Author Topic: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation  (Read 7400 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.



http://www.kojimaproductions.jp/sp/

These two were in talks like, the second that his contract was up. Couldn't let him get away
« Last Edit: December 16, 2015, 01:45:10 AM by The Legend of Sunblade »

Trent Dole

  • the sharpest tool in the shed
  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #1 on: December 16, 2015, 01:47:18 AM »
Sony seems very focused on games this gen, that and nippon pride make the Kojima partnership happening an obvious occurrence. Hope he does something cool that he really wants to do and not just some metal gear retread.
Hi

mormapope

  • WHADDYA HEAR, WHADDYA SAY
  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #2 on: December 16, 2015, 01:48:12 AM »
Finally, a Kojima game that isn't Metal Gear
 :rejoice

He looks a lot cooler with a beard as well.
OH!

mormapope

  • WHADDYA HEAR, WHADDYA SAY
  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #3 on: December 16, 2015, 01:50:42 AM »
Sony seems very focused on games this gen, that and nippon pride make the Kojima partnership happening an obvious occurrence. Hope he does something cool that he really wants to do and not just some metal gear retread.

Its been evident that he was always stuck with Metal Gear at Konami for a lot of reasons. When he finally was put in charge of a new, non Metal Gear project (Silent Hills), that shit got cancelled and he was thrown back into the Metal Gear dungeon.

EDIT: Logo for his production company:




Website: http://www.kojimaproductions.jp/
« Last Edit: December 16, 2015, 01:55:11 AM by mormapope »
OH!

Mods Help

  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #4 on: December 16, 2015, 02:00:12 AM »
Are Nomura, Kitase, Horii, and Nintendo gang the last assortment of major Japanese game  developers that haven't gone indie?

mormapope

  • WHADDYA HEAR, WHADDYA SAY
  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #5 on: December 16, 2015, 02:07:46 AM »
Some previous Kojima Productions staff is joining his new studio. More than just this dude, but this dude is confirmed.

https://twitter.com/Ken1555
http://metalgear.wikia.com/wiki/Kenichiro_Imaizumi

EDIT: Some weird shit from Kojima himself, on the site:

OH!

brob

  • 8 diagram pole rider
  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #6 on: December 16, 2015, 02:12:36 AM »
homo ludens lmao

Mods Help

  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #7 on: December 16, 2015, 02:15:26 AM »
Given the genre now has market viability I would love to see his take on a Snatcher/Policenauts esque adventure game.

mormapope

  • WHADDYA HEAR, WHADDYA SAY
  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #8 on: December 16, 2015, 02:15:45 AM »
The logo is cool.

I'm glad we get to see what he can do outside of Metal Gear. His last non-MGS game was Zone Of The Enders 2, wasn't it?

I think that's his last directed game besides MGS. He was a designer and producer for the first Boktai game. He was a producer on the sequels.
OH!

brob

  • 8 diagram pole rider
  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #9 on: December 16, 2015, 02:19:04 AM »
Shuyo Murata directed zoe2

mormapope

  • WHADDYA HEAR, WHADDYA SAY
  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #10 on: December 16, 2015, 02:22:45 AM »
Damn.  :-\

Also, this was probably an accident, but this part of the logo looks like a chicken or bird:
OH!

Rahxephon91

  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #11 on: December 16, 2015, 02:46:20 AM »
Good to see him with Playstation.

Mods Help

  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #12 on: December 16, 2015, 02:48:39 AM »
I've been wanting a return to Snatcher for a long time now. A spiritual successor to that is something I'm most definitely down for.

