Hideo Kojima has earned quite the reputation in his decades-long career, being the face behind the Metal Gear Solid games and most recently Death Stranding. For as long as he’s been around, Kojima has also included striking, strange elements in his games, like flaming whales and pee mechanics. One of Kojima’s newest ideas sounds intriguing for entirely different reasons, though those reasons are particularly ambitious.
In an interview with the Japanese magazine Anan, spotted by SiliconEra, Hideo Kojima is looking to make a game that “changes in real-time.” As an example of what he means, Kojima stated that the type of game he wants to make could change based on where someone lives and their unique perspective. That’s still a bit vague, but looking back at Kojima’s past work is a good way to unpack what he means.
For example, Death Stranding is about connecting people that was released on the precipice of a global pandemic, during a time where countries were more focused on building up walls than tearing them down. While Kojima’s concepts tend to get pretty alien, it’s not difficult to see the ways that he could run with a game that changes based on a player's location and perspective, though it’s difficult to say if those would be simple factors or something like one's economic status.
Kojima provided a more direct example of his “evolving games” experience in the interview, too. Specifically, Kojima cited Boktai, a Game Boy Advance game developed by Kojima and published by Konami back in 2003. Boktai used the Game Boy’s light sensor as a means for players to kill vampires, which would in turn encourage players to play the game in the sun during certain sections.
It was an ingenious feature for the time, but technology has advanced quite a lot since then. Kojima could easily work out ways to use some of modern gaming hardware’s newest features. For instance, if Kojima were to make another PlayStation console exclusive, the PS5 DualSense’s built-in microphone and adaptive triggers could easily factor into experimental game mechanics.
Kojima is rumored to be working on a number of new projects right now, though nothing has been confirmed quite yet. It’s possible that his next project will be something as simple as Death Stranding 2, though it’s difficult to say. A game that evolves in real-time certainly sounds intriguing, though.
Source: Aman (via SiliconEra)