'SOL Shogunate' is a samurai space opera set on the moon, but with an aerospace engineer making sure it's 'getting the science right'

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SOL Shogunate was one of the most enticing upcoming space games shown at last December's PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted. Set in an alt-future solar system, it imagines a Moon ruled by the shogunate where samurai families and ruthless clans battle for dominance.

As impressive as its reveal trailer looked, the project — which is targeting a PC and PS5 release at the time of writing — is still far away from its release. As dev diaries begin to drop, we had the chance to sit down for a chat with Chaos Manufacturing CEO and co-founder Guy Costantini, as well as aerospace engineer Taylore McClurg, who's helped shape this surprising sci-fi universe's science alongside the developers.

Some quotes have been editorialized and lightly trimmed for better flow.

"It's been almost three years," Costantini told us when asked how long the studio has been working on the game, which was still in pre-production when the in-game reveal trailer was recorded and edited.

McClurg was also part of the project almost from the get-go, as she was close to Nate Eckman's (co-founder) wife: "It was just serendipitous. We were looking for someone that could help make our sci-fi more science than fiction. Whenever we have enough questions to warrant it, we have a nice get-together with the game team and Taylore."

Costantini, Eckman, and most of the studio are no strangers to large-scale development, having worked for companies like CD Projekt Red, Skydance Interactive, PlayStation, and more. But the co-founder added that McClurg has actually ended up "inspiring a lot of the technology in this kind of alternative future world."

"This is my first time consulting on a game, so this is new territory for me," McClurg said before confirming that she's still not done "providing some science and physics consulting" as the game evolves and runs towards the finish line. Things have changed, however, as the early days were more about "some bigger concepts and some guardrails around the boundary concepts." Now, it's time to refine those ideas and the science that holds everything together... without disrupting too much what's ultimately a hack-and-slash action-adventure game.

"The way we think about world-building is beyond just one game," Costantini revealed. "We try to lay the foundation for the rules of this world." While 'samurai in space' seems like an outlandish pitch (*cough* Star Wars), the team has tried to avoid becoming too fantastical and magical: "We wanted to make sure that when you drill into why things are the way they are, there's a solid explanation... We will assume progression on some technologies, but it's always starting from a place of 'this is what people are thinking today' or 20 to 30 years ago."

When asked about specifics, Costantini brought up bone density loss when not being in a simulated gravity environment: "Taylore told us you can kind of overcome that having a certain amount of exercises, so that helped inform our world-building. It's something that's a feature of privilege... so life becomes harder for people that don't have it." It's the sort of science-guided creative approach that's enriched SOL Shogunate's universe and the studio's take on how its societies develop off-world.

Space elevators are also part of SOL Shogunate's lunar future, and McClurg explained how those could work: "A port that is orbiting around the Moon and is accessible via space elevator is part of the future we're able to achieve. So we're leaning on the fact that future technologies and strength of materials have advanced to a point where we can enable a space elevator where there's lower gravity and no atmosphere to contend."

Costantini added that if we think about the Moon, "it's kind of the gateway to our solar system." From a creative perspective, it's the perfect 'center of operations' for a space society born on Earth: "It holds a very large position of power to transportation across the solar system... And if we're going to build things on the Moon, we're going to build them mostly out of Moon. So there's a lot of material processing that happens there, and this also creates a lot of power in some of the clans." (Capcom's Pragmata has recently explored some of these ideas, too.)

At this point, we were given a first taste of the game's factions and their dynamics: "The Tennoji are in charge of transportation in the solar system. They're powerful and are in slight conflict with a clan called the Karasuma, who are in charge of mining and material processing. Sort of like frenemies, right?" The ruling shogunate cast is overall this "foundational piece of humanity existing in a multi-planetary capacity", but it's a complex picture once we start exploring the different groups and families.

