A team of Austin developers are working on a new space combat sim inspired by the likes of Wing Commander, Star Wars: TIE Fighter and Descent: FreeSpace – The Great War.

Seamless Entertainment tells Kotaku that they hope to reinvigorate the dying space combat simulation genre with SOL: Exodus, a game that will have players dogfighting from Neptune to Mars as they fight to save the inhabits of our solar system from religious zealots bent on armageddon.

The story has humanity discovering that the sun is set to go supernova in the near future. Ships are sent out to search for a new habitable planet, but when they return they discover that a religious group has taken over the planet and is trying to get everyone to stay to embrace their deaths and be ushered into heaven.

The team working on the game include folks with quite a bit of experience under their belts, including working on some big titles like Saint's Row and Civilization III. Seamless creative director Chris Stockman even worked on classic combat sim Tachyon: The Fringe.

According to the press release, SOL: Exodus will deliver epic space battles featuring enormous capital ships, hordes of spacecraft and beautifully rendered planetary battlegrounds in an action-packed presentation reminiscent of iconic sci-fi TV shows and movies. The game is being developed with Epic's Unreal Engine.

While the two declined to give me details about the gameplay or look of the upcoming downloadable game, due out later this year, they did say it would involve some new concepts in a space combat game. They also said it would feel like a game that blends the best of Wing Commander and Star Wars: TIE Fighter updated to be more appealing to today's generation of gamers.

"With SOL: Exodus, players will enjoy gameplay staples of the genre such as dogfighting and engaging giant capital ships," Stockman said. "But we‘ve also introduced some unique special abilities for added mission depth and interactivity. I'll be talking more about those as we get closer to launching later this year."

Check back later today for our full interview with Stockman and studio director Dan Magaha. For more information about SOL: Exodus go to the official site.