Today, publisher Team17 announced that it has partnered with Texan-based developer Mothership Entertainment to publish sci-fi city builder Aven Colony. In addition to release on PC -- the game is currently available in beta via itch.io -- the new agreement will also now see the game launch on PS4 and Xbox One as well.

The announcement came via Team17's Twitter

For those that don't know: Aven Colony is Mothership Entertainment's first game. The developer is formed from talent that has previously worked on a wide range of games, such as: Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Fable 2, Star Wars: The Old Republic, City Conquest, and more.

The game has been in development since 2013, and is being built in the hand-dandy Unreal Engine 4. In it, players are tasked with building a colony on Aven prime, expanding said colony, dealing with alien lifeforms, and uncovering the planet's secrets along the way. Here's an overview of the game, from the developer itself:

Aven Colony puts you in charge of humanity's first extrasolar settlement on Aven Prime, an alien planet of deserts, tundras, and jungles light years from earth.

Build the infrastructure, look after the well-being of your citizens, manage your resources, and guide your colony to prosperity -- all while dealing with the harsh and often dangerous realities of an alien world.

Features:

• A rich simulation of an extraterrestrial colony, including oxygen propagation, habitation, employment, electricity and power generation, mining, crime, food cultivation, limited inventory, water, and much more.
• Dozens of different buildings, from simple inflatable-tent "modules" to massive skyscrapers created from carbon nano-cubes ("nanites"). Most of these buildings support 2-3 upgrade tiers.
• A fully functional day/night cycle, which is tied to a "sol" on Aven Prime (a "sol" is equivalent to one earth week, and "night" is essentially a brief winter season). During the "winter" season, Aven Prime freezes over, and farms will not grow food and solar panels will generate far less electricity.
• Use 3 different types of advanced flying drones (construction drones, police drones, and scrubber drones) to build, upgrade, and manage your colony.
• Fully player-controllable game speed; pause the game at any time or play at 1x, 2x, 4x, or 8x game speed.
• An alien infection called "the creep," which can glom onto buildings and cover them in alien tentacles. Build special "Scrubber Drones" to clear the creep from infected buildings and stop it from taking over the entire colony.
• Additional environmental challenges including lightning storms, dust devils, deadly toxic gas emissions from geothermal vents, and shard storms.
• Research, grow, and process various alien plant species and foodstuffs and decide on the best locations to place farms and greenhouses for roughly a dozen different crops, derived from both Earth-based and native plant species.
• 12 distinct "overlay" modes give more information about the colony: Crops, Citizens, Happiness, Crime, Air, Electricity, Employment, Resources, Commute, Structures, Drones, and Water.
• Manufacture dozens of types of foods, beverages, and "enhancement substances" that will alter your citizens' morale and productivity.
• A rich morale system based on over a dozen different morale factors, and regular referendum elections that will give your citizens the opportunity to kick you out of office if morale gets too low.
• Over a dozen social policies to influence your colonists.
• Discover, analyze, and use ancient alien artifacts as you learn more about the civilization that once inhabited the world of Aven Prime.
• A robust mission objective system that gently guides the player to build a viable colony at the start of the campaign mode, then expands to give broader objectives toward the endgame and keep the player moving. This system includes construction objectives, trade objectives, population / morale objectives, total colony size objectives, and much more. Up to three objectives are available to the player at a time.
• A unique narrative that reveals the secrets of the civilization that once lived on Aven Prime.

Paul Tozour, founder of Mothership Entertainment, accompanied the announcement with the following statement:

“We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to partner with Team17 and bring Aven Colony to PS4 and Xbox One. Team17 shares our values and our passion for serving the customer.  The itch.io beta has helped our tiny 4-person team engage with the community and grow the game significantly as we build toward some big new features we plan to unveil in the coming months.  The Team17 partnership will help us grow that community even further and allow us to serve console customers in a way that we could never have done alone.”

Debbie Bestwick, MBE, CEO of Team17 added:

“The talented team at Mothership Entertainment have been incredibly focused on delivering a solid, fun and unique city-building experience with Aven Colony. As we continue our global expansion, we’ve spent a lot of time looking for the right partners and they're definitely the right fit so we’re delighted that they are the second US team to join Team17’s games label. We're excited to work with them and contribute our wealth of expertise in bringing the game to PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4, as Mothership Entertainment have created such a fantastic game that deserves to be shared far and wide.”

Currently, Aven Colony is slated (roughly) to launch in Q2 2017. A price point hasn't been divulged. But a new trailer has -- you can check it out below: