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In a Gamescom interview with YouTuber Julian Chièze, Hideo Kojima divulged the trials and tribulations of Death Stranding’s development journey now that the end is in sight.
Translated from French by Reddit user xxxjohnnygxxx, Kojima stated that the creation of Death Stranding came at the sacrifice of other projects in the pipeline. ‘To begin with, I had many ideas and concepts, but to be honest Death Stranding was not the first idea, it was literally the last,’ he told Chièze. ‘There was another game that I had to abandon and I will probably never come back to it. So that is how Death Stranding was born.’
The Metal Gear creator also admitted that development for Death Stranding hasn’t always been smooth sailing, as is to be expected with any video game. ‘In 2016 we were a handful of people in a tiny office, and in June of the same year we started game design, casting without even knowing the whole game,’ Kojima said. ‘It’s like a marathon, where the middle is the hardest part. The start is easy, everyone is full of energy, then in the middle you cannot see the end, and it feels like there is no end, and it’s a terribly draining. But honestly, the closer we get to the end, the more we see that arrival, which gives us extra strength.’
Death Stranding will release in a few months time, and Kojima had previously stated that Kojima Productions is embedded in the ‘crunch’ stage of development. ‘It makes me think of rockets before countdown but it’s a good kind of stress,’ he added in the interview. At Gamescom, a new look at Death Stranding premiered, showing the characters of Mama and Deadman, along with the strange urination mechanic that promises an exciting reward if multiple players wee on the same spot. The multiplayer aspect of the game is something that is still shrouded in mystery.
Kojima said that the social strand system central to Death Stranding’s themes and gameplay connects players to each other in the world. ‘It’s like Miles Morales in the Spider-verse,’ he cryptically revealed. ‘Miles thinks he is the only Spider-Man, then different characters from different alternate dimensions also become Spider-Man and meet up, all of a sudden Miles is not alone! Of course Death Stranding will be different but it's a clue towards what the game is about.’
Death Stranding is scheduled to launch on PlayStation 4 on November 8, and will release onto PC some time later.
