Hideo Kojima & Yoji Shinkawa Break Down Elements of 'Death Stranding'

It’s been nearly two months since acclaimed video game developer Hideo Kojima released his highly-anticipated Death Stranding. Now in a new video from GameSpot, the famed head of Kojima Productions sits down with Death Stranding art director Yoji Shinkawa to dissect one of the game’s most riveting cutscenes.

Diving deep into the game’s design elements, the duo discusses Timefall, the rain that accelerates the progress of time for those who become directly in contact with it. Kojima reveals that the concept was derived from Ernest Borgnine’s classic horror film The Devil’s Rain, in which a special type of rain makes people melt. The two also dive into the concept behind the Odradek Terrain Scanner, a shoulder-attached detection unit that can’t indicate the direct position of BTs. Instead, it can only notify the player when a BT is near via the Odradek’s rotation and color to showcase the direction and proximity of the enemy NPCs. Kojima shares that he and Shinkawa wanted players to be more intuitive here, seeing it as a challenge that further expands the game’s interactivity.

Atop of sharing some of the game’s details and design choices, Kojima notes his inspiration from horror games, science fiction and more. You can watch the nearly 20-minute video regarding his latest groundbreaking game above.

For more gaming news, The Witcher 3‘s player count has skyrocketed following the release of the Netflix series.