Hideo Kojima recently did an interview with Dengeki where he talked about the development progress of Death Stranding. Kojima said that 2016 was spent recruiting staff and deciding on a game engine. He then said that 2017 had several landmark moments. “The staff list is gradually getting completed, but we had interviews occasionally as we continue to level up and polish the team,” said Kojima. “We continued the game production process, from developing and improving engines and tools to game designs and presentations without taking a rest. The fact that everything goes in parallel doesn’t change ever since the company was established.”
Here’s the full exchange from the translated interview:
Dengeki: Please tell us how you looked back at your work and activities in 2017.
Kojima: Kojima Productions was established on December 16, 2015, but this was just registering the company, and there were only 4 members including myself. The next year from January I traveled around the world, beginning to search for technologies starting from game engines, and at the same time, I also started constructing the company organization. Interviewing [people] to gather members, finding an office, designing the institution, and more are all done at the same time in parallel.
Of course, while we’re doing that we also made the game design and scenario for Death Stranding, as well as doing various experiments. In June 2016 we showed the very first teaser at E3, and in December 2016 we released the second teaser. And we also decided to pick DECIMA as the game engine, so we also worked to improve it among others.
We ran through 2016 like that, but 2017 was a year filled with more density than 2016. We moved to the current office, and while creating the game we filled the interior with facilities like a meeting room and kitchen; those were finally finished in January 2017. I renewed my feeling and determination to start Kojima Productions in 2017.
The staff list is gradually getting completed, but we had interviews occasionally as we continue to level up and polish the team. We continued the game production process, from developing and improving engines and tools to game designs and presentations without taking a rest. The fact that everything goes in parallel doesn’t change ever since the company was established.
I also went overseas multiple times, but of course all of those – including getting invited to events like game shows – are related to work. I don’t remember at all [going overseas] just to play or rest. I also wrote recommendation comments for books and movies, made serialized manuscripts (for Rolling Stone and Bunshun Online websites), and had interviews myself. I’m not sure though if reading books and watching movies are considered as a hobby or work for me. However, all of these are being converted to energy for the new game. In that sense, you can say that I dedicated all 365 days in a year to create games.
Death Stranding is being developed for PlayStation 4.
[Source: Dengeki PlayStation magazine]
