1 00:00:00,500 --> 00:00:03,060 AGENT 47: Hello, Game Maker's Toolkit 2 00:00:04,820 --> 00:00:11,040 Something that I love about stealth games is the way they often have these large, open-ended levels. 3 00:00:11,049 --> 00:00:14,860 Stuff like Camp Omega in Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes. 4 00:00:14,860 --> 00:00:17,850 Or the various shifting mansions in Dishonored 2. 5 00:00:17,850 --> 00:00:22,430 Or the intricate Palisade Bank in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided 6 00:00:22,430 --> 00:00:27,430 Unlike a lot of video game levels, which can feel like linear and claustrophobic theme 7 00:00:27,430 --> 00:00:32,390 park rides, these stealth stages feel more like real places. 8 00:00:32,390 --> 00:00:37,309 You can scope them out from high-up vantage points, choose your route as you go, and deal 9 00:00:37,309 --> 00:00:40,300 with situations however you like. 10 00:00:40,300 --> 00:00:44,950 But no game does this quite like the Hitman series. 11 00:00:44,950 --> 00:00:50,519 The franchise is jam packed with memorable levels, like the opera house in Blood Money. 12 00:00:50,519 --> 00:00:54,269 The seaside town of Sapienza in Hitman 2016. 13 00:00:54,269 --> 00:00:58,510 Or the drug fields of Colombia in last year’s Hitman 2. 14 00:00:58,510 --> 00:01:03,780 Every single level is an intricately designed and fully explorable space, filled with people 15 00:01:03,780 --> 00:01:07,100 going about their business on clockwork routines. 16 00:01:07,100 --> 00:01:11,860 You can enter almost every building, pick up dozens of objects, and disguise yourself 17 00:01:11,860 --> 00:01:13,670 as loads of different people. 18 00:01:13,670 --> 00:01:19,860 So, I’m left wondering - how, exactly, is a Hitman level designed? 19 00:01:19,860 --> 00:01:24,210 Well, to figure this out - let’s focus on a single level. 20 00:01:24,210 --> 00:01:30,760 And I’m going to pick the bombastic Florida-based racing mission from Hitman 2, called The Finish Line. 21 00:01:30,760 --> 00:01:35,460 Let’s zoom out and look at the Making of Miami. 22 00:01:39,200 --> 00:01:43,790 Of course, there’s only so much that I can tell you about the making of this level. 23 00:01:43,790 --> 00:01:45,890 But I know a couple guys who can help… 24 00:01:45,890 --> 00:01:50,820 JAKOB: Yes, my name is Jakob Mikkelsen and I’m game director on Hitman 2. 25 00:01:50,820 --> 00:01:57,140 ESKIL: I’m Eskil, I’m the associate game director on Hitman 2 26 00:01:57,140 --> 00:02:00,100 So I wanted to know where a Hitman level began. 27 00:02:00,100 --> 00:02:04,440 What’s the very first step taken when bringing one of these stages to life. 28 00:02:04,440 --> 00:02:11,959 JAKOB: So typically we brainstorm a lot of locations, and then it’s like “wouldn’t 29 00:02:11,959 --> 00:02:16,330 it be cool if… 47 went to a race,” “wouldn’t it be cool to do a fashion show,” “wouldn’t 30 00:02:16,330 --> 00:02:21,451 it be cool to do the streets of Mumbai with all the slums and all that stuff”. 31 00:02:21,451 --> 00:02:23,420 So that’s kind of the originating idea. 32 00:02:23,420 --> 00:02:29,420 So this level is set during the Global Innovation Race: a sort of Formula 1-style race on the 33 00:02:29,420 --> 00:02:31,080 coast of Miami. 