Hideo Kojima, the games legend behind Metal Gear Solid, told a packed audience that he hadn’t yet achieved his vision for gaming.

Speaking at the BAFTA Annual Games Lecture Kojima, the Metal Gear Solid creator whose passion for film informs his work, explained how he’s still trying to perfect the groundbreaking game that made his name.

“If you’re going to create a piece of art you first image it in your head and that image popped into my head 25 years ago,” he told the audience.

“For 25 years I’ve been trying to recreate that image in the form of a game. I still haven’t been able to achieve that original image and until that I’ll carry on making games.”

Creating personal stories  

Kojima was born in Tokyo and spent his childhood making films with his friends – hoping to one day become a filmmaker. However, after graduation he moved into video games, eventually landing a job with Konami. He went on to design the hit Metal Gear series, which critics praised for bringing a cinematic feel and stealth action to gaming. 

Kojima said he thought so far films based on games hadn’t worked “because there isn’t a compelling story there.” He added that new open-world games offered a way for players to tell their own stories.  

Rather than having one great story you can have 100,” he said.  

“I want to give people the freedom to create stories and something that’s very personal to them.” 

Building a new art form

Kojima said that one of the things that frustrated him about modern gaming was games can feel similar – “stories and settings are similar to games that have come before.”

For the future he believes games can become their own art form and offer experiences impossible to get from existing media.

“Games have the potential to achieve something that neither movies or novels can achieve,” he said.

“It’s a unique form of storytelling and I think game creators should strive for that – and explore it to its fullest.”

For more inspiring stories from the world of film, games and TV explore our BAFTA Resources section.