Many were excited when Kojima came out on Sony’s stage this E3 to announce his new project. Game Informer had an interview with Kojima to discuss his new project and more. A link to this interview will be listed below and consider giving a read.
Source: GameInformer
The newly formed Kojima Productions’ first game, Death Stranding, debuted at Sony’s E3 press conference a few days ago, and teased a concept that no one can quite figure out. Is it science fiction? Horror? Is it about life or death? It’s a mystery that will likely leave us stumped for a while, as Hideo Kojima, the founder of the company and writer and director of the game, revealed in an interview with me earlier today that it’s early in development.
Kojima also talked at length about the inspiration behind Death Stranding and Kojima Productions’ current push to staff up.
One of the most interesting parts of you signing with Sony was watching you travel with Mark Cerny to different Sony development studios. What was the purpose of these visits? Were you getting to know Sony’s culture, or were you perhaps looking at tech that would be available for development?
In December we announced our studio, and announced we were working with Sony for our first title. At that point, I already had a vision in mind, and I had to try to figure out how I would make it. In that regard, I was in search of an engine, and what tools would I use, and what services would be available to make it. The problem with that wasn’t only the technology, but I had to find facilities, and put together a team. I was also studying what kind of environment [Sony] had, and what would be the best one for my team.
How did you and Norman Reedus connect initially and for this project?
I wanted to work with him, and have been a fan of The Walking Dead. Going back to PT, I wanted to work with him on that. I tried to go to him directly. I don’t like going through agencies. In this case, my friend Guillermo del Toro was also close with Norman, so he gave me his contact info and I got in touch with him. We just started work on PT and then he was sad about it [getting canceled] and the difficult circumstances back then, so we kept in touch. I talked to him again in February, and we made the decision to work together again. Toward the end of March we shot what we needed for this [trailer].
PT was being made with Reedus and del Toro. Were you considering reuniting the entire team and bringing del Toro on board?
I’m not working with Guillermo on this project, but we’ve always wanted to do something together. I don’t know if that’s going to be a game or a movie or a television show or a comic book, but we want to work together. With Guillermo, I discussed [Death Stranding] before signing with Sony, and said “I’m thinking of this project and working with Norman again” and he was happy, and thought it was a good idea.
Where are you guys at with Death Stranding? Is it still in the conceptual stage or are you in active development?
We’re weighing our options for the engine. We are down to two candidates. One of the options was used to create this [trailer]. Because it’s a new game, we want to do many tests first. As far as the imagery and the concept of what the world will look like, it’s already settled. In between all of this, I’m trying to make the story and the characters and how it all comes together. We should settle on the engine soon, and at that point we’ll move from tests to full development.