34 00:02:31,080 --> 00:02:37,219 Globe-trotting assassin Agent 47 can explore the food stands, the paddocks, and VIP lounges 35 00:02:37,219 --> 00:02:40,770 - all while a race speeds on around him. 36 00:02:40,770 --> 00:02:46,430 Developer IO Interactive liked this idea because games set at racing events always put you 37 00:02:46,430 --> 00:02:51,040 on the track - but this Hitman level would let you explore the areas you never normally 38 00:02:51,040 --> 00:02:54,910 get to explore: everything but the track, basically. 39 00:02:54,910 --> 00:02:56,510 So, what’s next? 40 00:02:56,510 --> 00:03:01,940 JAKOB: Once we’ve settled on a location, we begin to develop the characters. 41 00:03:01,940 --> 00:03:06,240 In Miami it’s the Knoxes - how do they work in the mission? 42 00:03:06,240 --> 00:03:12,620 Miami has two targets for Agent 47 to assassinate: there’s a racing driver called Sierra Knox, 43 00:03:12,620 --> 00:03:15,959 and her father: the inventor Robert Knox. 44 00:03:15,959 --> 00:03:20,599 Robert Knox is what IO calls a “dweller” - he sticks to just one location. 45 00:03:20,599 --> 00:03:25,900 That’s his office building where, other than a tiny public showroom, the entire location 46 00:03:25,900 --> 00:03:27,560 requires strict security clearance. 47 00:03:27,560 --> 00:03:29,740 IO calls that a “fortress”. 48 00:03:29,740 --> 00:03:34,930 If left to his own devices, Knox sticks to a pretty small loop. 49 00:03:34,930 --> 00:03:40,210 He visits the Android testing lab, looks out over the balcony, talks to some scientists, 50 00:03:40,210 --> 00:03:42,379 heads upstairs to his office, and so on. 51 00:03:42,379 --> 00:03:46,819 He simply repeats this loop over and over again. 52 00:03:46,819 --> 00:03:49,940 Sierra Knox, however, is a very different beast. 53 00:03:49,940 --> 00:03:54,420 For the first 20-odd minutes she’s driving around the race track in her car. 54 00:03:54,420 --> 00:03:58,910 There are ways to assassinate her while she’s driving, but she’ll also start a new routine, 55 00:03:58,910 --> 00:04:01,220 on foot, after the race ends. 56 00:04:01,220 --> 00:04:05,879 Now she’ll bounce around the VIP area and, at this point, she’s more of a “roamer” 57 00:04:05,879 --> 00:04:09,370 - a target who walks around more public spaces. 58 00:04:09,370 --> 00:04:12,069 So that’s the location and the targets dreamt up. 59 00:04:12,069 --> 00:04:13,200 What’s next? 60 00:04:13,200 --> 00:04:17,930 JAKOB: And then we ask the question, the recurring question, “what could possibly go wrong 61 00:04:17,930 --> 00:04:24,740 here, and how can Agent 47 get a grip on the situation, how can he affect the situation?” 62 00:04:24,740 --> 00:04:29,259 So Robert Knox might be stuck in a predictable little loop, but that clockwork pattern can 63 00:04:29,259 --> 00:04:32,009 be disrupted in lots of different ways. 64 00:04:32,009 --> 00:04:36,499 Mess with the air conditioning in his office, and he’ll go to the bathroom to use eyedrops 65 00:04:36,499 --> 00:04:40,229 - which you have hopefully poisoned. 66 00:04:40,229 --> 00:04:44,150 Turn off the satellite, and he’ll go to fix it - giving you a moment to boot him onto 67 00:04:44,150 --> 00:04:45,530 the track. 68 00:04:45,530 --> 00:04:49,960 Break his prized car, and he’ll come repair it - giving you a moment to.... 69 00:04:49,960 --> 00:04:54,020 whoops, sorry pal. 70 00:04:54,020 --> 00:04:57,630 You can even get him to leave the offices if you’re particularly smart. 71 00:04:57,630 --> 00:04:59,669 Each of these murders requires a bit of set-up. 72 00:04:59,669 --> 00:05:05,030 You’ll need to find items, like poison for his eye drops or an octane booster to sabotage 73 00:05:05,030 --> 00:05:06,030 the car. 74 00:05:06,030 --> 00:05:10,729 You’ll need to visit various secure locations, like Knox’s heavily guarded office, and 75 00:05:10,729 --> 00:05:13,599 you’ll often need to wear a certain disguise. 