Jetstream Sam was primarily designed by Kenichirou Yoshimura who had initially planned on leaving PlatinumGames early in the development process of the game after it was handed over to them. However, three days before he was scheduled to leave, Yoshimura had stumbled onto what some of the concept artists were working on, asking if they needed any suggestions. He was enraged that they weren't taking the Metal Gear concept seriously in the development process and that they "cannot place this in a Metal Gear game!" He decided to stay for half a year beyond schedule until he was certain that it was up to the standards of Metal Gear.