Play policenauts

Cerveza mas fina

  • I don't care for Islam tbqh
  • filler
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #13 on: December 16, 2015, 03:22:27 AM »
Id love to play Snatcher one day

VomKriege

  • Do the moron
  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #14 on: December 16, 2015, 04:15:37 AM »
That manifesto  :piss2

But good for him otherwise. Curious to see what this studio will do.
ὕβρις

brob

  • 8 diagram pole rider
  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #15 on: December 16, 2015, 05:31:58 AM »
Damn.  :-\

Also, this was probably an accident, but this part of the logo looks like a chicken or bird:
(Image removed from quote.)



jokes for days

anyway, not to seem like I pretend to know what the internal structure and going-ons at kojipro was like, but I hope Shinkawa and Murata join Kojima's new thing. 


thisismyusername

  • GunOn™! Apply directly to forehead!
  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #17 on: December 16, 2015, 11:37:27 AM »
Hope he does something cool that he really wants to do and not just some metal gear retread.

And have it flop? :gurl

I mean he made Botoki, and that sequel on DS. Didn't gain traction. Neither did Policenaunts/Snatcher. Which is why Konami shackled him to Metal Gear. I mean, I'm interested in what he's going to do now post-MG/Konami, but I'm not holding my breath that it's gonna set the world on fire like people expect it to.

Cerveza mas fina

  • I don't care for Islam tbqh
  • filler
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #18 on: December 16, 2015, 12:00:14 PM »
Just because it didnt sell doesn't mean it wasnt good and vice versa

thisismyusername

  • GunOn™! Apply directly to forehead!
  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #19 on: December 16, 2015, 12:01:39 PM »
Just because it didnt sell doesn't mean it wasnt good and vice versa

Yes, but people are hyping this like the second coming of Jesus. What besides Metal Gear is Kojima known for with the masses at large? Yeah... that's my point. How many people are gonna rattle off Snatcher, Policenaunts, Boktai, etc.?

Mods Help

  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #20 on: December 16, 2015, 12:03:51 PM »
Pretty sure what made Snatcher a bomb was the systems it was developed for more than anything. You're telling me Snatcher wasn't developed for the mass market while ignoring that it was on the bloody MSX2, PC Engine, and Sega CD.

In a world with Life Is Strange, Telltale games, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, Brothers, and more, Kojima can do whatever the fuck he wants.

Positive Touch

  • Woo Papa
  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #21 on: December 16, 2015, 12:19:45 PM »
with whatever budget Sony is sure to give him i doubt he's gonna do a fucking interactive graphic novel. and short of it being a game about shooting friendly dogs, it'll do huge numbers bc Sony is gonna hype the shit out of it. you really think they'd bring Kojima on to make an indie title? i guarantee you more than a few people at Sony are expecting him to create a flagship series for their brand.
pcp

Mods Help

  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #22 on: December 16, 2015, 12:22:04 PM »
I don't think they'd bring him in to make an indie title - although he is indie - but I do expect them to allow him to take the gloves off and be more experimental. Also, given this is Sony, the same company that funded games like Heavy Rain and Journey, your supposition is kind of odd. Since this is Kojima, and since Sony is going to pump in to marketing, it'll sell no matter what it is. So why not let him do what he wants?

Positive Touch

  • Woo Papa
  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #23 on: December 16, 2015, 12:40:28 PM »
yeah Sony funds story-based shit but kojima is a far bigger name than whoever did heavy rain or journey. I'm sure he'll have a lot of leeway to do what he wants, but again is be real surprised if he comes out with some experimental one-off instead of a foundation for a new series just because of how big this project will prolly be.
pcp

mormapope

  • WHADDYA HEAR, WHADDYA SAY
  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #24 on: December 16, 2015, 01:16:56 PM »
Hope he does something cool that he really wants to do and not just some metal gear retread.

And have it flop? :gurl

I mean he made Botoki, and that sequel on DS. Didn't gain traction. Neither did Policenaunts/Snatcher. Which is why Konami shackled him to Metal Gear. I mean, I'm interested in what he's going to do now post-MG/Konami, but I'm not holding my breath that it's gonna set the world on fire like people expect it to.

Was a designer/producer on the first one, was a producer on two of its three sequels. Three Boktai games sorta implies it wasn't a dud.

Quote
Yes, but people are hyping this like the second coming of Jesus. What besides Metal Gear is Kojima known for with the masses at large? Yeah... that's my point. How many people are gonna rattle off Snatcher, Policenaunts, Boktai, etc.?

