Frontier Developments, the studio behind Elite: Dangerous, has released a short video about the making of the space sim and its roots in the original Elite released in 1984.

Frontier Developments CEO David Braben explains that one of the biggest challenges in developing the game was getting the feel of the combat right. “It isn’t the sort of thing where by having a bigger ship you’re immediately going to win. It’s all in the details, the turn rates, how heavy should feel, how light,” Braben said.

Game Designer Dan Davies added that part of the challenge was building great combat that takes place in an empty space. “Other games can use the environment and gravity to create the gameplay limitations that they need, whereas we had to use the flight model and the ships to essentially create those gameplay limitations,” Davies said.

Elite: Dangerous recently rolled out the third stage of its Beta test to players, unlocking even more of the Milky Way for them to explore and introducing a tons of new features like the ability to own multiple ships and mining.

You can jump into the Beta 3 right now by buying the game for $75 through Frontier’s online store. The game is scheduled to launch by the end of the year, though Frontier Developments still hasn’t settled on an exact date.

For more on the game, check out our previous coverage.