Kojima speaks about Metal Gear Solid Touch
It's a shooting game
When Konami published its cryptic Metal Gear Solid formula a few weeks ago, the conjecture went in two directions. Either it meant a 360 version of Metal Gear Solid was coming (the type was green) or an iPhone version of Metal Gear Solid was coming (the letter ‘i’ featured). We were as surprised as anybody when it turned out to be the latter.
Yesterday morning, Konami officially announced that the next MGS game would be Metal Gear Solid Touch. With its announcement were two screenshots that didn’t tell us much, other than that it looked like a shooter. We wondered whether Ideaworks3D would be developing, until somebody from Konami told us it wasn’t. That’s all we knew then.
Now, thanks to an interview with Hideo Kojima and creative producer Yasuyo Watanabe in Japanese games mag Famitsu, (published on game site 1UP), we know everything.
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First off, who’s Watanabe? Prior to working on this game, she was chief web designer, making Flash applications. Kojima liked her style, though – “she almost never give me any lame ideas during presentations” - and decided to put her on point for this project.
The promotion of a relative junior shouldn’t be seen as vote of little confidence for the platform, though. Kojima thinks the iPhone “is starting to have the features that the PSP, Nintendo DS, and cell phones all have.”
He also sees the interest amongst iPhone owners as inevitable. “iPhone users are people interested in musical and visual entertainment from the start, so it seems natural to think they'll want to try games.”
The iPhone itself is a pain to design games for, says Watanabe. “We started with a game design and then had a lot of headaches trying to find a way to use the platform's unique functionality.”
[Update: Konami contests this point in the translation. The publisher has been in touch with its own translation, reproduced in full and sic at the end of this article.]
So how did she and her team manage it? Disappointingly, they made a basic shooter in which you move your finger over the touchscreen to aim, and tap to fire. Presumably, either pinching or unpinching your fingers will zoom in for the sniper mode demonstrated in the screenshot.
Says Kojima: “The content is purely MGS4, but the concept was more to create a "simple MGS." The development team's first impression was that MGS has to be all about stealth, but you can't play a quick game on the train if it's about that. It's a little much to ask of someone trying our games for the first time. That's why we made it a simple touch-screen shooting game.”
Hmm. The game’s out next spring.
1UP.
Konami's translationQuestion: "METALGEAR SOLID TOUCH" has MGS4 as a base? Kojima: The content is purely MGS4, but the concept was more to create a "simple MGS." Well, basically, iPhone and iPhone touch is not a dedicated game platform. "MGS" has a name value as a game, and iPod appears in the game too. Since there was already this kind of "link" between MGS4 and the iPod, I wanted to make it very easy to experience the MGS4 world to anybody. Question: I heard that the MGSTouch will be a kind of a shooter game that uses the touch screen. Kojima: The development team's first impression was that MGS has to be all about stealth, but you can't play a quick game on the train if it's about that. It's a little much to ask of someone trying our games (who do not know MGS) for the first time. That's why we made it a simple touch-screen shooting game." Question: Was it difficult to create a game for the iPhone and iPhone touch? Watanabe: Well, for a normal game console, you have the direction key and buttons, and you apply which actions to which controls. but with this platform, you actually touch the screen and control it. There is so much possibilities. Therefore, there was a danger that we put in so much things and make the controls really too complicated. We had the game design first, but we were thinking how to utilize "that specific" spec of the platform, and this was the most difficult part. But, I thought that this platform is really easy to develop, and is easy for a person to create games by him/herself, even. Question: Do you think that iPhone and iPhone touch will be successful in the gaming genre too? Kojima: This hardware (iPod), first started off as hardware to listen to music. Added the phone element, and now added to make you play games with. PSP and the Nintendo DS and even normal mobile phones are having the same specs. You can browse the internet, watch TV......one day....I think that you can do the same things with any hardware. When I think like this, sure of course, you will be able to play games. So, unlike the people who play real simple games on the mobile phones to kill time, the iPhone users are the people who had stronger interest in entertainment such as music and visuals. Therefore, I think that these people will feel more natural to want to play games. Question: So, it seems like many games will appear with just new ideas. Kojima: Yes, but I think that having games with just an "idea" will not be the best. Using the touch screen and the sensor of this hardware, meaning, using Just that as an idea, is not what I am thinking about. It is important for me to use those things, but to create a "real" game. Watanabe: Currently, there are many games that just uses the touch screen or the sensor, but looking at the users comments, there is a need for real action games and real adventure games. I want to go on and to challenge that in the near future. Kojima: To bring out a "REAL" hard core game using the world of MGS4. A game like game. There is not much games like that. So, I think that Kojima Productions should come into this area. Question: Wow, I can understand that Kojima Productions are serious in iPhone and iPod touch. Kojima: (yes, but,) This time, (this project) is just an entrance. So, I wanted to make people who never played MGS to touch and play, and get interested in MGS4. Also, if the player gets interested in games, we will be really happy. Please everyone, I want you to "TOUCH".
