Are you ready to leave your boring old terrestrial life behind and start anew among the stars? Well soon, you’ll be able to, but only in the “broke college grad” sense where you take refuge in a garage while selling superfluous organs to pay off loans. OK, I may have read a little too far between the lines on that last part, but Star Citizen‘s first playable module is very much one small step into Chris Roberts’ insanely ambitious new galaxy – not so much a giant leap. You get a hangar. You can explore it (!!!!!!). That’s pretty much the whole thing.

Speaking with Eurogamer, Roberts said that Star Citizen’s first playable module will be in the hands of backers next week. In it, you can explore your hangar, hop into (but not fly) any ships you might have backed, and even drive a buggy because walking is for pitiful Earth Citizens.

Not terribly exciting, but an important first step nonetheless. On the upside, multiple modules will be doing bombing runs on our free time in the coming months. One of them will even include ships giving in to their latent animal instincts and fighting like dogs. It’ll apparently be out before the year draws to a close. Just in time for Space Christmas? We can only hope.

Star Citizen certainly sounds excellent, but can Roberts and co realize their heaving goliath of a vision – largely on crowdfunded money, no less? That’s been the question of the hour since day one. Next week, we finally get to see a brief glimmer of how it’s coming along. Are you excited about running around in a garage?