Hideo Kojima has spent the bulk of his career crafting games in the Metal Gear series, and now runs his own studio at Konami called Kojima Productions.
Early Life
Hideo Kojima was born on August 24, 1963 in Setagaya, Tokyo. His family moved around often, and Kojima had to deal with death early on in his life. He grew up as a latchkey kid and would often come home to an empty house and watch TV. At one point he wanted to be an illustrator, but was discouraged because his uncle was also an artist who struggled financially for many years. He tried to become a writer and submitted short stories to many Japanese magazines, but his stories tended to be much longer than they wanted. Kojima went on to college where he studied economics. In his four years there, he decided to enter the video game industry. In 1986, Kojima joined Konami's MSX division, but in his early years there he almost quit the game industry, since many of his ideas were tossed aside due to his lack of programming knowledge. He went on to work on a game called Penguin Adventure as an assistant director, then was to serve as director on a game called Lost World, which was subsequently cancelled.
1980-2008
Kojima's next Metal Gear game, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, was released six years later, again on the MSX2, and was a huge success. (This time, however, the game was unavailable in the U.S. until it was included in the compilation Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence in 2006.) He then went on to remake Snatcher and designed a similar adventure game, Policenauts.
Influences
Kojima has stated on several occassions that Shigeru Miyamoto has been a major influence on his game creation mentality. This respect led to the remake of Metal Gear Solid on the Gamecube, known as Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, after Miyamoto asked for the franchise to have another game on the Nintendo console. This relationship also led to the inclusion of Solid Snake to Super Smash Bros. Brawl
A movie connoseour, Kojima would often times make short films and movies when he was a teenager. Film had a profound effect on his game creation ideology, specifically the use of cut-scenes to drive plot development. Although he was criticized for creating "interactive movies" he story telling style is widely held to be among the best in the video game industry. Kojima has on occasion noted that whereas most people are 70% water, he considers himself "70% film", a gentle self parody based upon his extensive cut-scenes and an honest reference to his love of film.
As another testament to the influence of movies, several characters in the Metal Gear Solid series were named after characters in movies that he particularly enjoyed. Such examples include the name Solid Snake (taken from the character Snake in Escape from New York).
Quotes
- "Game creation keeps on expanding, just like the Universe. That is why I keep making games"
- "Games are ingredients for entertainment that the gamers will decide how to process"
- "The human body is supposed to be 70 percent water. I consider myself 70 percent film"
-
"Finally it is possible to battle with players from around the world online at Metal Gear Solid from the comfort of your own home. For the online mode, the essence of Metal Gear Solid is retained, with additions of various online rules and original stages. With the continued growth of the culture of Metal Gear Solid, this new online addition, I believe will bring a new way to enjoy and experience the world. I hope fans will look forward to experiencing it.”
"This fourth is going to be the final one for me and Shinkawa. There are other things that we want to create."
[While Kojima may be ready to move on, the Metal Gear series has been the seasoned Konami director's life's work--so far.] "I originally wanted to make movies and novels, but I just couldn't do it, ... I was really hyped up about making Metal Gear, since it was going to be a game about war.”
"The online mode will be free."
-
"creating this disc has taken us about the same time as editing a real film, ... It takes a long time to actually play through MGS3, so there are probably people that never finished the whole game. With this disc, anyone can experience the drama in MGS3 and cry."
"First-person shooters are popular overseas, and the camera angle in the original MGS3 wasn't too popular, ... A [camera angle] engine was already in development, so we decided to add it.”
“What's troubling is that because the camera is 3D, the northern part of the screen isn't necessarily north anymore. So the jungle transforms into the true meaning of a jungle. For someone with no sense of direction like myself, I get lost in the caves every time.”
- "Should I use this opportunity to start doing daily headstands?”
| Name | Platforms | Developer | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
Metal Gear Arcade |
ARC | Kojima Productions |
|
|
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker |
PSP | Kojima Productions |
|
|
Metal Gear Solid: Rising |
PS3, PC, X360 | Kojima Productions |
|
|
beatmania featuring DREAMS COME TRUE |
ARC | |
|
|
Stock Exchange Kabutore Next |
DS | Kojima Productions |
|
|
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow |
X360, PS3 | Kojima Productions, Mercury Steam Entertainment S.L. |
|
|
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots released on June 12, 2008 |
PS3 | Kojima Productions |
|
|
Metal Gear Solid: The Essential Collection released on March 18, 2008 |
PS2 | Kojima Productions |
|
|
Super Smash Bros. Brawl released on March 9, 2008 |
WII | Monolith Software, Inc., Sora, Game Arts Co., Ltd. |
|
|
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus released on Nov. 13, 2007 |
PSP | Kojima Productions, 8-4, Ltd. |
| Full Name: | Hideo Kojima |
| Gender: | Male |
| Birthday: | Aug. 24, 1963 |
| Death: | n/a |
| Credited In: | 36 games |
| 1st Game Credit: | Penguin Adventure |
| Currently Working For: | Konami Corporation |
| Hometown: | Setagaya, Tokyo |
| Country: | Japan |
| Website: | http://www.konami.jp/kojima_pro/english/index.html |
| Email Address: | |
| Aliases: |
a list of 13 items by Jimbo_N
a list of 16 items by Psykhophear
