Hideo Kojima likened the development of Death Stranding using Guerrilla’s Decima Engine to the Space Race during the Cold War in a series of recent tweets. The collaboration with the creators of Horizon Zero Dawn, in Kojima’s words, “enables us to go to the Mars but even to the Jupiter.”
Metaphorically speaking, at least.
While the logic behind game designer’s comments is somewhat abstract, what the creator of Metal Gear seems to be saying is that Kojima Productions’ new relationship with Guerrilla Games is allowing both studio to accomplish exponentially more than either would have been able to alone.
1/4
The space development competition has been stagnated after the Cold War. Due to the steep rise in price of space development cost, pic.twitter.com/m1r9axh1ZS— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) December 10, 2016
2/4
the investment for the earth has been strengthened and they gave up on the space shuttle program. pic.twitter.com/nhu9WBlD1f— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) December 10, 2016
3/4
Meanwhile I who wants to proceed myself to the moon, met the guerrilla whose plan was to go to the mars. pic.twitter.com/HXBgJfB3CE— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) December 10, 2016
4/4
We decided to make the rocket by reforming their engine. And by doing so it enables us to go to the mars but even to the jupiter. pic.twitter.com/E5x8FHlVQD— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) December 10, 2016
The comments come after an revealed at last weekend’s PSX, and how it came to be.
“We believe their engine will help make a better game, and a better future for our industry,” said Kojima. “Their engine is well suited to the tools and systems of an open-world game. This was a very important aspect for us.”
He continued, “From there, we could choose our own direction for the game,” adding that the new trailer was the result of trying to see if the new engine could be adapted to the goals of Death Stranding.
For his part, Cerny explained that the relationship goes beyond simply sharing Guerrilla Games’ Decima Engine. “It’s a full blown collaboration,” said Cerny. “They are using a merged code base, it’s the same code.”
1/3
Back in January I traveled the studios around the world with @cerny. This pic is one of “the journey of searching for the technology”. pic.twitter.com/H69t2VWvTd— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) December 11, 2016
2/3
Funny enough though I had no fear for the unseen goal but had excitement & hope. It’s been a year soon since then and pic.twitter.com/uLH6xFEVIs— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) December 11, 2016
3/3
I was right that the perspective wasn’t wrong. It was the beginning of bonding everything again. pic.twitter.com/YSwkXy72qQ— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) December 11, 2016
But while Kojima might have been surprised by the number of polygons in Aloy’s hair, he also had one major fear about working with the tools that had given life Guerrilla’s game.
“Although I really liked their engine and their devotion toward their games, there was one thing i was worried about,” he said. “What if we ended up making a game that looks to similar to Horizon?”
However, the game’s most recent trailer, which runs in real-time on the PS4 Pro, helped convince Kojima that Death Stranding and Horizon could both remain unique despite their shared origins. Instead, Kojima and Hulst believe both games will be better as a result, and that there will be a longer term payoff to the collaboration.
In effect, if Death Stranding is ever able to get to Jupiter as Kojima hopes, it may well help Guerrilla’s next game get out of the solar system entirely, whatever that means in actual game development terms.
Comments
3 responses to “Kojima Calls Guerrilla’s Decima Engine A ‘Rocket’ That Can Take Death Stranding To Jupiter”
The Cult of Kojima has never been my cup of tea, but I hope his future games go some way into inspiring others what’s possible with the medium.
For all intents and purposes, Death Stranding may as well have already been reviewed and scored at this point, it’s going to be what he does after this honeymoon period.
The problem others will have is that Kojima has weight whereas they wont. He can and could go anywhere and publishers would throw money at him due to the eventual business his name would attract. He can do what he wants now and take his time because he will deliver and he has the worth ethic to follow through. He’s not a one trick pony. Some his games may not be as good as others but overall they’ve been quality titles with polish.
Others entering the industry, trying to emulate him or being inspired by him will being able to have their own ideas but they are going to be hamstrung by the lack of money and resources.
This gets me really excited. After seeing what the Decima engine is capable of, and given Kojima now has full control of his projects, we could be in for a real treat.