Legendary video game developer Hideo Kojima is, among other things, an eccentric. Ever since the earlier Metal Gear titles, he’s been injecting his games with his own special brand of weird, and Death Stranding just so happens to be his un-distilled vision given form. So, yeah, that game’s exceptionally weird. As one would imagine, there is in fact a method to Kojima’s madness, and the creator recently opened up about why his games are their own brand of special.

“I think simplicity is good, but it gets consumed very quickly,” the Death Stranding creator said during a recent BAFTA panel, as reported by Metal Gear Informer. “It’s like food: anything that’s really digestible, it just goes out. […] And it doesn’t remain in the body. But something that’s awkward, that is not really digestible, it remains in your body. And you don’t know what it is. And human has this intellectual feeling that kind of lingers: what is this? Like for instance a movie, if that lingers in you, you watch it again over and over, or you talk with your friends about them, what was that about? Or maybe take time to rewatch again, or rethink of it again. And you kind of start to understand the real meaning. And it begins to be a real body, your blood and meat. And it remains in your body fluid, and not just comes out. And I want to create that kind of thing.”

I grew up watching movies or things like that, so I just do that in games. Everyone says it’s complicated, but I think everyone should just keep it and maybe nourish it for five or ten years, and maybe they will start to understand. And I really want to create those kind of things.”

Kojima then goes on to talk about how experiences can act as stimulation, and how the proper stimulation can lead to growth and an absence of stagnation. “I think stimulation is needed to grow,” said Kojima. “You kind of find out things you don’t know, that’s why you grow. So anything you know, or anything [that’s] easy to eat, you won’t grow. Or your brain won’t grow. It won’t be an experience. So sometimes I want people to kind of eat something that is not really easy to digest. […] But I really want to make that thing delicious, mind you.”

The seemingly delicious Death Stranding is now available for PlayStation 4, with the PC version coming next year.

So, thoughts on Hideo Kojima’s take on video games? What do you think about Death Stranding so far? Let us know in the comments section below, and as always, stay tuned to Don’t Feed the Gamers for all the latest gaming and entertainment news! Don’t forget to follow DFTG on Twitter for our 24/7 news feed!