We’re calling it "the ultimate tactical game." It’s a simultaneous-turn-based game: you and your opponent have a small number of units; you make plans for the next five seconds of game time and then those plans are played out together.

It’s about short, sharp bursts of tactics, as opposed to long-form strategy, and it’s really about trying to outwit your opponent. In most modes, you’re dealt a random hand of units in random positions on random terrain, so you have to get very good at reading the situation quickly.

There’s no economic management, or equipment, or base building: lots of games have those but we really wanted to focus on that pure competitive angle with this game.

This game seems to be, at heart, a strategy game, but really looks and feels a bit like an action title as well... did you guys really want to make a strategy game with an action feel, or were you just trying to make an action game with more of a strategic element?

With a simultaneous-turn-based game, when you’re watching your turn back, it has to be exciting. We went for ths abstract aesthetic to help build up the atmosphere, to make you feel like you’re a real tactical commander, but also we wanted to make sure the action was exciting and dynamic. So yes, you very much have those two aspects to contend with simultaneously.

Frozen Synapse has a distinct look to it: what were some of the inspirations behind the art style of the game?

Definitely there’s an 80’s vector graphics influence. Also obvious cyberpunky things like Bladerunner, Tron, Ghost in the Shell. To be honest, we started with much more of a kind of "radar screen" approach, then our concept artist did a concept with 3D walls, which we loved...then we needed 3D characters to match them and so on. So it was very much a dynamic process rather than us saying, "We want to look like X or Y movie".

Originally, we wanted the game to be from a side-top perspective (or "The Chaos Engine" perspective, as I like to call it) with pixel art. Then we saw how much good pixel artists charge - ouch!

You guys are currently in beta with the game right now, give us the run down on what you’re seeing so far – how is the beta going?

The beta is going great - we’re getting some good feedback.

To me, the game feels balanced and robust right now, but the main things we still have to work on are the in-game interface, the menus and what I call the "context". At the moment, I still don’t feel like you get reward enough for winning, that your ranking isn’t visible enough and that your win/loss stats against any given opponent aren’t foregrounded enough. This is something I’ve got from playing a lot and it’s only something I think I’d really been able to figure out with a big beta community.

Our community are amazing - they all offer productive feedback and they’ve definitely been a big help in identifying difficult problem areas.

At the moment, we’re working on single player, then we’ll be going back for a final push to release - exciting times.

Is there anything that you’ve learned from the beta that you definitely know you will change for the full game?

Certainly the layout and functionality of most of the main menus need a big overhaul - beyond that, we’re pretty set in our direction.

Have there been any surprise reactions in the beta? Any feedback you weren’t expecting?

Just the overwhelmingly positive nature of everything! Having done a game which was fairly divisive, we were expecting much more trolling and hatred, but to be honest the beta’s got some fairly rave reviews. People find the game super-addictive in the way we wanted, and they’re getting deeply into it. This is the first time that’s ever happened to us and it’s kind of a unique situation -we’re very grateful.