Behind the Scenes Look at Kojima’s Death Stranding

Fans of Sony, Hideo Kojima, and Norman Reedus alike have been reeling since Death Stranding‘s big reveal three days ago, but apart from the brief teaser very little is known about the game. It’s safe to assume that this is exactly what Kojima is aiming for, and that more information will be gradually leaked out just steadily enough to keep us all from going wild with anticipation. Today, Kojima showed off via his Twitter the elaborate performance capture technology that will bring Reedus and presumably other actors to life in the gloomy world of Death Stranding.

The string of tweets gave followers an inside look at the performance capture (p-cap) studio Kojima and Reedus visited to shoot Death Stranding’s teaser. With countless cameras and a full motion capture suit following the Reedus’ every move, the team was able to record voice, movement, and the actor’s facial expressions. An impressive technical feat, though I can’t say I envy Norman having to sit in that chair for hours on end.

More than just showcasing the technology being used for the game, Kojima shed a few insights on the time frame during which Death Stranding has been under development. Apparently, Reedus was invited to join the project as early as February, and the team has been hard at work since April to transform the actor’s visual data into what Kojima deemed a “suitable level” for the visuals in the teaser. What exactly this means is unclear, but with no release date announced as of yet it’s safe to say that the team still has a lot of work ahead of them before we see the final product. Death Stranding is the first title announced by Kojima Productions as an independent studio, and has been hotly anticipated since Kojima’s split from Konami in December of last year. For now, however, it looks like fans shouldn’t be holding their breath.