Jagex has formally announced its involvement in upcoming shooter Ace of Spades.

The company, best known for its free-to-play MMO Runescape, revealed that the game will launch on Steam in December 2012.

Ace of Spades has been live as a prototype for just over a year, during which time it's been installed by 2.5 million players. The retro-looking first person shooter is best described as MineCraft meets Team Fortress, as it allows 32 players to battle it out in a sandbox environment where bunkers, tunnels and entire fortresses can all be constructed in real-time.

Jagex CMO David Solari said, “If you’re tired of the same old first person shooters, coming out year after year with a fresh lick of paint and a hefty price tag, then Ace of Spades will tick all the boxes for you, offering an all action multiplayer featuring up to 32 player FPS combat and a fully customisable environment which will continuously develop throughout your battle.

"We have blended the artistic style of voxel-based sandbox games, such as Minecraft, with the class based combat of titles like Team Fortress, and added an extra dimension with real-time evolving battlefields to create a game which we firmly believe will appeal to FPS gamers looking for a bigger challenge."

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com