Konami Staff Had To Gift Kojima LEGO So He Could Finish Metal Gear Solid Maps

It's been known for a while that Hideo Kojima designed the levels for Metal Gear Solid using LEGO, but over the weekend the famous Japanese developer revealed an interesting anecdote about this on his English Twitter account (as spotted by GamesRadar). In the set of tweets, he told fans that he actually ran out of bricks while he was building and that his staff had to gift him the rest.

As Kojima notes in these tweets, he drew all the maps in Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2 on graph paper, but when it came to making Metal Gear Solid, he decided to also design each level in 3D using LEGO and a 3CCD camera.

However, while working on the model for Shadow Moses Island, he apparently ran out of bricks, forcing him to put aside this concept before his team stepped up and bought him more for his birthday. It's a lovely story and one that backs up what we've already heard about the tight-knit nature of that original Metal Gear Solid team in the past.

As a bonus, you can actually see these LEGO prototypes in a video available on YouTube (as surfaced in a reply to Kojima by @distantgiant). LEGO was also used again on Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty to define the volume of the Tanker and Big Shell, as highlighted in The Making of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, a bonus disc that shipped with some copies of the game.

What's your favourite Metal Gear Solid location? Let us know in the comments below!