==Hideo Kojima==
==Hideo Kojima==
His Work
Hideo Kojima is a Japanese video game designer working for
Konami. Formerly the vice president of Konami Computer Entertainment Japan, Kojima opted to leave the business aspect of gaming behind him, choosing instead to focus all of his energy on game design. He is now heading up Kojima productions, a team devoted solely to game development. Kojima is an established video game director as well as creator, with
Snatcher,
Policenauts, and the
Metal Gear series under his belt. His games are known for being social commentaries, acting as outlets for Kojima’s thoughts on relevant, important issues. These are usually approached in a very philosophical manner and have often times been criticized as being overbearing. Nevertheless, he has been regarded as one of the few postmodern game designers. The
Metal Gear series, for example, often breaks the fourth wall, blending the line between reality and in-game reality. His love for cinema is readily-apparent in his games, which contain numerous references to film, as well as resembling films themselves.
His Journey
While initially born in Setagaya, Tokyo, Hideo Kojima moves to Kobe at the age of three. His initial desire was to become a film director, however in 1986 he got a job working for Konami’s MSX home computer division as a game designer. The first game that he helped work on was
Penguin Adventure, on which he worked as assistant director. His first actual developed game was
Lost Warld, a war-themed platformer with a masked female wrestler for a protagonist. Unfortunately, production on
Lost Warld was shut down by Konami.
Kojima’s first released game was
Metal Gear, the first installment of the now popular franchise. It was released in 1987 in Japan to considerable success, but due to the obscurity of the MSX system, it wasn’t widely known. Most gamers didn’t get a chance to play it until it was released in the US on the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System), but by then, it had been heavily modified without Kojima’s input. It featured the first appearance of Solid Snake, a soldier sent to infiltrate a terrorist base and stop the Metal Gear, a walking tank with the capability of launching nuclear warheads. The game is famous for putting the stealth-action genre on the map, by encouraging players to avoid enemies rather than confront them. This wasn’t entirely intentional, however. Due to the technical limitations of the MSX, the system couldn’t handle combat very well, so changing the focus of the game to stealth was their way of working around the potential problem.
Kojima also released
Snatcher, a critically acclaimed text-based adventure, in 1988. Kojima designed
Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake in 1990, remade
Snatcher in 1992, and designed
Policenauts in 1994, often regarded as a sequel of sorts to
Snatcher.
Snatcher and
Policenauts were both considerable successes in Japan.
Kojima achieved celebrity status in 1998 with the release of
Metal Gear Solid. Highly regarded for its gameplay, characters, and storyline, it also featured the debut of Kojima’s social commentaries, involving themes such as nuclear proliferation and genetic engineering.
In late 2001,
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty was released and met with mixed reactions, due mainly to the introduction of a new protagonist, Raiden, and an overly complex story.
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater was released in the US in 2004 and received much better reactions than it’s predecessor.
Where is He Now?
Kojima is still heading Kojima productions, which is currently developing three more
Metal Gear games, one of which is
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, due to be released on the
PlayStation 3.
His Work
Hideo Kojima is a Japanese video game designer working for
Konami. Formerly the vice president of Konami Computer Entertainment Japan, Kojima opted to leave the business aspect of gaming behind him, choosing instead to focus all of his energy on game design. He is now heading up Kojima productions, a team devoted solely to game development. Kojima is an established video game director as well as creator, with
Snatcher,
Policenauts, and the
Metal Gear series under his belt. His games are known for being social commentaries, acting as outlets for Kojima’s thoughts on relevant, important issues. These are usually approached in a very philosophical manner and have often times been criticized as being overbearing. Nevertheless, he has been regarded as one of the few postmodern game designers. The
Metal Gear series, for example, often breaks the fourth wall, blending the line between reality and in-game reality. His love for cinema is readily-apparent in his games, which contain numerous references to film, as well as resembling films themselves.
His Journey
While initially born in Setagaya, Tokyo, Hideo Kojima moves to Kobe at the age of three. His initial desire was to become a film director, however in 1986 he got a job working for Konami’s MSX home computer division as a game designer. The first game that he helped work on was
Penguin Adventure, on which he worked as assistant director. His first actual developed game was
Lost Warld, a war-themed platformer with a masked female wrestler for a protagonist. Unfortunately, production on
Lost Warld was shut down by Konami.
Kojima’s first released game was Metal Gear, the first installment of the now popular franchise. It was released in 1987 in Japan to considerable success, but due to the obscurity of the MSX system, it wasn’t widely known. Most gamers didn’t get a chance to play it until it was released in the US on the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System), but by then, it had been heavily modified without Kojima’s input. It featured the first appearance of Solid Snake, a soldier sent to infiltrate a terrorist base and stop the Metal Gear, a walking tank with the capability of launching nuclear warheads. The game is famous for putting the stealth-action genre on the map, by encouraging players to avoid enemies rather than confront them. This wasn’t entirely intentional, however. Due to the technical limitations of the MSX, the system couldn’t handle combat very well, so changing the focus of the game to stealth was their way of working around the potential problem.
Kojima also released Snatcher, a critically acclaimed text-based adventure, in 1988. Kojima designed Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake in 1990, remade Snatcher in 1992, and designed Policenauts in 1994, often regarded as a sequel of sorts to Snatcher. Snatcher and Policenauts were both considerable successes in Japan.
Kojima achieved celebrity status in 1998 with the release of Metal Gear Solid. Highly regarded for its gameplay, characters, and storyline, it also featured the debut of Kojima’s social commentaries, involving themes such as nuclear proliferation and genetic engineering.
In late 2001, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty was released and met with mixed reactions, due mainly to the introduction of a new protagonist, Raiden, and an overly complex story. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater was released in the US in 2004 and received much better reactions than it’s predecessor.
Where is He Now?
Kojima is still heading Kojima productions, which is currently developing three more Metal Gear games, one of which is Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, due to be released on the PlayStation 3.
==Hideo Kojima==