..And something as simple as "From the Creator of Metal Gear Solid" popping up will be enough to jog any casual gamer's memory.

Kojima can finally do anything other than MGS, that's great news. Who cares what the sales potential of his next game is? Sony is publishing it as well. Platinum Games have found their place in the industry after releasing bomb after bomb commercially.

The excitement for me has never been "Kojima is going to make a massive game that will sell like GTA and be the most successful Japanese dev of all time."

The excitement comes from an extremely talented game designer doing what they want.
OH!

bork

  • おっぱいは命、尻は故郷
  • Global Moderator
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #25 on: December 16, 2015, 01:18:40 PM »
I feel like the perfect opportunity to use this company name was wasted.



Looking forward to their first game, Plastic Crank Liquid.  :doge
ど助平

Cerveza mas fina

  • I don't care for Islam tbqh
  • filler
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #26 on: December 16, 2015, 01:37:27 PM »
I dont think it has to be a biiiig game. Maybe after being stuck on huge games he wants to do a smaller project. Clean his pallette so to speak

brob

  • 8 diagram pole rider
  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #27 on: December 16, 2015, 02:06:23 PM »


:dead :dead :dead

demi

  • cooler than willco
  • Administrator
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #28 on: December 16, 2015, 02:13:53 PM »
i was gonna change it to "Homo Ludens Hangout" instead
fat

Rahxephon91

  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #29 on: December 16, 2015, 04:08:35 PM »
I don't think any of his other games have been in tune with the times to sell.

Snatcher was a game on a unpopular system.

Zone of the Enders is a anime mech game. Mech's aren't popular here.

Botaki series did about as well as portable games not by Nintendo can. The sequels declined. Also not sure if it's the kind of thing to have MGS cross over.

A open world game set in a cyperpunk film noir setting. Well that could connect with people now. His name can go far, but I feel MGS is popular because it's aesthetics and settings appeal to plenty of people. I know plenty of people at work who would never watch anime and yet like MGS because despite the material, it's aesthetic is not Final Fantasy, Persona, or Hatsune Miku. It's military crap with a Japanese perspective.


mormapope

  • WHADDYA HEAR, WHADDYA SAY
  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #30 on: December 16, 2015, 04:13:16 PM »
During a interview with Jeremy Blaustein, I think he said there were around 500-2000 physical copies of Snatcher shipped to the US.
OH!

Brehvolution

  • Until at last, I threw down my enemy and smote his ruin upon the mountainside.
  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #31 on: December 16, 2015, 04:39:58 PM »
©ZH

thisismyusername

  • GunOn™! Apply directly to forehead!
  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #32 on: December 16, 2015, 05:00:13 PM »
Hope he does something cool that he really wants to do and not just some metal gear retread.

And have it flop? :gurl

I mean he made Botoki, and that sequel on DS. Didn't gain traction. Neither did Policenaunts/Snatcher. Which is why Konami shackled him to Metal Gear. I mean, I'm interested in what he's going to do now post-MG/Konami, but I'm not holding my breath that it's gonna set the world on fire like people expect it to.

Was a designer/producer on the first one, was a producer on two of its three sequels. Three Boktai games sorta implies it wasn't a dud.

And since then he's been a designer/producer of Metal Gear: Ergo "dud" as far as him being able to get traction to be able to do more than one IP.

Quote
Quote
Yes, but people are hyping this like the second coming of Jesus. What besides Metal Gear is Kojima known for with the masses at large? Yeah... that's my point. How many people are gonna rattle off Snatcher, Policenaunts, Boktai, etc.?

..And something as simple as "From the Creator of Metal Gear Solid" popping up will be enough to jog any casual gamer's memory.

Kojima can finally do anything other than MGS, that's great news. Who cares what the sales potential of his next game is? Sony is publishing it as well. Platinum Games have found their place in the industry after releasing bomb after bomb commercially.

The excitement for me has never been "Kojima is going to make a massive game that will sell like GTA and be the most successful Japanese dev of all time."

