Frogs and Mechs Team up in Sci-Fi Roguelike Shoulders of Giants – Coming to Xbox

I’m sure you’ve all heard the myths and legends of the age-old rivalry between frogs and mechs. However, we’ve long held the suspicion that these stories are nothing but spurious hearsay, and that, given a chance, amphibians and robots might just make the best teammates. So naturally, we set out to make a game to prove it! That game is called Shoulders of Giants, a piggybackin’ sci-fi roguelike in which players simultaneously control a sword-wielding robot and a gunslinging space frog, working in tandem to save the galaxy!

Today we can finally reveal that Shoulders of Giants is coming to Xbox (new announcement trailer above!) and tell you a bit more about the roguelike gameplay with a mix of close quarters and ranged combat, all the crazy fun weapons we are working on, and different coop modes (hint: in one of them two players share the controls of one playable character – very stupid, very fun!).

But first things first, the story! The forces of Entropy are spreading chaos through the stars, corrupting living planets and bringing about the heat death of the universe. Led by a psychic Owl, one scrappy team of space survivors are fighting to restore the balance. A mysterious mech! A sharpshooting amphibian! Together they must mow down waves of enemies and restore light and life to the galaxy!

Gameplay-wise, Shoulders of Giants is basically the game we always wanted to play but couldn’t find anywhere else. It’s all about quick bursts of roguelike joy, as you explore, grow, and become gloriously overpowered on a never-ending ride of randomized levels.

Fighting is a thrilling mix of close quarters combat with melee weapons like laser swords and crazy hammers, and ranged combat with pistols, rifles and more. To keep things fresh you constantly find new loot to upgrade your skills and switch up your loadout, and some of the upgrades are pretty wild: Expect grappling hooks, speed bursts, glowing grenades, a futuristic trash van you can summon and ride like a surfboard across your enemies, big magic laser hands that clap your enemies into oblivion, and much more! Each new pickup can radically alter your power and playstyle. Mix and match abilities to create a moveset that’s all your own!

Of course, we couldn’t make a game about best friends on a wild adventure to take down the forces of evil without adding co-op, right? While you can fully play and enjoy Shoulders of Giants solo we decided very early on to include different coop modes in the game. One mode lets you play through with up to four players online. Personally, I think there’s nothing more fun than battling through levels, squabbling over loot and then coming together to tackle massive bosses with some of your buddies!

There’s also another co-op mode that we are super proud of: In  “Best Friend Mode” you team up with a friend, each taking control of either the frog or the robot. So effectively you are both sharing the controls of one player character which should make for the ultimate co-op challenge and some pretty hilarious encounters. In our internal playtests the “Best Friend Mode” regularly gets us cry laughing, but it’s also a true test of friendship in the tougher encounters.

That’s it from us for today! I hope you enjoyed the intro to our game which is coming to Xbox later this Fall. If you want to see more regular updates on how the development of Shoulders of Giants is coming along you can also follow us on Twitter and TikTok.