Codebyfire, the developers behind Frozen Cortex, and Mode 7 Games, the developers behind Frozen Synapse, have recently announced that they have teamed up in order to create The Colonists - a settlement building game most similar to The Settlers and Anno series. While the details are currently in short supply, you can expect to see The Colonists in Steam Early Access this August.

As for the gameplay itself, you will be taking control of a team of robots tasked with settling and taming a newly-discovered planet, essentially preparing the ground for a wave of colonists that are inbound from the homeworld. You'll have to harvest natural resources, set up farming and food production, reshape the terrain in order to optimize your production lines, and naturally, conquer or ally with any of the locals.

Since you'll have to create all of the advanced materials yourself, the colony will have to slowly advance from its humble beginnings in the Stone Age all the way to the Space Age. Each age will bring with it separate challenges and requirements, but how exactly all of it will work I'm afraid we don't know just yet. What I can tell you, however, is that The Colonists will feature a single player campaign, co-op and competitive multiplayer, as well as a free-play mode for those of you that want to just mess around.

To learn more about The Colonists I would recommend heading over to the newly launched official website, though do keep in mind that there isn't much information available right now. And finally, here's a couple of images showing the adorable little drones at work: