Of Motivations and Creations: Why We All Want To Be Hideo Kojima

by Joshua Diokno   

maxresdefaultWhen asked about the recent Metal Gear offering, (yeah the one riding the hard-to-understand explosion of Zombies in pop culture) Hideo Kojima – The Kojima, was quick to deny involvement, saying directly, and rather quickly that he has nothing to do with it.

And we believe him. We really do. Why? Because Metal Gear and Zombies just don’t fit in one sentence. Well, in this case it does, but. . .you get the point. It just doesn’t make sense.

But what makes sense, apart from Kojima finally leaving Konami, (their loss, not his) is him taking his sweet time in releasing “Death Stranding”. Yes, despite its 2016 announcement, the game is still years away from reaching game shelves, much to the chagrin of the Kojima cult. It has been reported that the game design, story, and characters are still in the conceptualization stage. So what do we know so far?

Apart from knowing that Kojima is a genius who likes teasing his fans with crumbs of details, making him the ultimate mystery man of the gaming industry, names like Mads Mikkelsen have been dropped all over. Selfies at San Diego Comic-Con too! Selfies with Mads Mikkelsen. Let that sink in.

And oooh, have you seen the teaser tralier? Yup, anyone can recognize Norman Reedus’ face faster than anyone can say “Walking Dead”.

While these names are enough to get any pop culture nut palpitate, fantasy genre favorite Guillermo del Torro, declared collaborator, joins the team to sweeten the pot.

konami-g2e-2011-0-0Since Hideo Kojima’s departure from Konami, Sony was quick to make known that it had partnered with Kojima Productions. Raising the stakes higher, Sony had announced that it would not only publish Kojima Productions’ next game but would fund it entirely. The game would thus be published exclusively for PlayStation 4.

But of course, Kojima is not one to burn bridges. He’s better than that. Thus it had come as no surprise that Long-time art director and collaborator, Yoji Shinkawa had joined the project. Shinkawa, as most game developer aficinados know, is the designer of Metal Gear’s most memorable characters and mechs. Thus cementing the genius that awaits us.

death-stranding-game-has-already-begun-kojima-productions-jpg-optimalKojima knows that producing the game, announcing it early on, and trying to be really careful with reveals and teases, is no joke. Kojima admits that a lot goes into the creative process.

In a reported statement, he had said that it is his passion that he sees as the reward for all the work he puts into production.

Kojima knows it to be hard and he confesses to getting inspiration from various stimuli. Loving what he does is not something contrived for him, but rather, something that he has to do so he does not give up on his projects.

Maybe we can learn a thing or two from Kojima. Hell, WE SHOULD. And while we are all anticipating what “Death Stranding” has in store for us, let us take in his nuggets of wisdom and hope that one day, somehow, we’d get that unwavering Kojima charm.



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