About This Demo

Build an empire, govern its worlds, and command fleets in Imperium of the Stars, a single-player Gothic real-time 4X. Expand across a galaxy where your decisions and unfolding crises can change the course of a campaign.

After three centuries of isolation, the routes between the stars have reopened. Lead the Imperium back to its lost colonies while rival powers claim worlds of their own.

The full game features four asymmetric factions. This free demo puts you in command of the Imperium for the first 50 in-game years, using the Balanced Game Director preset.

• Playable faction: The Imperium

• Campaign length: 50 in-game years per campaign

• Game Director: Balanced

• Galaxy: Default scenario, 5,000 star systems

• Research: Era I

Choose the shape and size of a procedurally generated galaxy. Reclaim scattered worlds while rival powers extend their own borders. Every new holding brings resources to your empire and another frontier to defend.

Develop your worlds' economies and keep their people loyal as your empire grows. The Imperium is bound by faith and ruled through noble Houses. Govern from the Court of the Eternal Throne, where councillors oversee the institutions that hold your realm together.

Explore Era I research and decide which works your expanding realm needs first.

Muster fleets and raise legions. Follow naval engagements in the 2D battle view, then land regiments for planetary sieges. Terrain and morale matter alongside numbers. The great powers cannot negotiate peace, so every advance must be held.

Issue construction orders across your empire or let governors develop their sectors. Found a Grand Campaign, set its commitment and acceptable risk, and let it muster task forces for the offensive. If it stalls, it reports why. Take direct command of a world or fleet whenever you need to.

Decide how to bring lost worlds back into your empire. When a world refuses your rule, choose whether to send legions or missions, or leave the question for another season. In the decision shown here, sending missions shifts your empire's Conviction toward Communion, the Imperium's path of shared faith.

Respond to petitions and manage ongoing crises as your choices give each campaign a history of its own.

Each campaign ends after 50 in-game years. Other playable factions, later research eras and additional Director presets are outside this demo's scope.

The first fifty years belong to the Throne.

AI Generated Content Disclosure

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

Generative AI is used in the production of music for the game's trailers and in-game soundtrack, as well as some cinematics. All resulting music tracks are manually reviewed and edited before use.