The Galaxy on Fire franchise is known for delivering two things: entertaining ship-to-ship combat, and searingly beautiful visuals.

However, rather than trot out another arcade space shooter, developer Fishlabs has decided to take the series in a different direction for its third iteration.

Due to arrive on iOS later this year, Galaxy on Fire: Alliances is the team's first pass at a strategy MMO.

To find out exactly what we can expect from this free-to-play spin-off, we caught up with Fishlabs CEO Michael Schade at Gamescom 2013, who was on hand to show off the game and walk us through the basics.