Kojima Productions, the team behind Death Stranding, has been using the same technology for its projects since its inception. Both Death Stranding and its sequel make the most of Decima, the proprietary engine used by the team behind Horizon Forbidden West and Horizon Zero Dawn.
Discussing why Hideo Kojima and his team picked Guerrilla Games’ technology for its projects, the studio’s Chief Technology Officer highlighted the many strengths of the Decima Engine. He also noted that Kojima Productions has helped improve the engine over the years.
Speaking to Automaton, Akio Sakamoto highlighted that he had the opportunity to evaluate Decima when the team was initially considering an engine for future use.
His impression was that the Decime Engine was quite capable of doing open worlds well, even if it was held back in certain areas compared to other engines. Ultimately, the team was more than satisfied with Guerrilla Games’ technology.
According to Akio Sakamoto, the team did not always use Decima in the same way as Guerrilla Games. This meant that Kojima Productions often modified the engine according to its needs and communicated the new features to the team behind Horizon Forbidden West.
Guerrilla Games even incorporated some of those features into its own titles, even going as far as crediting Hideo Kojima’s team in Horizon Forbidden West.
“We presented the modifications we made, the features we added, and the results from our internal testing. I believe some of this work has been incorporated into Guerrilla’s environment as well.” -Akio Sakamoto
This collaboration has resulted in Decima being among the most praised gaming engines in the modern era. Compared to the likes of Unreal Engine, this technology can certainly hold its own quite well, rivalling the best that the gaming industry has to offer.
