“I make the games as I film the cutscenes, and the staff and I give each other feedback to make sure we keep consistency throughout the game.”
Kojima tries to shoot Death Stranding 2 in chronological order, following the timeline of the story. He says you cannot shoot a game the way you shoot a movie by locking in a three‑ or four‑month schedule and filming everything at once. He makes the game as he films the cutscenes, and the staff and he give each other feedback to keep consistency throughout the game. They shoot regularly, about once a month. Elements that do not feel realistic in the game affect the story, so they adjust when necessary and the story of scenes changes along the way. They had been doing performance capture remotely but are reaching the limits of remote filming, so they have started going to the actual set and will continue to do so.
“Well, I'm trying to shoot in chronological order following the timeline of the story. And with games, you can't shoot it like a movie where they'll lock in a 3-month or 4-month schedule and shoot it all at once. […] we shoot regularly like once a month. […] As I said, we've been shooting performance captures chronologically, but we're reaching the limits of remote filming. So we started going to the actual set, and we'll continue to do that.”