The World of SOL Shogunate is Based on Scientific Concepts
MeinMMO: You talked a bit about the world. What I found very interesting is that there is this cyber samurai Japan style, but also traditional cultural and architectural elements like buildings, cherry blossoms, and gardens. How do you create a world where these two, on paper, very different worlds come together?
Guy Costantini: I’m so glad you asked because it all starts with the inception of the idea. We believed there had already been many discoveries made in the realm of science fiction and cyberpunk, and we wanted to develop something that feels different. We embarked on a really big search for artists, with many of our artists traveling around the world to truly understand the history of architecture.
The idea is that something happened in the past and our timeline split. And we end up in a world where it makes sense that feudal Japan exists in space. We asked ourselves, how could this ever happen? So, we spent a lot of time designing a timeline that allows that. Without revealing too much: It all begins with the Meiji Restoration going slightly differently, leading to a different space race where a much more eastern community of states wins the space race and grants us space. And then the entire human race bends to this about 150-year flowering period of expansion throughout the planets of the solar system towards a much more eastern mindset. So, the way you think in philosophy, music, architecture, religion, and just in general society is based on many different values. And then you have to bring the right people on board.
You need to hire people who are passionate about history, who have a love for art history and music history. Our composer specialized in the history of musical instruments at the conservatory. And you need a team like that to create a world that is credible yet based on completely different premises. We wanted to do this because we wanted people to genuinely say, “How?” We wanted to connect surrealism with credibility. And so, we decided to create this world. And of course, people are people, we expanded to the planets of the solar system thanks to all of this. There’s a massive war because humans fight over things. And in this war, we had just begun to build around the sun to provide humanity with free energy in the solar system, which, unfortunately, got repurposed as a superweapon, and from the wreckage of this conflict, a new form of government emerged inspired by feudal Japan, the SOL Shogunate. Then there is a time of “peace”, enforced by a strict caste system in which the rulers have access to enormous technological resources to solidify this caste system.
And we thought it would be really interesting if you, as the protagonist, were a member or believe that this is the right way. This is the way humanity can coexist, and we can maintain peace, structure, and order, and then this world collapses for you and you must find out why, possibly in cooperation with another character we can’t talk about yet. But there’s a really fantastic amount of history that we’ve built differently because we are inspired by the old stories. We call it our shorthand for “Old Future Japan.” We immediately started collaborating with a number of Japanese authors and several writers from around the world to ensure we hit the mark, it’s our love letter to Japan and the various epochs of Japanese history that we get to reinterpret in this astro-feudal future. But we really wanted to make sure you see various cultures. You will see it’s not just about the Japanese space. But the influence of Eastern cultures will impact all other cultures. Just like the USA exported Western culture to the world post-war, imagine a world where this would have played out differently. We found that this was a really exciting space to explore. And for those who are interested in history and a sort of surreal alternative future vision, there’s a lot to discover and figure out how SOL Shogunate came to be.
Leszek Szczepanski: To further build on this idea that this is our love letter to Japan, it should be mentioned that if you want to create something new that also has a chance of being something special, you need to create something that only you can create. Our approach to developing SOL Shogunate is to take all the things we love the most and develop them into a single vision. This is why we have samurai because this type of samurai fiction inspires us. This is why we have a sort of science fiction because we all love these kinds of hard science fiction vibes. This is why the musical element is so important to the game because I’ve spent nights discovering new artists from Japan to find new music. So, we took all these things we love and created a singular hall, namely SOL Shogunate. And it’s a combination of all the things that resonate very strongly with us, like science fiction, samurai, music, and anime influences that we have here. So, yes, to build on the idea that this is a love letter.
MeinMMO: One small question about that: Why is the moon such an important place and not like a big planet […], or an unknown planet?
Guy Costantini: Yes, thanks for this question, because first of all, the moon is the way we get into space, right? And we wanted to start with reality. If we ever want to travel to other planets, we need to build moon spaceports, that’s just how humanity will do it. If you think of another way, let me know, but so far, all great ideas, including some concepts in our game, have come from our collaboration with NASA and JPL staff. We were inspired by some work of the Japanese space agencies and Japanese universities exploring how to live on the moon without suffering a significant loss of bone density. So, we have this concept known as “Lunar Glasses” where we built large rotating cities in moon craters to protect them from micrometeorites, and they essentially create a centrifugal force to simulate gravity, so that you can have these kinds of ecosystems that most people see in our trailer and [say] this is like Elysium or Interstellar or whatever, with rotating rings, and that’s a cool concept, and of course, we want to do something a little different: we placed it on the moon and connected it via a line, similar to how it’s common to travel in Asia.
And this outcome was really something unique, but it’s grounded in the way of scientists are thinking about how we can actually live in space. In the realm of science fiction, a lot has been explored when it comes to jumping into the future that is hundreds or thousands of years away. And suddenly, there are space guilds snorting spice to teleport. Again, nothing against Dune, I love it, but at the same time, it’s still so far into the future that there are no rules, and we wanted it to have rules. We wanted it to feel surreal, but when you engage with why things are the way they are, it was built that way for a reason. All things on the moon are mostly built from moon material because this is how we will build. We will 3D print regolith [rock from the moon’s surface] and figure out how to transform it into other materials. There’s this concept of a sort of moon wood, so wood made from regolith.