The excitement comes from an extremely talented game designer doing what they want.

Sure, but half of GAF (and the internet at large's Sony fanbase) think he's some god that is gonna set the world on fire. Like I said, Boktai didn't. Was it successful enough to get sequels? Sure. But is it part of the larger conversation like Metal Gear Solid was/is? No, not really. If you ask someone to name a Kojima produced title, they'll 99% of the time name Metal Gear over his other produced stuff.

That's where I'm coming from, this new IP will be interesting. But I dunno if it'll gain traction like Metal Gear did/has over his other stuff.

toku

  • 𝕩𝕩𝕩
  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #33 on: December 16, 2015, 05:02:18 PM »

mormapope

  • WHADDYA HEAR, WHADDYA SAY
  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #34 on: December 16, 2015, 05:02:59 PM »
Depends on a lot of things, but chances are his new thing won't be as bankable or memorable as MGS. The fact that he wants do to anything console related or something related to videogames so quickly surprised me. Definitely thought he would take a break and step away from games for a bit. 

OH!

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #35 on: December 16, 2015, 05:55:20 PM »
Gonna be like Titanfall.  Will have an audience, but unless someone markets the hell out of it, won't sell like the old games.

But yeah, don't care about this at all, because maybe in 5 years he'll have a new game, and then it won't have any ending because he ran out of time/budget and we can all be disappointed. 

mormapope

  • WHADDYA HEAR, WHADDYA SAY
  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #36 on: December 16, 2015, 06:03:06 PM »
So one game taking a while a costing a lot means that's a habit he's always had?  :doge

If you look at his timeline of directed games, he never skipped a beat. Also, Fox Engine was still being tinkered with and worked on in 2011. Unless he was making MGS V on another engine and ported it, there was no way MGS V was being worked in, in full production mode in 2010.

OH!

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #37 on: December 16, 2015, 06:06:05 PM »
There's no way he gets a AAA game out before 2021.

Also MGS4, Peace Walker, and MGSV all had shit stories.  I'm sure whatever he does will play great, but hope he gets a new writer for his new game series.

mormapope

  • WHADDYA HEAR, WHADDYA SAY
  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #38 on: December 16, 2015, 06:13:51 PM »
There's no way he gets a AAA game out before 2021.

Also MGS4, Peace Walker, and MGSV all had shit stories.  I'm sure whatever he does will play great, but hope he gets a new writer for his new game series.

If he's going the AAA route, that's one helluva gutsy guess  :lol

I mean, here's a basic timeline:

MGS1 - Fall 1998
MGS2 - Fall 2001
MGS2 - Substance - Fall 2002
MGS3 - Fall 2004
MGS3 Subsistence - Fall 2005
MGS4 - Spring 2008
MGS Peace Walker - Spring 2010
MGS V - Fall 2015

People treat MGS V like its completely indicative of his entire line of work. 2021 is past the seven year mark of current gen consoles coming out, there is no way he would take that much time on a project he's in complete control of.

He also cancelled Metal Gear Rising when it was evident the project was going nowhere http://www.ign.com/articles/2011/12/15/what-went-wrong-with-metal-gear-solid-rising

Quote
METAL GEAR RISING: REVENGEANCE / 15 DEC 2011
WHAT WENT WRONG WITH METAL GEAR SOLID: RISING?

Share. Make up your mind.
BY MITCH DYER Indecision killed Metal Gear Solid: Rising. Hideo Kojima, creator of Metal Gear Solid, left his team at Kojima Productions to its own devices when working on Rising. It was an action game unlike anything he'd ever worked on, so the big decisions fell on his 200-strong team of young developers. He thought minimal involvement with the game would give an inexperienced group an opportunity to grow.

In hindsight, Kojima says, he should have stepped in and started calling some shots. After all, nobody else was. Rising encountered numerous issues during its long and strenuous development period. By the time he came to terms with the mess he had on his hands, Kojima canceled Metal Gear Solid: Rising. It was a lost cause. With so much great tech and leftover pieces, the revered designer wasn't content to let it die. His solution? Ask a friend for a favor.

