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Hideo Kojima Gives Insight Into The Creation Of His Studio's Logo And Mascot
At San Diego Comic-Con, Hideo Kojima sat down with Video Game Awards host Geoff Keighley, and offered insight into the creation of Kojima Productions' Ludens mascot and logo.
While some may have anticipated more information about his upcoming game Death Stranding, the panel (which was live streamed and can viewed through IGN on YouTube), instead had Kojima show off logo concept art and talk about his inspirations for the design.
Kojima also unveiled a short video teaser, which shows the mascot planting a flag into what looks like the moon, however the scene takes place underwater on an unknown planet. It's a strange but undoubtedly neat-looking concept, which you can view below.
Kojima explains via his translator during the talk that, "You're led to believe it was the ocean, but it turns out it's a different planet. Then you have the flag, and the huge whale that has an effect that makes it hard to see if it's real or not. The whole idea is the thing that crossed Ludens tries to play with Ludens when he plants his flag. It gets really boring when you explain it all."
The thematic concept behind Ludens is to express the idea that "the more we play, the more we evolve," says Kojima. It's meant to signify the transition from homo sapien to something greater through technology.
Finally, Kojima revealed the man behind the mask for the Ludens mascot. It's not actor Norman Reedus, star of the upcoming Death Stranding and the cancelled horror game P.T., but instead Kojima himself. His face was digitally scanned so he could be the face of Ludens. The whole process started with concept art drawn by artist Yoji Shinkawa, and then progressed to the 3D model we see now. Kojima also confirmed that Ludens will not be a character in Death Stranding, but rather a symbol for the company.
At this year's E3, Kojima announced his studio's first video game, Death Stranding. Take a look at the trailer here, and watch our discussion about it on the Game Informer Show.
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