Bold claim: Decima isn’t just a tool for Kojima Productions—it’s the engine that makes Death Stranding’s world feel truly alive, and they’ve leaned on it for nearly a decade. But here’s where it gets controversial: not every studio would commit to a single engine for an ongoing franchise, yet Kojima Games keeps doubling down on Decima, arguing its specialized strengths justify the trade-offs. If you want a clear picture of why this engine remains irreplaceable for them, read on.
Akio Sakamoto, Kojima Productions’ chief technology officer, shares how the studio collaborates with Decima and why it was their first choice for the Death Stranding series. Here’s a paraphrased, aligned summary of the key points from his interview.
Introduction and role
- Akio Sakamoto serves as CTO at Kojima Productions. He joined soon after the studio’s founding and has held the role since its second year.
- Before Kojima, he worked at a major game company, contributing to its in-house engine and its titles, with a focus on graphics programming.
Initial impressions of Decima and how it evolved
- When Kojima considered Decima, Sakamoto personally evaluated the engine and found it well suited for open-world development. Its strongest asset, in his view, was a robust runtime rendering analysis toolkit that provides deep, integrated data without needing external tools, alongside a development environment built for large, cross-disciplinary teams.
- Over nearly ten years, Decima has proven valuable in ways that aren’t universally available in all engines, enabling tasks that would be difficult elsewhere. While no engine is perfect for every project, Decima’s unique capabilities have repeatedly paid off for the studio.
Creating Death Stranding 2’s iconic opening scene
- To recreate the expansive California coastline inspired by Fonts Point, Kojima Productions conducted extensive on-site research and gathered substantial reference material to achieve maximum realism.
- The terrain features vast sandstone formations stretching to the horizon. The team focused on large-scale geometry and lighting as the critical elements, employing three data types for terrain geometry, each with its own Level of Detail (LOD) strategy tailored to different sandstone forms. Dynamic switching between these data types based on viewing distance allowed dense, natural-looking terrain over a broad area.
- The scene reached roughly 25 million polygons while maintaining a stable frame rate, a feat largely enabled by Decima’s rendering pipeline.
- Lighting was validated against real illuminance measurements to achieve physically accurate results. The team discovered that relying solely on global illumination (GI) and Screen Space Ambient Occlusion (SSAO) didn’t provide enough occlusion during certain times of day. They added a dedicated mid- to long-distance occlusion map to better control skylight behavior, significantly boosting image quality.
- These refinements, together with Decima’s strengths, brought the landscape to life with the beauty and fidelity the team sought.
Workflow and performance with moving objects
- Death Stranding 2 introduced more elaborate moving elements, like a fireworks scene, yet the team managed to keep performance stable.
- During concept development, there was a request to depict numerous fireworks inspired by Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico. The developers extended and refined an animation system initially built for a different purpose (BTs) so it could render fireworks and support reflective effects, enabling more experimentation.
Decima usage beyond programming and shader work
- Addressing whether only programmers work with Decima, Sakamoto explains that engines support a broad range of development aspects. While the visual shader workflow often grabs attention, an engine’s full value lies in enabling various teams—artists, designers, and engineers—to realize their visions. In other words, no single role operates in isolation from Decima.
Modifications to Decima and collaboration with Guerrilla Games
- Kojima Productions often tailors Decima to their needs, sometimes developing new features or engine customizations. These changes are shared with Guerrilla at the code level.
- Regular coordination with Guerrilla started when Decima was first adopted and continues through ongoing collaboration sessions. These conversations sometimes informed Guerrilla’s own tools and features.
- While Sakamoto is not certain whether Kojima’s specific contributions earned a Special Thanks in Horizon Forbidden West, he notes that the team’s modifications and testing results have influenced Guerrilla’s engine environment.
Availability
- Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is available on PlayStation 5. A PC release is scheduled for March 19, 2026, on Steam and the Epic Games Store.
If you’re curious about the engine behind one of gaming’s most talked-about visuals, Decima’s long collaboration with Kojima Productions offers a compelling case study in staying with a specialized tool that promises deep control, refined performance, and a distinctive creative workflow—even as the industry wildly experiments with alternatives.
Would you prefer to see Decima’s strengths weighed against other engines for open-world games, or should Kojima continue refining what already works best for them? Share your take in the comments.
