, and UI elements were generated as SVG code with Claude's help, then reviewed, edited, and approved by the developer.

- In-game ability descriptions, Field Manual codex entries, and supplementary lore text were written with Claude as a writing collaborator, all building on the existing canon of The Alien Races Book (a separate, fully human-authored book by the same author that predates this game by years).

- Game code (gameplay engine, multiplayer infrastructure, UI logic) was developed with Claude as a coding-pair assistant.

Every piece of AI-assisted content was reviewed and edited by the human developer before shipping. The game's core IP — the 60+ documented alien races, their homeworlds, and their first-contact records — comes from The Alien Races Book and is entirely human-authored.

ARB does not use AI to generate content live during gameplay. All in-game content (units, sprites, abilities, sound, text, music) is finalized at build time and shipped as static assets.

System Requirements

Windows
macOS
SteamOS + Linux
    Minimum:
    • OS: Windows 10 (64-bit)
    • Processor: Intel Core i3
    • Memory: 2 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Integrated graphics (Intel HD 4000+)
    • DirectX: Version 11
    • Network: Broadband Internet connection
    • Storage: 200 MB available space
    • Sound Card: Any
    • VR Support: None
    Recommended:
    • OS: Windows 11
    • Processor: Intel Core i5
    • Memory: 4 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Dedicated GPU (any 2018+)
    • DirectX: Version 11
    • Network: Broadband Internet connection
    • Storage: 200 MB available space
    • Sound Card: Any
    • VR Support: None
    Minimum:
    • OS: macOS 11 Big Sur
    • Processor: Intel Core i3 or equivalent (2015+)
    • Memory: 2 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Integrated graphics (Intel HD 4000+)
    • Network: Broadband Internet connection
    • Storage: 200 MB available space
    • Sound Card: Any
    Recommended:
    • OS: macOS 13 Ventura
    • Processor: Apple M1 or equivalent
    • Memory: 4 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Apple Silicon
    • Network: Broadband Internet connection
    • Storage: 200 MB available space
    • Sound Card: Any
* Starting February 15, 2024, the Steam Client will no longer support 32-bit games or macOS 10.14 or lower.
    Minimum:
    • OS: Linux (SteamOS / Ubuntu 20.04+)
    • Processor: Intel Core i3 or equivalent (2015+)
    • Memory: 2 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Integrated graphics (Intel HD 4000+)
    • Network: Broadband Internet connection
    • Storage: 200 MB available space
    • Sound Card: Any
    • VR Support: None
    Recommended:
    • OS: Linux (current SteamOS)
    • Processor: Intel Core i5
    • Memory: 4 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Dedicated GPU (any 2018+)
    • Network: Broadband Internet connection
    • Storage: 200 MB available space
    • Sound Card: Any
    • VR Support: None
There are no reviews for this product

You can write your own review for this product to share your experience with the community. Use the area above the purchase buttons on this page to write your review.