Kojima on the concept of Fox Engine

With a lengthy presentation on his new engine less than a week away, Kojima talked a little bit about it on his Twitter, as well as reflecting on game design in general.

Fox Engine is supposed to bring us one step closer to photorealism in games. Hideo Kojima’s GDC talk is named ‘photorealism trough the eyes of the FOX’, and now he expressed this goal once again. However, Kojima added that games are not just about the graphics and sound anymore. There are other things that are more important now. Questions like: How free is the game? Does it connect to the internet? Is the gameplay smooth?

But of course there has to be a certain level of realism as well. At Kojima Productions the goal is to make even simple CG models look photo-realistic when you zoom out of the game screen.

When Metal Gear Solid came out in 1998, people said pre-rendered movies would disappear from games. With this view of the future in mind, the studio chose to use actual polygon models for the cutscenes instead. And nowadays game engines are being used to make VFX movies.

Looking back at Peace Walker, the studio looked at the era of cloud technology, and used that idea on a handheld device, the PSP, despite people laughing at the idea.

For the future, Kojima pointed out that businessmen always think: ‘Which platform or career is going to succeed?’, and ‘Where should I strengthen my ties?’. They choose their path while looking to the future from there. But they must look at how new technologies evolve and become a part of everyday life. He emphasized that creators must look to that future while they create.

Source: Hideo Kojima Twitter, Kotaku