Hideo Kojima talks Death Stranding "hidden features" and making the PC port
"I wanted players to ask themselves whether it's OK"
While we're all wondering what's next for Kojima Productions, its founder has been revisiting some of the essential ideas behind the making of Death Stranding - and then making it again for PC.
Death Stranding PC publisher 505 Games just unveiled a new series of video interviews with Hideo Kojima, and the first part also just so happens to overlap with Death Stranding going on sale for half-off on Steam and the Epic Games Store. In the interview Kojima, talks about one of the questions he wants players to think about even as making deliveries and avoiding B.T.s remains at the forefront of their minds.
Introducing our mini #DeathStrandingPC interviews! We're kicking things off with @HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN, who gives us an insight into developing DEATH STRANDING for PC.Enjoy -50% OFF on Steam and Epic for a limited time!Steam: https://t.co/XIvvHJWYNz Epic: https://t.co/Sg4CPnJ8SZ pic.twitter.com/IHmqLxNEQjMarch 25, 2021
"My other intention was for the beautiful world that Sam traverses to be filled with roads, structures, and so on that had been built by online users," Kojima said. "These users also leave footprints wherever they go. This idea of humans rebuilding a civilization in this wild, beautiful world… That's one of the game's sub-concepts."
"The question of whether that's good or bad is left open. I wanted players to ask themselves, as they proceeded through the game, whether it's OK to sully this beautiful world with civilization. That's one of the game's 'hidden features,' if you like."
Later in the interview, Kojima talked about how proud he is that his team built Death Stranding's PC version itself, which is "is something that's usually outsourced." He left testing Death Stranding's mouse controls to the staff, though, because he's "not really good" at it.
"Also, what might be the most important aspect is that core PC gamers are pretty vocal and opinionated about games, and making something that would satisfy them was very tricky. I'm glad we took on the challenge, though, because it seems people are pleased with the results."
While he's long gone from Konami, Kojima still seemed pleased when Metal Gear Solid 5 PS3 players disarmed their last nuke.
Sign up to the 12DOVE Newsletter
Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more
I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.