The reason we took this path is that we believe this is how humanity will progress, and we wanted to stay close to that. I think, without delving deeper into other parts of the solar system that we will eventually explore, it should feel very dangerous the further away you get from Earth, because we are truly blessed with Earth, and we want people to understand how hard it is to exist outside of it, but people are people and they will come up with new, innovative ways to do things. That’s why we found it really boring to design a moon without other biomes; that wouldn’t have lasted long. And so we can also represent simulated weather in some amazing ways. We can essentially explore the visual style of the epochs of Japanese history that many of us truly love. We can enter these cities built as a tribute to what was once in the past of our time. I hope that answers your question.
Leszek Szczepanski: To build on that: the entire story of SOL Shogunate is also something we are very fond of. It’s a story based on lies and secrets and misdirection, where you discover the truth behind the truth behind the truth. And for a story like this, the moon is actually a great place because, if you delve a little into astronomy, the moon is super strange; it’s a very unusual celestial body, and we still don’t fully understand why and how and what.
It holds many secrets by its nature. But it is also the celestial body outside of Earth that we know the most about. So it’s the perfect setting because it’s a bit familiar, but also a bit mysterious. We kind of know it, but yet not entirely. For a story like this, where you really turn reality upside down, the moon seems like the perfect place, partly because of its secrets and its familiarity, a familiarity that is not complete.
MeinMMO: I really like the combination of all the things you’re talking about, and yes, also the story of the game and the main character. In the press release, the term “space opera” was mentioned. How did you implement that in the dialogues and the story, because when I think – Yes, I think the biggest space operas people always talk about are Star Wars and Star Trek – But when I think of Japanese films and TV shows, they are often melodramas that are very serious but also very, very strange. How do you combine all these elements in the story, the dialogues, and the characters?
Leszek Szczepanski: So first of all, we try to describe Sol Shogunate as a “Samurai Space Opera.” We deliberately chose these three terms because it is a game about samurai. It’s a game about space and an epic story in space, but it’s also an opera focused on music. That’s our perspective. But back to your question about this space opera in the classical sense.
I want to be honest: I am a big fan of Gundam. I really love this whole idea of melodrama and space with epic space battles. And we are definitely inspired by Japanese narratives when it comes to these larger-than-life situations with drama, but also stoicism. And so we try to incorporate some of that. We put a strong emphasis on having a perfect narrative, so the RPG aspect is also very Japanese influenced. This means there won’t be big dialogue trees and quests where you can fail. And secondly, while you could do something different, like in Mass Effect, we are not going that way, but rather want to tell a very interesting story with epic proportions that also has a very personal significance for Yuzuki. We cannot really reveal more about the story at the moment, but let’s just say it’s an epic melodrama, as you mentioned. […]
Guy Costantini: I think the only thing I can add to that is that she, both literally and figuratively, is the broken heir. One of the reasons we depicted Kintsugi as part of her surrounding skin is the symbolism behind it. It’s the idea that you become stronger by breaking something and then rebuilding it in the right way, and that inspired us in telling the growth journey of our characters.
Understanding that the place they started isn’t where they will end up, and that there are many different things they will learn about themselves, and we think these are really fascinating places to drive the story forward because I believe that people can really identify with that. When you embark on an epic journey to question your normal life, things happen. And in the end, you think: I can’t even remember who I was before, right? And that’s exactly what we want to convey to people when they finish playing SOL Shogunate.
I think nowadays small teams can achieve a lot
MeinMMO: Guy, you’ve worked on many major franchises, including League of Legends and Marvel, and Witcher 3. How big is the challenge, but also the opportunity to work on a completely new IP?
Guy Costantini: I love that you highlight this. Working on truly large products, you can learn a lot. And you can also learn a lot when you’re working on things that no one ever mentions because they simply didn’t work. And I think I’ve reached a point in my career where I truly love original stories and original universes. I believe historically there are many of them that are the hardest to create, hardest to finance, and hardest to publish. But they are what our medium is [and] I believe one of the medium where people have shown the greatest interest in the new.
And this is why I said I grew up with games. They were a big part of my life. They allowed me to travel the world. They helped me to really understand how to deal with technology. I built my own machines so I could play video games that required upgrades as I got older, which probably tells you a lot. And this is what I want to focus on: I want to give something back by developing something that, in my opinion, is very hard to realize but is a lot of fun. And of course, it’s great if you can do that well. But it’s really a difficult path. And I think we need more people to take that challenging path and say: Let’s create something new. Let’s create new worlds. Let’s enable people to have experiences, even if they’re scary and dangerous. And then, hopefully, one day we belong to the great companies I was lucky enough to work with a group of people for. I believe that nowadays small teams can achieve a lot. There are many really interesting new ways to build a company. We are inspired by all the lessons we learned post-COVID.
