It’s something that occurs to me while Kojima is talking to me about indie games above a busy floor at RTX Sydney.  “I think the games [indie devs] create are interesting,” said Kojima, “but also the fact that you get a sense of … a very direct sense of who the creator is and what their sensibilities are. You know, the story, the game play, the different ideas that they come up with.

“You can see, basically, who the creator is. They’re not hiding. Not hidden behind a layer of things. They’re out there in the open.”

Of course, you could say the same for Kojima, and I tell him so. Why is it few other AAA games speak so loudly of their creators?

“I think the biggest difference is that for a lot of other large games, they’re created by different … there’s a subdivision of labour,” said Kojima. “Where I, myself, I do the game design, producing, promotion, writing, many different things. I do it all myself. So that respect, it’s kind of like being an indie developer.

Kojima admits he’s wanted to be an auteur since he entered game development, and made it a point to include his name on his games. “When I was a child, I watched movies by Alfred Hitchcock and John Carpenter. At the beginning of their movies, they would always have a subtitle on the screen that said, “A movie by Alfred Hitchcock,” or, “A movie by John Carpenter.” At the time, when I started to create games, no one did that. That’s why I came up with the idea. Because when I saw that I wanted to see their movies. It was, like, a sign of the movie that I wanted to see, so I decided that I would do the same thing. That’s why I put my name.”

Kojima is well aware of outside meddling and the pitfalls of ‘too many cooks’ while working on a AAA project, though maintains his indie sensibility helps him sidestep these common pressures.

“A Triple A game is just like a large budget Hollywood action movie,” he continued. “Like an open world game is like a large budget action movie. When we have a movie of that scale, we were talking about $150 million or something, there’s no room for failure. It must succeed…this is pressure that the directors receive from the outside.”

“At the show today, we have many independent developers booths down there on the floor.  Some of these will receive awards. They’ll receive acclamation for other games, and that can lead to offers from larger companies for, you know, to pick up that game, or perhaps make a sequel for it. That’s would be a chance for them to basically enter into that larger space. The challenge is for them to do as I have – where they will try to make something bigger, but maintain their independent sensibilities. Try to put themselves into the product.”

I ask him – how has he maintained a singular voice over all these years?

“Yeah, it’s not really difficult,” said Kojima. “Just simply believe in yourself. Believe in your vision.”