The Death Stranding concept is pretty out-there. Though Hideo Kojima has been characteristically light on details, we know that it stars Norman Reedus utilizing babies kept in glowing pods in order to fend away nightmarish, invisible creatures. These creatures seem to thrive in the darkness, which is where these glowing babies come into play. Its E3 2018 gameplay trailer showed Norman Reedus’s character using them to power a machine that emitted a light, which he could use to see the creatures. Needless to say, it was weird.
While Kojima is known for his outlandish storytelling, it turns out that he may have borrowed the growing baby idea from another game dev’s parody account. @PeterMolydeux is a well-known Twitter presence, with tweets from the account poking fun at the Fable creator’s history of elaborate game concepts. A tweet posted from the Molydeux account back in 2012 outlined a “concept” in which players would carry “a radioactive baby in a pitch black environment,” with the baby acting “as a torch.”
Imagine carrying a radioactive baby in a pitch black environment, your baby would act as a torch. Rocking the baby intensifies the glow etc
— petermolydeux (@PeterMolydeux) January 31, 2012
It seems that this Peter Molyneux parody account has noticed the similarities between his old tweet and Death Stranding, posting the following:
I can no longer be silent. I’m still awaiting for some sort of acknowledgement. pic.twitter.com/uFbHOfdYlp
— petermolydeux (@PeterMolydeux) June 18, 2018
It may seem unlikely that Hideo Kojima took some inspiration from @PeterMolydeux’s tweet, but then again, how likely is it that a game would be made featuring radioactive babies used as torches? Kojima is a prolific Twitter user, so could it be that the Metal Gear creator stumbled upon this tweet, and subconsciously lifted the idea for use in his new game?
Strangely enough, @PeterMolydeux’s tweet was used as inspiration for another game. Back in 2012, developers participated in a game jam called ‘What Would Molydeux?’ in which they created games based on the Molyneux parody account’s tweets. One such game was Radioactive Multiplayer Baby Rocker Racing, which was essentially a Mario Kart-style racer with QWOP controls. It’s fortunate that Kojima didn’t go down this route for his own spin on the Molydeux tweet, though Death Stranding‘s probably going to be just as weird.