76 00:05:13,599 --> 00:05:19,659 And IO can use this multi-step approach to tease you into more assassination possibilities. 77 00:05:19,659 --> 00:05:25,249 When you discover a military robot that uses facial recognition to pick out and kill targets, 78 00:05:25,249 --> 00:05:29,909 your mind lights up at the possibility of finding a photo of Robert Knox himself, to 79 00:05:29,909 --> 00:05:32,369 feed into the robot. 80 00:05:32,369 --> 00:05:40,099 JAKOB: We invite you in, and we set up the moments in a way so you can take advantage. 81 00:05:40,099 --> 00:05:45,860 ESKIL: But you know this Mark, because you touched upon it so nicely in the Art of Repetition, 82 00:05:45,860 --> 00:05:50,212 where you talk about the gunpowder - and of course when you find the cannon there’s 83 00:05:50,212 --> 00:05:54,499 a tonne of gunpowder there so it’s not like oh I need it here. 84 00:05:54,499 --> 00:05:59,159 But it is just to nudge you, and to tell you “ooh, there is something else here”. 85 00:05:59,159 --> 00:06:03,849 And the exploding golf ball, it’s constantly giving you little promises. 86 00:06:03,849 --> 00:06:07,469 And little temptations. 87 00:06:07,469 --> 00:06:09,870 Sierra has her own routines. 88 00:06:09,870 --> 00:06:13,699 When she’s on the track, you can of course shoot her as she drives down the straight, 89 00:06:13,699 --> 00:06:17,339 or sneak into the Kronstadt pit building and rig her car to explode. 90 00:06:17,339 --> 00:06:21,720 But there’s lots more ways to deal with her when she gets off the track. 91 00:06:21,720 --> 00:06:24,889 You can dress up as a Flamingo and boot her down a hatch. 92 00:06:24,889 --> 00:06:26,919 Kill her with a poisoned IV drip. 93 00:06:26,919 --> 00:06:29,219 Or off her during a drinking game. 94 00:06:29,219 --> 00:06:33,430 And at some point, you’ll probably figure out that there are multiple ways to kill Sierra 95 00:06:33,430 --> 00:06:37,979 while she’s on the podium - like being able to poison the champagne in the trophy, or 96 00:06:37,979 --> 00:06:41,389 rig the pyrotechnics to explode. 97 00:06:41,389 --> 00:06:43,220 You might overhear this in a conversation... 98 00:06:43,220 --> 00:06:46,560 RACE OFFICIAL: You could fry everyone on stage if the pressure gets too high! 99 00:06:46,560 --> 00:06:53,120 Characters in Hitman tend have very useful conversations the moment Agent 47 is in earshot. 100 00:06:53,129 --> 00:06:58,490 It’s one of the few ways Hitman feels quite scripted and gamey, but it does give you that 101 00:06:58,490 --> 00:07:02,009 awesome feeling of overhearing useful information. 102 00:07:02,009 --> 00:07:06,210 You might also wander into the podium building while exploring, and see that you can poison 103 00:07:06,210 --> 00:07:08,929 the champagne - another little tease. 104 00:07:08,929 --> 00:07:12,339 Or you might see the assassinations on the challenge list. 105 00:07:12,339 --> 00:07:16,889 These can be a bit spoilerific (though, you can turn them off) but they also give you 106 00:07:16,889 --> 00:07:18,800 even more hints at possible assassinations. 107 00:07:18,800 --> 00:07:24,550 But the really interesting thing is - by default, Sierra doesn’t win the race. 108 00:07:24,550 --> 00:07:29,319 She’ll come second, meaning she won’t visit the podium building at all. 109 00:07:29,319 --> 00:07:32,339 This adds a really cool wrinkle to the level. 