Of course, we'll be doing a lot of swordfighting and stunning traversal in the game. To create something that was both fun and somewhat believable in the setting, McClurg said they've been looking "at the feasibility of each layer of that use of gravity" and all the "pros and cons" of a lower gravity and "the ways you can use it to your advantage and disadvantage". This informs not just the moment-to-moment gameplay and design of the world and narrative, but also the levels themselves.

Still, for combat, Chaos Manufacturing isn't "trying to make a simulation," Costantini underlined. In that case, "it would probably be more of a puzzle game." He described it as combat-heavy and story-heavy, which is why the studio had to "optimize for fun."

Instead, the game tackles the hard constraints of science as opportunities to "breed innovation" and try new stuff. A good example is the relative lack of guns in favour of melee-based combat.

"There's a good reason to not use kinetic weaponry on the Moon," notes Costantini. "The society in charge would probably choose to outlaw them. That helps us in our fantasy conceit that the right way of solving conflict is through the use of more traditional fighting styles. It also creates a bit of a surreal scenario, which is what we want to go for. A surreal place that feels grounded is a great juxtaposition."

Talking about surreal visuals, the robotic horse is a standout moment in the first look at SOL Shogunate. Costantini pointed out that it came from the idea "the people in charge use the technology available to deliver the fantasy they want... Just how the United States copied the architectural layout of Rome because they idolized that moment in time." Commoners don't have access to such luxuries, but meanwhile, the people in charge "have bioceramic skin that allows them to be exposed to radiation and differences in temperature" and get to ride robotic horses, "slowly trotting along the dunes to oversee their property."

"The one-sixth gravity of the Moon allows for a lot of mechanisms and spring-driven mechanisms to work more efficiently than they could work on Earth... It's not far out of a stretch of my imagination. Seeing something more elegant be achieved in the future and even without a propulsive gravity assist system... it feels pretty achievable to me," added McClurg.

Circling back to ballistic weapons, Costantini wasn't ready to divulge many details yet, but "whenever there are laws, there are those who abide by them and those who break them, and there are those who put them in place so that they could do what they want. I think you're gonna see a combination of that."

Further teases of what SOL Shogunate will offer included a mention that Yuzuki, the protagonist, will be able to "manipulate gravity better than her opponents" with tools that are "an evolution of what astronauts use."

The explanation is simple: the game's aforementioned societal structure establishes that not everyone gets to have the same degree of control over their gravitational environment. "We get to have a little bit of social commentary on what happens when providing people with control over gravity becomes a very expensive endeavor... Only the few can manipulate this."

On the matter of space travel, Costantini confirmed it's "hard" in SOL Shogunate's solar system, but teased "we're definitely showcasing the world in more than just one planet" with this "first game" (it really sounds like the intention is to make more if it's a success). The distance between planets and isolation also allows the people in charge to spread misinformation and propaganda. "How are the problems that we have today going to be reflected in a place where it's a lot harder to get around?"

McClurg cited ongoing conversations while building out the world, just deal with the problems of today and how that "would propagate into the future." Communications and logistics would be especially tricky unless there's some universe-shaking science advancement, and Chaos Manufacturing is working with those limitations.

At the end of the interview, which happened in late March 2026, Costantini confirmed the game was nearing the end of pre-production, with the production targeting "definitely more than a year, maybe two years." In any case — and as confirmed by the recent dev diary — the studio "will continue to show more of it as it gets built."

Before ending our conversation, McClurg made sure to highlight that her experience with the team has been overwhelmingly positive. "Everyone has been so enthusiastic about the science and have come forward with such incredible, interesting questions that I know everyone really cares about getting the science right and grounding this."

Costantini answered by saying a driving force during development has been "working with people who really know what they're talking about" every time a question external to the game design and narrative came up. So far, we think those efforts are paying off and making SOL Shogunate feel special.

SOL Shogunate will launch on PC (Steam) and (at least) PS5 when it's ready. At the time of writing, its tentative release window is 2027.