Denis Dyack Learned Nothing Is Impossible From Hideo Kojima

By Joseph Knoop

Denis Dyack has made his fair share of interesting, groundbreaking games, but even he never saw the chance to make a Metal Gear game coming. That’s just what happened when the late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata and Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto sat down and informed Dyack, then the president of Silicon Knights, he’d be working with Hideo Kojima himself.

For Dyack, the biggest takeaway from working on what would become Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes was that nothing is impossible in game development. He took the chance elaborate during this month’s episode of IGN Unfiltered with Ryan McCaffrey (see the full episode below).

“Often in this industry, you’ll hear this a lot from anyone that, ‘Doing X is impossible,’” Dyack said. “I’ve never seen him say ‘I’m going to do this’ and not be able to solve that problem. Some of those problems are steep hills.”

You can hear more about what it was like to make Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes alongside Kojima, the early days of Silicon Knights, and the infamous Epic vs. Silicon Knights lawsuit on the full episode of IGN Unfiltered.

Make sure to check back every month for a new episode of IGN Unfiltered, where host Ryan McCaffrey sits down with some the games industry’s biggest names to find out what makes them the icons they are today. Past guests include the likes of Respawn Entertainment boss Vince Zampella, Double Fine’s Tim Schaefer, and Gone Home creator Steve Gaynor. You can find all past episodes here or on your podcasting platform of choice.