During the PlayStation Live coverage from E3 2018 in Los Angeles, Sony Interactive Entertainment hosted a conversation with Death Stranding Director Hideo Kojima and Guerilla Games Managing Director Hermen Hulst.
Below you can check out a summary of what was shared.
- Kojima-san mentioned that with the new trailer he wanted to show some gameplay and provide some answers while introducing two heroines.
- Normally heroes are elites and special people. Sam is a blue collar, but he saves the world through his physicality and mental prowess.
- Hulst mentioned that both his team and Kojima Productions are super detail-oriented, yet their games look so different while using the same engine, and that’s amazing.
- Kojima-san wasn’t sure whether Léa Seydoux and Lindsay Wagner would agree to work with him. It’s a fantastic honor for him that they agreed. They’re fantastic actresses and even more so fantastic human beings that have contributed a lot to the project. It’s an honor to work with them. The same goes for Mads Mikkelsen and Norman Reedus. Kojima-san feels that they’re developing the game together with him.
- Hulst is very curious to see how Kojima Production will use the cinematic pipeline of the Decima Engine. He thinks they’ll drive forward what Guerrilla can do with it as well.
- Kojima-san revealed that there is a game mechanic related to Norman Reedus’ character keeping his balance.
- Silent Poets were friends of a friend of Kojima. When he received their latest album and played the first song, he immediately envisioned an image of Sam walking in the world. You could say that the trailer was a result of that music and of the Decima Engine.
- Norman Reedus’ body scan was done a while ago. Kojima-san wants to recreate his tattoos as best as possible. During a recent performance capture session Reedus mentioned his new tattoo, so Kojima-san decided to include it. People ended up focusing more on the tattoo that on the photo that was supposed to make a strong impression.
- During Sony’s press conference at E3 2018, Kojima-san was impressed by The Last of Us Part II, while Hulst was impressed by Ghost of Tsushima.
- Kojima-san is trying to create new gaming elements and new ways to play games. Of course, players will be able to play games in the standard way they normally play games, but he’s still attempting to create something new.
- In January 2016 he had nothing, but when Mark Cerny took him on a tech tour Guerrilla gave him their whole engine: that’s something unthinkable, and he’s extremely grateful for that. Nothing of this would be possible without Decima Engine. Around the same time, he also asked Norman Reedus to work with him, and he said ok as well. One of the themes of Death Stranding is “ropes,” and Kojima-san feels that he is creating the game thanks to these connections.
If you want to see more about Death Stranding, you can enjoy some great screenshots from yesterday morning and the gameplay trailer from two days ago. We can also watch the previous video presented at The Game Awards in 2017, the amazing key art shared by Hideo Kojima himself, some tech work done on the engine, the first trailer that introduced the game to the world, and the second trailer from 2016.
At the moment the game is coming for PS4. No other platforms have been announced.