Kojima asked Platinum Games to bring Rising back to life. The Bayonetta developer thought he was joking.
« Last Edit: December 16, 2015, 06:19:33 PM by mormapope »
OH!

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #39 on: December 16, 2015, 06:25:49 PM »
He's going to spend 1-2 years just tinkering around with the engine.  Then 3 years making a game.  5 years is pretty reasonable.

It takes a while to make really nice looking polished AAA games.  Unless he's gonna dial back on either graphical fidelity, content or polish, I'm sticking with 2021.

mormapope

  • WHADDYA HEAR, WHADDYA SAY
  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #40 on: December 16, 2015, 06:32:50 PM »
Right now he's looking for programmers or designers that can code for Unreal 4 or Unity, based on the info in the hiring/career part of the site. He wouldn't have the money to create his own engine, nor would he want to add more risk by racking up debt for a new engine.


EDIT: Yoji Shinkawa is also joining the new Kojima Productions.
« Last Edit: December 16, 2015, 06:37:17 PM by mormapope »
OH!

Mods Help

  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #41 on: December 16, 2015, 06:38:45 PM »
This could be a Devils third situation.

Or a Bayo situation.

mormapope

  • WHADDYA HEAR, WHADDYA SAY
  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #42 on: December 16, 2015, 06:44:41 PM »
Devil's Third was originally published by THQ, THQ wanted to give it to somebody, nobody wanted it, Itagaki's studio got it and worked on it, game switched engines mid development, Nintendo got publishing rights, and then Nintendo got cold feet about releasing the game physically at all in the United States.

There would have to be a enormous amount of surprise fuckery for Kojima's new game to take this route.
OH!

thisismyusername

  • GunOn™! Apply directly to forehead!
  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #43 on: December 16, 2015, 08:03:46 PM »
The fact that he wants do to anything console related or something related to videogames so quickly surprised me. Definitely thought he would take a break and step away from games for a bit.

I don't see why he would. Despite being tired of Metal Gear, he really did love the series and working on it. He was nearly in every step of the production process there. For better or worse, he's a perfectionist (he's admitted as such and why "I can't play my released games. Otherwise I'll find things I want to correct." on Twitter) but he really does like the interactive medium of games to be able to do movie-cut-scenes in those games WHILE letting the player/audience fuck around with his sandbox.

It's probably the main reason I really like Kojima despite some of his wacky-out-there writing: He really does do some good things in the gameplay departments.

A lot of the issues he has had to deal with over this year is strictly with Konami uppermanagement throwing him under the bus to get out of the games business into casinos. Nothing he himself did to burn him out on that.

He's going to spend 1-2 years just tinkering around with the engine.  Then 3 years making a game.  5 years is pretty reasonable.

It takes a while to make really nice looking polished AAA games.  Unless he's gonna dial back on either graphical fidelity, content or polish, I'm sticking with 2021.

Like Morma said: He's looking at Unity/Unreal Engine right this very second. I would say working on the Fox Engine to try to make a new middleware engine for Japan (and beyond?) has opened his eyes on the development cost/time needed to make that ready for prime-time and he's going the new route that all Japanese developers are doing like the west: Get a middleware engine (like Unreal) and middleware software (like Havoc physics) and letting those tool-sets be made by a dedicated team (Epic/Havok teams) while HE himself only has to modify the engine to suit his needs for the game needs.

It's been a trend in the West for the past decade: Dedicated teams making engines over and over is going the way of the dodo to have Unreal/middleware engines step-in for that sunk-cost.

What's really the biggest shame of this fallout engine-wise is that the Fox engine is only used by 2-3 titles and the PC version can't be modded (yet?) to really see how much of Kojima's team's work is good/bad on that engine and the development pipeline on making content there. I remember seeing him wanting to allow players to make their own missions within the Fox Engine for Phantom Pain, but the whole Konami fiasco (and probably licensing/laws) prevented that?
« Last Edit: December 16, 2015, 08:12:23 PM by thisismyusername »

mormapope

  • WHADDYA HEAR, WHADDYA SAY
  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #44 on: December 16, 2015, 08:29:50 PM »
New interview:
http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/12/16/hideo-kojima-talks-new-studio-edgy-playstation-game-and-the-future


Quote
For its first project, Kojima said, "I’m thinking smaller-scale, not too many people, and focusing on game creation at first." From there, Kojima says it’s possible the studio could expand beyond games.

