The only way to really understand Spellcraft, a new competitive PvP strategy game from former Blizzard and Riot developers, is to play it anyway.

From now until April 16, you can experience firsthand what the game is all about; Spellcraft is available as a public alpha version, which you can try by visiting the Steam page (opens in a new tab) and requesting access.

Spellcraft is a mix of existing genres, but leans heavily toward MOBAs. Developer One More Game calls the game a "real-time battler." You form a team of three heroes and play against other players. Each hero has Basic and Ultimate Abilities, and you can deploy the abilities that become available to you each round. The goal is to get enough kills to win 4 rounds or team wipe the opponent.

Each hero takes on the familiar tank, DPS, and healer roles. The round begins with a short movement phase, where heroes can be picked up and placed on the board as in a tabletop game.

All characters auto attack without your input. However, it is your job to determine the interaction of your abilities and shut them down before they try to do the same. The mech character Reset has the ability to attract enemies, and Europa can do a lot of damage with her AoE orbital attacks. Or characters like Cage, who carries a huge hammer, can leap across the board and take down opponents when they are low on health. There are tons of combinations of characters and abilities, and you need to be flexible depending on your opponents and the ability-changing items you can equip between rounds.

Spellcraft has a ranked mode, an unranked mode, a custom game, and a practice mode where you can learn your character against bots.

One More Game has set a goal of "alpha-driven development" and has already had "thousands" of players test the alpha version (open in new tab).

A release date for Spellcraft has not yet been set, but the public alpha version will be available until April 16.