Development studio Novaquark has released the first alpha build for its space sandbox game Dual Universe. In the game players explore and build environments together.

Dual Universe takes inspiration from various titles, such as No Man's Sky, Minecraft and Space Engineers, to deliver a new sandbox experience set in outer space. Players can explore together and fully edit the environment by building structures and altering terrain.

The game advertises a multiplayer experience that ensures all players are connected to each other simultaneously in the same universe without the need for traditional player instancing as seen in other MMO games. The development studio calls this Continuous Single-Shard Cluster.

The game was announced in 2016 and has been in development ever since. Its first alpha test build releases today and runs until November 30, 2018. A second alpha will take place on December 6, 2018.

According to a recent press release, Alpha 1 brings the first three facets of sandbox to life, allowing players to explore and build almost anything they can imagine, and then trade on the in-game player driven markets.

The game's starting planet Alioth is said to have reached an area size close to the one of real life Great Britain, giving players enough room to build.

In addition to the building tools, a wealth of tools to help players mine, harvest, transport, store, and sell all manner of building resources is also said to be available.

The game is partially funded by its Kickstarter campaign that launched two years ago. In total the project has collected roughly 10 million euro in funding, with 1.2 million euro coming directly from its backers. Those who fund the project will be able to gain instant access to the test versions.

Dual Universe is expected to release in 2020, exclusively for PC.