Kojima Productions Actual Involvement: Finally Answered!

[KAP]

Everyone seems to speculate how much involvement in the Lords Of Shadow.
It seems him and his Kojima Production team had more then expected. Heres a few qoutes from Eurogamer interviewing David Cox on making the game:

Eurogamer: It's great that Kojima was associated with the game, but was it terrifying?

Dave Cox: There was pressure. It was quite tense. But it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. We thought, oh, we're going to have to submit everything and he's going to have a say on everything. He was clear right from the beginning: this is your baby. You need to run with this. I'm just going to help you. I'll give you my advice, my experience, mentor you if you like, but it's your baby.

A few times we submitted things to them and they said, 'Well, maybe if you do this, do that.' Nine times out of 10 we'd try to accommodate what they wanted. But occasionally we couldn't. If there were technical reasons we'd say we can't actually do this. I'm really sorry. And they'd go, 'That's fine.'

But it's been great. I knew Kojima from Metal Gear Solid. When Metal Gear Solid was being developed I was a product manager for that. I went out to Japan and I met him and we got to know each other. We had the same interest in films and we got on well.

Having him on board was a bit nerve-racking but it was like having my friend to lean on, to say, 'We've got this problem, how would you guys solve this?' They would come back with solutions and it would be fantastic. If you're on your own you're on your own, you know what I mean? We had Kojima's team to give us feedback. They said, 'When we did MGS4 we did it this way.'

Eurogamer: Is there an example?

Dave Cox: "We had big problems with lip-synch and facial animations. We did mocap but we didn't capture facials. When it came to doing all the lip-synching we were having a nightmare. The Kojima guys came to Spain – they said, 'We can't explain this on the phone. We're going to have to show you.' So they brought all the rigs of Snake. Then they showed us how they did it, how they rigged it. They helped us set it up.

A tip they gave us is, they shaded the teeth. When you've got teeth, it's all laid out flat. They shaded all the teeth and the tongue they made black, so that it looked like it was in a mouth. In some games you have really glowing teeth. It doesn't look right. They said, well if you shade the teeth – it's a simple thing when you think about it, you think, well, it's obvious, but so many games don't do it. We were like, this is amazing. We did it and it came out really well. The lip-synch and the facials with Gabriel are amazing."

KAP:So there you have it, no more bickering and speculation about this subject, bottomline is hes had more involvement in the production of Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow then alot of people first imagined.

Regardless, heres to MurcurySteam for making such an amazing game.

Heres the link to the rest of the "How Castlevania Nearly Didnt Happen" interview

[PuppetShoJustice]

That was actually a rather interesting little interview. Thanks for sharing.

[KAP]

Originally Posted by PuppetShoJustice

That was actually a rather interesting little interview. Thanks for sharing.

No problem mate. Oh yea the patch 1.01 has finally landed for Castlevania today, should fix the none existent bug that some are complaining about!!!
I got the platinum trophy without any problems myself but a patch is out anyway.

PATCH 1.01

[Jack]

I knew most of this already. They helped Gabriel look more heroic and encourage facial animations. Didn't know they actually showed them how to do it though.

I bet people are still going to be praising kojima for this game.

[KAP]

Originally Posted by Jack

I knew most of this already. They helped Gabriel look more heroic and encourage facial animations. Didn't know they actually showed them how to do it though.

I bet people are still going to be praising kojima for this game.

And rightly so.

[ToxicMegacolon]

The only Kojima influence I picked up on in this game was when certain cutscenes dragged on for too long.

[LuFFyPSP]

Originally Posted by ToxicMegacolon

The only Kojima influence I picked up on in this game was when certain cutscenes dragged on for too long.

haha lol~~ lmao.

[Angelwork]

Originally Posted by ToxicMegacolon

The only Kojima influence I picked up on in this game was when certain cutscenes dragged on for too long.

Ha!

This interview seems interesting, will read it while having my breakfast. Thanks!

[kyorml007]

thanks for the interview bro, looks interesting

[xhair]

Originally Posted by ToxicMegacolon

The only Kojima influence I picked up on in this game was when certain cutscenes dragged on for too long.

the kojima influence is also in the butchers kitchen when you zip into the open hatch to get a gem, you get a top down view with the first few bars of the mgs theme tune if you listen carefully