'Metal Gear Solid' Creator on How He Remains Creative Amid Hardships Hideo Kojima talked Thursday night about how he finds ideas.
By Stephen J. Bronner Edited by Dan Bova
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Original ideas are hard to come by, though they just seem to pour out of some people.
One of those individuals is Hideo Kojima, creator of the Metal Gear Solid video game series, which practically launched the stealth genre in the 1980s. Over the course of six main games, Kojima has crafted an incredible tale that has made players think about the themes of nature vs. nurture, the proliferation of nuclear weapons and our reliance on technology.
Kojima recently split with his longtime publisher, Konami, for reasons that still remain mysterious.
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So how does the 51-year-old creator keep his head up amid such circumstances?
"It's because I love doing it," he said Thursday night during an event in Tokyo, as reported by IGN. "I think I have to love it, or I'd never be able to carry on. If I were to give up then I would never achieve anything, so I just have to have faith in myself."
Related: 10 Tips to Turn Your Brain Into an Idea Factory
Kojima also shared this nugget:
"Inspiration comes 24 hours a day. You just react to the stimuli around you. Listening to music, talking to people, traveling, watching a movie, reading a book, walking around the neighborhood, looking at the birds or looking at the sky. The input from all of these things influences the way I think. The hard part is turning that inspiration into a form."
It doesn't take a sneaking suit or nanomachines to find your next big idea -- you just need to be open to everything around you.