Quote
While Hideo Kojima wants to deliver what his fans expect from him -- “I think that’s games” -- video game development isn’t necessarily the only thing Kojima Productions is interested in long-term.

"The focus is on digital content, so we could consider movies, animations, anything," Kojima said. "But first I think people expect games from me. That’s where I want to put my focus. Once we have an established IP in games, something solid that satisfies people, then we can consider movies and videos."

Kojima reiterated once more that he’s still interested in working with his Silent Hills partner Guillermo del Toro, whether it’s a game, film, anime, or something else entirely.

Quote
“We’ll have more agility,” he said. “We’ll be able to do things that are more edgy, preserving the quality we’ve had so far, while at the same time finding new challenges and exploring new areas.”

Shinkawa told IGN he’ll be overseeing the entirety of Kojima Productions’ art, including "characters, concepts for the backgrounds, concepts for the mechs," and more.

Quote
While at Konami, Kojima and his team built the Fox Engine, an impressive software framework capable of high quality photorealistic graphics. It was a massive undertaking that took several years of development.

For his new studio, Kojima Productions is still discussing and analyzing what framework the team will use.

“We could go either way,” Kojima said, “whether it’s using an existing engine or making another engine. We’ll have to do some research before making a decision on that one.”

Focus on the games bit for a while breh, worry about videos and anime much later.
OH!

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #45 on: December 16, 2015, 10:20:34 PM »
The fact that he wants do to anything console related or something related to videogames so quickly surprised me. Definitely thought he would take a break and step away from games for a bit.

I don't see why he would. Despite being tired of Metal Gear, he really did love the series and working on it. He was nearly in every step of the production process there. For better or worse, he's a perfectionist (he's admitted as such and why "I can't play my released games. Otherwise I'll find things I want to correct." on Twitter) but he really does like the interactive medium of games to be able to do movie-cut-scenes in those games WHILE letting the player/audience fuck around with his sandbox.

It's probably the main reason I really like Kojima despite some of his wacky-out-there writing: He really does do some good things in the gameplay departments.

A lot of the issues he has had to deal with over this year is strictly with Konami uppermanagement throwing him under the bus to get out of the games business into casinos. Nothing he himself did to burn him out on that.

He's going to spend 1-2 years just tinkering around with the engine.  Then 3 years making a game.  5 years is pretty reasonable.

It takes a while to make really nice looking polished AAA games.  Unless he's gonna dial back on either graphical fidelity, content or polish, I'm sticking with 2021.

Like Morma said: He's looking at Unity/Unreal Engine right this very second. I would say working on the Fox Engine to try to make a new middleware engine for Japan (and beyond?) has opened his eyes on the development cost/time needed to make that ready for prime-time and he's going the new route that all Japanese developers are doing like the west: Get a middleware engine (like Unreal) and middleware software (like Havoc physics) and letting those tool-sets be made by a dedicated team (Epic/Havok teams) while HE himself only has to modify the engine to suit his needs for the game needs.

It's been a trend in the West for the past decade: Dedicated teams making engines over and over is going the way of the dodo to have Unreal/middleware engines step-in for that sunk-cost.

What's really the biggest shame of this fallout engine-wise is that the Fox engine is only used by 2-3 titles and the PC version can't be modded (yet?) to really see how much of Kojima's team's work is good/bad on that engine and the development pipeline on making content there. I remember seeing him wanting to allow players to make their own missions within the Fox Engine for Phantom Pain, but the whole Konami fiasco (and probably licensing/laws) prevented that?

