Starcraft Universe is holding an Open Developer Preview over the US and EU Battle.net from October 19th to October 30th while the developers are at BlizzCon.

The preview takes place in the “Encephalon Grid,” a player-vs-player arena allowing players to start as level 30 with a full set of gear tailored towards PvP. The player’s class is granted a mid-level selection of abilities, and players may be able to unlock additional abilities by winning enough matches.

The Starcraft Universe team has released a YouTube trailer for the Open Developer Preview showcasing a fairly robust-looking combat system, an inventory manager, character stat customization, and even Achievements. There seem to be eight classes currently available – four for each side.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlyjtMb0UXg[/youtube]

The Open Developer Preview is not an open beta (since Starcraft Universe is not in the open beta stage yet), but it will be “fully-functional and fully enjoyable.” It’ll only last until the end of October, so interested players should search for “SC Universe PvP – Dev Preview” over Battle.net during the preview’s run if they want to test the game.

The dev team welcomes comments on the forums once the preview is up.