Norihito Hatakeda

Norihito Hatakeda was a member of Team Silent at Konami, and the lead programmer and graphic programmer for Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3. He is notable for having built the base engine for those games, which allowed them to cast shadows and self shadows among other effects. He was given a "Special thanks" credit in Silent Hill 4: The Room and later joined Kojima Productions, involved as a lead programmer and graphical engineer on the Metal Gear Solid series and Death Stranding.

History
A major member of the Konami group Team Silent, Norihito Hatakeda was the lead programmer and graphics designer for Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3, which were released in 2001 and 2003 respectively. He is responsible for building the base engine for those games by himself without taking holidays, which was what allowed them to cast shadows and self-shadows (a major cornerstone of the atmosphere). He also did other effects work, such as the rain drops on the car windshield in a pivotal cutscene in Silent Hill 3 involving Heather Mason and Douglas Cartland, and the blood effects of the Otherworld.

After his extensive work on the two sequels, he was given a "Special thanks" credit on Silent Hill 4: The Room. He subsequently joined Kojima Productions (the company headed by Hideo Kojima), having done programming on Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and staff work on Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. He served as a graphics engineer on Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, and worked as one of the lead system programmers on Death Stranding.

Trivia

 * Hatakeda has been repeatedly praised by creature designer Masahiro Ito, who once said that "If Norihito Hatakeda hadn’t been involved with us, the graphic engine of Silent Hill 2 & 3 wouldn't have had any cast shadows and self shadows. Just thinking about it really makes me shudder!!!"    Ito speculated that he may have had the most difficult time working on the Silent Hill series.