Hideo Kojima talks about Game Making, Inspirations, and His Greatest Masterpiece
Game creator Hideo Kojima recently participated in a Q&A session defining his thinking process, his approach to game development, and his inspirations that motivated him in this endeavor.
On What You Need for a Good Game
In terms of what makes a good game, Kojima mentioned that the first thing that does is have the creator's love poured into the creation. Beyond that, he cited interactivity: there should be an example where a player discovers that he or she can use the item for more purposes than its original use. When a game pulls a player's curiosity into anticipating solving those problems in fine detail, it builds freedom with discovery, he commented. Good games, in their opinion, are full of "gimmicks" and emergent possibilities of this kind.
Making Replayable Games
To the question of how one should make a game that invites players to come back to it even after completion, Kojima responded, saying: "The world, the presence or feeling of being in it; that's what brings you back, not necessarily the story." "The important thing is whether you want to go back to that world again," he explained further. According to him, the success of any game depends on whether it tempts a player returning home after a tough day at school or work into its special environment—a space recreating the other and doing things that his normal life cannot provide-a very personal space.
The Final Year of Adjustments
His games do all get playtested by Kojima from top to bottom multiple times in the last year of development. During this critical time, he tweaks everything from the viewpoint of a player. That includes the feel of control like graphics character models animation sound effects and music. The balance in a game is checked all thoroughly with the preferable rhythm of the story and even volume levels so that the whole is well-rounded. The last kind will be performed in this phase, which will include fine-tuning for the whole game experience.
His 'Greatest Masterpiece' and the Origin of Death Stranding
Direct reply for the query of greatest masterpiece for Kojima would be, "My latest creation happens to be my greatest masterpiece. Thus, that would be Death Stranding 2."
He also clarified how the initial design of the first Death Stranding originated: the very first conceptualization was a phenomenon itself: a world where the dead come back to life and upon touching a living person, create huge explosions. This idea catapulted into a world of isolated people-the gameplay concept of delivery then thought about how it would allow the player, Sam, to link up with those disconnected communities. The theme, plot, or even game design is almost done in conjunction with Kojima.
Inspirations and Future Projects
- Future Genres Kojima would very much like to create new genres entirely and would rather not dabble in the existing ones. He's quite personally into hard sci-fi set in space and Westerns.
- Most Influential Game He credits Super Mario Bros. as the game that had the biggest impact on him, stating, "If it weren't for Super Mario, I probably wouldn't have entered the game industry." He was captivated by the sense of adventure and realized the medium had the potential to surpass film.
- The Most Influential Film Directors By Kubrick, Kurosawa, and Hitchcock, he identifies the basic "teachers." Besides this, the earlier impact in his early teens was George Miller, John Carpenter, Dario Argento and Martin Scorsese.
About MGS2 Predicting the Digital Age
Kojima has clarified the area that Metal Gear Solid 2 wasn't relating to Artificial Intelligence but on really digital society emerging. Following the DNA that was spun on MGS1, MGS2 talked about "memes": that is, ideas and culture which are not passed down from genetics. He considered a world in which everything digital could be kept in its purity without degradation and people could directly and instantly change opinions. That game was the vision of a future that he "didn't want to see happen" but that unfortunately reality has turned in that way, he graciously added.
The Bright Future of Games Beyond the Screen
Kojima feels that the greatest revolution in video gaming and entertainment will be the loss of the "screen" or "frame." Even those factors include VR and AR, which obliterate that frame and create an experience unknown to anyone. Methods of expression, according to him, are going to change with this very act and enter into a whole new era for art and entertainment.