I said he's gonna spend 1-2 years messing around with an engine, not that he's going to make a whole new one :P  With no experience with UE4.0 and stuff you know it's gonna take him and his time a while to see what they can do with the engine and then figure out how to design a game around the limitations before they even start on development.  Kojima is totally a do a bunch of engine tests guy.

Anyhow, don't care.  Hope he does something good.  Let's talk about this again in 5 years.

thisismyusername

  • GunOn™! Apply directly to forehead!
  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #46 on: December 16, 2015, 11:15:30 PM »
Given that Epic has a Japanese branch for their engine and support people there? I'd say 6 months to a year MAX of learning the engine if that.

benjipwns

  • your bright ideas always burn me
  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #47 on: December 16, 2015, 11:27:57 PM »
You can literally dick around with Unreal 4 on your own right now for free. You could for a year or so already.

And there's a bundle of tutorials to get a basic game up and running with it*, not to mention physics and other component tests. I think there's even one to make a rudimentary version of UT that you can then mess around with. (Or it lets you mess around with the actual UT beta in a separate sandbox. I haven't tried it.)

Somebody like Kojima can probably just DM Mark Rein and get access to the whole engine package (there's a lot of plug-and-play type stuff blocked off/for sale if you don't sign a license) for free to mess around with.

spoiler (click to show/hide)
*My hot game involved you pressing any key and then pillars from the object library would spawn until it crashed or you quit.
[close]

Mods Help

  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #48 on: December 16, 2015, 11:32:35 PM »
Kojima won't be spending 2 years dicking with UE4. It's not proprietary.

HyperZoneWasAwesome

  • HastilyChosenUsername
  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #49 on: December 17, 2015, 12:13:12 AM »
but dicking will be done. He wasn't exactly prolific at Konami with possibly the biggest development resources in the country, how fast can he possibly work on a smaller scale now?

Kojima had what appears to be a lot of autonomy at Konami already, so I'm pretty sure he'll transition somewhat smoothly to being a studio boss as well, but lots of times these marquee names in game development don't pan out as well as guys who have to run the business and make the games. Its not just a Japanese thing, tons of development heads in the West have floundered too (nobody expected Warren Spector to eat turf with his studio), but most of the notable examples do come from the East.

I'm sure he'll do fine, and I certainly want for him to flourish, but in all honesty I'd be even more pleased if he joined up with Platinum games and they got a likewise infusion of staff along with. That place seems to be one of the best managed studios in the biz, and to be entirely honest I'm not exactly sure I want complete and unfettered creative control given to Kojima. I think he works better when his leash doesn't have too much slack to it.

Mods Help

  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #50 on: December 17, 2015, 12:34:54 AM »
His team may dick around with it and try to do vision after vision like he did with mgsv or they may try to quickly get the tools they want to put out a game as soon as possible to work on something more ambitious. Again, he said they're starting small. So I don't see much room for his usual whatever here.

thisismyusername

  • GunOn™! Apply directly to forehead!
  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #51 on: December 17, 2015, 12:41:35 AM »
I do. But at the same time, I think the experience of the whole Ground Zeroes/Phantom Pain saga is still with him. I certainly hope he learned from that whole experience.

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #52 on: December 17, 2015, 01:14:06 AM »
but dicking will be done. He wasn't exactly prolific at Konami with possibly the biggest development resources in the country, how fast can he possibly work on a smaller scale now?

Kojima had what appears to be a lot of autonomy at Konami already, so I'm pretty sure he'll transition somewhat smoothly to being a studio boss as well, but lots of times these marquee names in game development don't pan out as well as guys who have to run the business and make the games. Its not just a Japanese thing, tons of development heads in the West have floundered too (nobody expected Warren Spector to eat turf with his studio), but most of the notable examples do come from the East.

I'm sure he'll do fine, and I certainly want for him to flourish, but in all honesty I'd be even more pleased if he joined up with Platinum games and they got a likewise infusion of staff along with. That place seems to be one of the best managed studios in the biz, and to be entirely honest I'm not exactly sure I want complete and unfettered creative control given to Kojima. I think he works better when his leash doesn't have too much slack to it.