I believe that a large part of the industry works against what we’re doing. Everyone wants to bring people back to the office, make them work at a certain place, and enforce controls. We want people to be free and want to work on things. This is why our team is extremely flexible and comes from all over the world. This way, we can act very quickly and find great people, no matter where they are located. We test them very quickly. We work with them if it goes well, but we have no intention of sending them halfway across the world and ruining their lives while they pursue their creative dreams. That is really important to us. So, I thought this is the kind of company I want to work for. I’ve learned a lot along my way. I’ve learned what to do. I’ve learned what not to do, and I hope I don’t mess it up. This is what I’m trying to do.
MeinMMO: Leszek, you’ve also worked on very different games like Killzone, Horizon, and Sonic. What’s the coolest part about being Game Director for a highly action-oriented action RPG?
Leszek Szczepanski: Oh, that’s an interesting question. Please give me a moment to gather my thoughts. So. There are several things about a project like this that are really great. First, you work with some very talented and creative people. As Game Director, my main goal is to harness the creativity of all team members and guide it in the right direction. So, it’s incredibly rewarding to work with people who have enormous talent and allow them to create something amazing together. The beauty of action games is that they bring their own challenges, right? They need to be responsive; they need to, how should I put it, be fluid. This is not a turn-based strategy game. The nice thing about that is you can create something very visceral. When you develop something like this, you create a prototype, give it to a player, and know within about 10 seconds whether it works or not because you can see the eyes widen and you know that the player thinks: “What the hell…?”. And during the creative process, there are sometimes successes and sometimes failures, and sometimes when you test an idea and it doesn’t work, that’s just bad luck. Then you just move on to the next one.
But when you hit something and immediately feel a resonance with the player who is testing the game, that’s probably one of those amazing things. A person can experience this when creating a game. I think it’s a combination of both things. On the one hand, the ability to create something beautiful that evokes strong emotions in people, strong feelings that convey something valuable to them, and on the other hand, the ability to work with a team that is incredibly talented and incredibly, incredibly creative.
MeinMMO: You both talked about the team and the development. Can you tell us how long the game has been in development? Yes, and what stage it is currently in?
Guy Costantini: We are in the pre-production phase. So we are still at the very beginning, but we have already invested at least two years of work. We founded the company in January 2024. And we were fortunate that we knew quite precisely what we wanted, so we just made sure to get to the fun quickly. We believe that you have to let it bake. If you want to make something, bake a cake, you need to give it time to be good.
We can’t say when the game will be released yet, but we’re finally at a point where we can say: Let’s see how the world reacts to it and what they think. We are in a really great phase where we are putting the finishing touches on pre-production so that we can continue building the various parts of production. So we’ve figured out what’s fun, we’ve figured out what different components belong to gameplay, and we have examples to show a few lucky people to receive preliminary feedback. So our approach is to ensure that you can continuously test because it’s something like in combat where you have to make sure people continue to find the fun. My personally favorite and least favorite experiences are when all the features I love get cut. I know that’s important because you have to trim if you want to create something good.
I compare game development more to sculpting than to painting. You have to carve something out to achieve your goal, but it’s still hard to stomach when you see something you really enjoy interacting with [get] cut because it just doesn’t make sense anymore. So it’s definitely going to be a journey of learning. The team and how we’ve worked with it, where we are big fans of this idea that the team flexibly responds to the needs of production. We’ve built it with a very strong core group of people and then with what I call satellites of collaborators. And the reason I like to talk about this is that I’m generally a big fan of recognizing everyone involved for their work. Even if they only did a single voice recording, and that was years ago, I believe they should be acknowledged because all these various parts come together to make a whole. I think at the end there will be a long credits list. But that’s why I think you should do that. So that´s what I have to say about it.
Favorite J-Rock Bands
MeinMMO: My last question for Leszek, a bit off-topic: I read that you are a big J-Rock fan. I also always listen to J-Rock at home. Do you have maybe three favorite songs you keep coming back to?
Leszek Szczepanski: Oh God, songs.
MeinMMO: Bands are okay!
Leszek Szczepanski: Bands are better. And the band I return to most is called DOLL$BOXX. If you’ve ever heard of Gacharic Spin, you’ll know DOLL$BOXX, so that’s one. The other would be, oh God, I just had a total blackout. Tears of Tragedy. […] they are just phenomenal. And of course, I wouldn’t want to leave out Babymetal. I still have the VIP ticket from a few years ago from the concert here in Amsterdam. So yes, I think those would really be my top bands.
MeinMMO: I’ll check that out. Last year, I attended a Babymetal concert myself, so that works out well. Thank you both for the opportunity and the interview. I look forward to playing it. […] And I also like Soulslikes, but I’m very glad it’s not another Soulslike.
Guy Costantini: I’m a big fan of Hidetaka Miyazaki. I think he does a really good job and brings out enough content. And then there are a few other good names in this field. I really enjoy playing their games.
MeinMMO: Thank you very much.
It will probably take a while until SOL Shogunate is released, but action fans should keep an eye on the title. Another action RPG was able to impress with a trailer reminiscent of a popular animated series: Upcoming action RPG for the PS5 reminiscent of the Avatar of Elements: “So, they made Zuko the Avatar, cool”
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