"Inspiration Notes" is a format I’m experimenting with for the newsletter. If you're like me, I'm always curious about the content that influences designers and builders. I've lost count of how many times I've heard someone mention Bret Victor's "Inventing on Principle" as a pinnacle moment for them. There are dozens of these moments and I love hearing about them. In issue 49, I shared a list of talks that shaped my design philosophy. The lists are great, but they don't go in-depth enough, which compelled me to try this format. On that list is a talk given at the Game Developer Conference in 2009 by Hideo Kojima called, "Making the Impossible Possible."

About the author

Hideo Kojima (also simply known as "Kojima") is a renowned Japanese video game designer, director, writer, and producer, widely recognized for his innovative and cinematic contributions to the gaming industry. Born on August 24, 1963, Kojima gained fame for creating the acclaimed Metal Gear series, known for its complex narrative, stealth-based gameplay, and groundbreaking use of cinematic storytelling in video games. His work often explores philosophical and political themes, and he is celebrated for pushing the boundaries of interactive storytelling.

Talk premise

"Making the Impossible Possible" was a Keynote speech Kojima gave in 2009. The talk is a way of sharing his design philosophy vs. the technical aspects. Though Kojima is known for many titles, this talk focuses on the Metal Gear Series. He talks about the nine games he produced for Konami. The foundation concepts he describes are three core tenets of making the impossible possible: Hardware and Technology (the foundation), Software Technology, and Game Design.

Game Design is depicted as the ladder created to get over the barrier of impossibility and Software/Hardware Technologies are the grounds on which Game Design sits. The talk shows an example of Solid Snake, the main character of the infamous stealth genre game, facing a wall he needs to go over. Kojima shows an example of how Mario would jump over the wall. However, when you explore different perspectives and mechanics, Snake has different options.

The marquee example in the keynote is when Kojima's first assignment at Konami: create an action game. The MSX2, the machine they would ship it on, had hardware limitations; one of those being it could only display a certain amount of sprites on screen. This means creating an action game that mirrors the 80s blockbusters like Rambo was "impossible."

Kojima brainstormed a few ideas:

• A combat game without fighting

• A combat game about escaping

• A combat game about hiding

All three ideas were lackluster experiences and nobody would play a game like that. The final idea combined all the limitations and subverted it—an infiltration game where you had to sneak around to avoid enemies but still engage in combat. The stealth game genre was born.

The talk is 1 hour and 21 minutes, and if you have time, I recommend watching it as Kojima has a wonderful visualization of the talk. Link

Notes and takeaways

I cleaned up my notes to share a few bullet points on what stood out to me:

• Possible: Done before, experienced

• Impossible: Never done before, inexperienced

• Revolutionary creation: Something nobody has done before and making the impossible, possible

• "Impossible" is merely an assumption

• Snake's stereotype is he can't jump over the wall of impossibility. Snake thinks of new ideas

• Technological constraints can lead to innovations. An example of this is how Metal Gear was invented on the MSX

  • Had to come up with new ideas

  • The stealth genre was born as a result of it

• Revolutionary creation breaks the barrier of impossibility

Lessons for Product Design

You could run Find and Replace for "Product Design" instead of "Game Design," and the talk would be completely relevant. Seeking inspiration from other industries gives you new perspectives on what you do. My focus is on design and dev tools, and there are many parallels with game design (in fact, their tooling is way more advanced than in software creation).

Constraints create new opportunities

The constraints in Product and Design might be operating system restrictions, governing systems like Design Systems, or red tape in an industry. In the first Metal Gear game on the MSX, Kojima's breakthrough in the stealth genre was due to the limited number of sprites the system could support. He was assigned to design an action game. If the technology was there, the stealth genre may not have been invented.

"Simply put, Metal Gear was born out of hardware limitations, advancing together with hardware to reach new heights."

Improve when there is no new technology

Just as important as knowing how to ship with new technologies emerging, knowing how to do so when technology stays flat is equally important. Don’t be dependent on technology to improve and find ways to drastically push the existing capabilities. Every sequel of Metal Gear on the same platform experienced big improvements improvements.

Play with technology to understand the implications

Being an early adopter is not about being a digital prophet, it’s tinkering and understanding the implications of the technology. It’s simple to call the winners when looking back. As you’re living through the present of emerging tech, you don’t know if you have the Apple Newton in your hands or the iPhone. Even when the iPhone was launched, there were skeptics about the adoption of a smartphone that didn't have a physical keyboard, made by a company that invented the Newton.

Design for technological paradigm shifts

One of my design philosophies is, "Seek paradigm shifts." It's essentially the infamous Wayne Gretzky about how the legendary hockey player says to stake where the puck is going, not where it is. Tech is dynamic and moves fast, and if you design with current paradigms in mind constantly, you may miss the shift. This means design usually adopts interaction patterns of previous paradigms and there is this awkward phase. For example, early mobile applications adopted web patterns without exploring new patterns that are suited for the new form factor. This happened with Spatial Interfaces (XR/VR/AR) where the UI had buttons that felt like they were taken from an iOS GUI kit. Over time, patterns will evolve into the form factor.

Continuous invention

I hope these notes resonate with you. I believe we’re in a paradigm shift with AI, Blockchain, and Spatial Interfaces which is very exciting. With the rising foundation of technological capabilities, this is a moment for new directions in Product Design. I’ll end the same way Kojima did his keynote with a quote from the closing slide: “Before giving up and saying 'I can't do it,' identify the impossible barrier that is holding you back.”

Week 04 recap

Feedback

I'd love your feedback on Inspiration Notes. Would you like to see more of these? Did you watch the video? If not, what are ways to make the notes more useful to you?

Hype links

Collection of what I read and related to this week's post

• Play Demo & Drinks for Designers → If you’re in New York City on January 30 Play is hosting a gathering that I’ll also be at. We’d love to see you there!

• Figma to Replit → Awesome demo by Devin and Matt on our team

• Hidden Genius: The secret ways of thinking that power the world’s most successful people → Just finished Polina Pompliano’s book and highly recommend you read it! It’s especially a great read to get you motivated to unlock your hidden genius for this year

• Pre-orders launched for Apple’s Vision Pro this week. Let’s see if any of these interactions appear from Issue #109