Platinum is best managed studio in the Biz?  So being stuck doing licensed cartoon games, total flops (W101), games that got cancelled and barely revived by a different publisher (Bayo2), and critical flops (Anarchy Reigns), etc....is great happening business?

I like Platinum but they're doing their best to just barely not go out of business.  I'm not sure they're gonna still be around next gen.

mormapope

  • WHADDYA HEAR, WHADDYA SAY
  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #53 on: December 17, 2015, 01:19:02 AM »
When it comes to getting games done quickly and those games having consistent quality, they're definitely up there in the industry. A lot of their games share gameplay concepts and mechanics as well, along with not splurging money on making a game look pretty.

They're contracted by Microsoft and Activision right now, at this point they're doing fine financially. The bombs they've had would affect future contracts moreso than affecting their own studio financially. As long as they're working on future stuff, they'll continue surviving.

Their biggest bombs were Anarchy Reigns and Wonderful 101. The former basically made Sega not want to work with Platinum again. The latter bombed just as hard but Nintendo probably paid the most for that.
OH!

benjipwns

  • your bright ideas always burn me
  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #54 on: December 17, 2015, 01:33:37 AM »
Paying the bills with licensed stuff to help do games you want to do isn't the worst gaming business model.

It's one reason High Voltage still exists as a company. Monolith too. Vicarious Visions and Treyarch both lived off that before getting absorbed into the Activision blob. Digital Extremes hooking onto other companies projects let them do their own stuff like Dark Sector and Warframe.

The key is meeting the milestones and not funneling off all the funds for those not so great projects. That's where Denis Dyack went wrong.

Okay, that's one area where Dyack went wrong.

Rahxephon91

  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #55 on: December 17, 2015, 02:50:40 AM »
You have to give it to Platinum, they've done well. They've honed their craft far better than pretty much any other developer. They were able to develop an engine thats basically powered pretty much all their games. An engine I think looks pretty solid and one that I doubt breaks the bank. In fact, I'd say most of their games are designed smartly and economically. Not to mention pretty quickly. They turned around that Rising project and it's no surprise SE, MS, and Activision have wanted to work with them. They make quality games and they do it pretty much more competently than anyone else.

Right now they are doing a great job being a gun for hire, but they do have their original project with MS. So it's not like they are done being creative.

HyperZoneWasAwesome

  • HastilyChosenUsername
  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #56 on: December 17, 2015, 02:55:41 AM »
yeah, I see Platinum as a pretty healthy studio. They've got three games in the cooker right now, and only one game in their history to see any sort of significant delay from their side (the too rushed Star Fox, which will now undoubtedly benefit from a 'normal' development schedule).

Also, they ship their games with a high degree of polish, bug free, and with visual competence despite (because of?) them using their own engines. These guys obviously run a tight ship.



edit: Rahxephon91 pretty much stole my post from the future while I was writing mine (and checking instantwatcher) and used it.

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #57 on: December 17, 2015, 04:20:05 AM »
Paying the bills with licensed stuff to help do games you want to do isn't the worst gaming business model.

It's one reason High Voltage still exists as a company. Monolith too. Vicarious Visions and Treyarch both lived off that before getting absorbed into the Activision blob. Digital Extremes hooking onto other companies projects let them do their own stuff like Dark Sector and Warframe.

The key is meeting the milestones and not funneling off all the funds for those not so great projects. That's where Denis Dyack went wrong.

Okay, that's one area where Dyack went wrong.

Well, it killed INIS, so it doesn't always work.  Rip Ouendan and all that.

thisismyusername

  • GunOn™! Apply directly to forehead!
  • Senior Member
Re: Kojima goes indie, grows facial hair and partners with PlayStation
« Reply #58 on: December 17, 2015, 10:31:44 PM »
INIS is a completely different problem.

In any case:

http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/hideo-kojimas-mission-unlocked

This is a pretty good article. Didn't know Kojima studied economics.

Brehvolution

  • Until at last, I threw down my enemy and smote his ruin upon the mountainside.
  • Senior Member
©ZH