Hideo Kojima has told Digital Spy his new game Death Stranding will be an action game unlike anything you've anything you've ever played before - but also revealed it hasn't even entered full production yet.

The superstar developer broke the internet on Monday with a brilliant but bewildering teaser trailer debuted on-stage at Sony's E3 press conference in Los Angeles. 

The stunning three-minute clip, starring The Walking Dead actor Norman Reedus, a baby and a lot of dead sea creatures, was loaded with symbolic imagery, metaphoric allusions and hidden meanings, but offered little clues as to what form the game itself would take.

Speaking exclusively to Digital Spy at E3 on Wednesday, Kojima revealed more about what gamers could expect from the actual game.

preview for Death Stranding – Norman Reedus stars in E3 2016 Reveal Trailer

"A strand in psychology is often used to refer to ties or chains," he explained, alluding to Death Stranding's obtuse title. "So how all the crabs [in the trailer] have this weird umbilical chord and how the baby is tied to Norman [Reedus' character] is a representation of this. 

"There's a Japanese author I am a huge fan of called Kobo Abe. He has a short novel called 'Rope' in which he makes a definition, a statement: the first tool mankind made was a stick. It was made toto keep away bad things. It's a weapon. 

"The next tool created by mankind was rope. The rope is not to keep away bad things. On the contrary, it's a tool used to keep good things close to you, to tie good things close to you. Sticks and ropes are some of the tools most used by mankind even these days. 

"In most games you see that are online multiplayer or co-op - or even single player - the communication is through sticks. In this game you will be able to use what will be the equivalent of sticks. But I also want people to use what will be the equivalent of ropes."

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Kojima stressed this does not mean Death Stranding is a multiplayer game in which you will be using physical ropes, but rather that it will be about making connections.

"I want the story and the world and the gameplay, as well as the characters in the game and the the player - the life and death elements - all to be tied together," he explained. "That's the strong theme that is in this stranding concept. 

"The player will be controlling Norman Reedus' character and it will be an action game if you really want to put a genre on it. For example, when I made Metal Gear, it was an action game but it was different because the main thing was about hiding. People eventually ended up calling that 'stealth action'. In this game the player will be controlling Norman but by playing it they will find something different, something that won't fit in established terms."

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Fans have spent much of the time since Death Stranding's surprise scouring the trailer for clues as to what it's actually about. One school of thought went as far as to suggest the clip wasn't representative of a game at all, but rather an introduction to the newly-formed Kojima Productions studio's philosophy.

During our interview Kojima refused to be drawn on specifics - "It would be like telling you who's the killer in a mystery novel," he claimed - but did confirm that both Norman Reedus' character and the other-worldly setting would be appearing in the final product. 

That said, Death Stranding the game has not even entered full production status yet. Kojima is still recruiting staff for key roles in his studio and has yet to make a decision regarding the graphics engine they will use to make it - although he revealed he has narrowed it down to two, one of which was responsible for the breathtaking, near-photo realistic visuals in the video.

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Kojima Productions

"We are getting to a very good point about how we are feeling about the visuals so we are very close to making a decision on the game engine. And once that is decided we will be in full production.

"One thing I want to tell people is the teaser is running in real-time," Kojima adds, with tangible pride.

"We made it in two and half months - and generally teasers are not made by the development team.  A lot of trailers are outsourced - that happens pretty often - but we don't like to do that. 

"We made this teaser ourselves, so people can trust us."