Legendary game designer Hideo Kojima reflects on the time he spent after the Konami incident, and how Death Stranding came to be. In a recent interview with French reporter Julien Chièze, Kojima opens up on the process that he had begun during the development of Death Stranding. Originally, Kojima mentioned that because he is now an independent studio, that they should have focused on more smaller and faster to produced titles. Luckily, his meeting with film director Guillermo Del Toro changed that.
“Continue making AAA games in an open, stunning world, that’s what people look for in a Hideo Kojima game!” Said Del Toro. Kojima continued, “So then i started following my instincts, the hardest part was game design since it is something that has never been done before. I also know my fans are expecting a great story, if this game does not do well, DS will have failed to show you what I want you to see”
Like many of us out there, we were rather surprised when Death Stranding got announced, as it had only been a short time since Kojima had left Konami with Kojima Productions. Kojima himself compares Death Stranding to having a baby as the whole process has been both a mix of suffering and a joy of life during the interview and then gave some insight behind that.
“Very overwhelming, in 2016 we were a handful of people in a tiny office and in June of the same year we started game design, casting without even knowing the whole game. It’s like a marathon where the middle is the hardest part. The start is easy everyone is full of energy, then in the middle you cannot see the end and it feels like there is no end and it’s a terribly draining. But honestly, the closer we get to the end the more we see that arrival which gives us extra strength…. I had MANY ideas and concepts, but to be honest DS was NOT the first idea, it was literally the last. There was ANOTHER game that I had to abandon and I will probably never come back to it. So that is how DS was born.”
In other Death Stranding news, Kojima says the game’s multiplayer aims to connect millions of players at launch, and compares it to the Spider-Verse. The game will be playable in first-person view according to Kojima as well.
Translation of the interview provided by Reddit in two parts: Reddit 1, Reddit 2
I genuinely feel bad for anybody that has to work with that unbearable diva named Kojima. Can you imagine how terrible the work environment must be with him as the boss? There’s a reason Konami fired his @$$, he is not a tolerable person, just the worst to work with. He acts like an entitled little girl, I’m shocked Konami put up with him for as long as they did. I would have fired his @$$ YEARS before Konami did, but I guess Konami is much more tolerant with terrible people than I am.