110 00:07:32,339 --> 00:07:36,970 To get her to the podium, you either need to figure out how to help her win, or make 111 00:07:36,970 --> 00:07:39,449 her opponent - Moses Lee - lose. 112 00:07:39,449 --> 00:07:43,689 There’s almost point and click-style problem solving going on, where you need to figure 113 00:07:43,689 --> 00:07:47,099 out what steps to take to get Sierra to win. 114 00:07:47,099 --> 00:07:52,059 Now IO went back and forth over whether Sierra should win or not, but ultimately decided 115 00:07:52,059 --> 00:07:53,449 to make her lose. 116 00:07:53,449 --> 00:07:59,249 JAKOB: Making it so that you can make the decision whether she wins or not - it puts 117 00:07:59,249 --> 00:08:00,259 you in power. 118 00:08:00,259 --> 00:08:06,309 I think that’s very Hitman-y. ESKIL: There’s a lot of teasing. 119 00:08:06,309 --> 00:08:11,110 We like to taunt our targets as well. 120 00:08:11,110 --> 00:08:15,190 So now I’m gonna make her win, and then I’m gonna kill her. 121 00:08:15,190 --> 00:08:19,940 JAKOB: There’s poetic justice. 122 00:08:19,940 --> 00:08:24,620 Pulling off these kills often means waiting on the character’s schedules - the 5 or 123 00:08:24,620 --> 00:08:30,580 so minutes Robert Knox spends roaming Kronstadt, or the nearly 20 minutes Sierra takes to drive around. 124 00:08:30,580 --> 00:08:33,620 And this waiting is a double edged sword for IO. 125 00:08:33,620 --> 00:08:36,860 The schedules do make the world feel more alive. 126 00:08:36,860 --> 00:08:41,360 In most games, it feels like the world is designed specifically for the player, with 127 00:08:41,360 --> 00:08:45,080 bombastic events triggering perfectly for you to see them. 128 00:08:45,080 --> 00:08:50,470 But in Hitman, the world marches on around you, indifferent to Agent 47’s existence 129 00:08:50,470 --> 00:08:53,730 until he pushes against the simulation. 130 00:08:53,730 --> 00:08:58,910 And these perfectly choreographed schedules do put more power into the player’s hands. 131 00:08:58,910 --> 00:09:03,790 JAKOB: If you know, as the player, that something will happen, then you can build a plan on 132 00:09:03,790 --> 00:09:04,940 that knowledge. 133 00:09:04,940 --> 00:09:10,410 If you know that, hey, the fashion show’s gonna end so Viktor Novikov’s gonna be on 134 00:09:10,410 --> 00:09:11,910 stage at some point. 135 00:09:11,910 --> 00:09:16,160 If you know that up front, then you can make a plan for that and it will work. 136 00:09:16,160 --> 00:09:18,550 But they can also create headaches. 137 00:09:18,550 --> 00:09:20,980 ESKIL: Of course there’s the time aspect. 138 00:09:20,980 --> 00:09:25,680 You set some stuff in motion and now you know “oh god, that guy is...” 139 00:09:25,680 --> 00:09:29,230 You go into instinct and you just see this little red dot and you know this is gonna 140 00:09:29,230 --> 00:09:30,230 take forever. 141 00:09:30,230 --> 00:09:35,650 So we do actually have them sometimes running just to speed up. 142 00:09:35,650 --> 00:09:38,990 So, IO finds ways to deal with that. 143 00:09:38,990 --> 00:09:44,010 The running characters are one way - another is a starting position that starts the mission 144 00:09:44,010 --> 00:09:45,580 with the race nearly over. 145 00:09:45,580 --> 00:09:48,460 And you can also find ways to speed things up yourself. 146 00:09:48,460 --> 00:09:56,180 JAKOB: So often we try to make situations where you can shortcut the entire thing. 147 00:09:56,180 --> 00:10:00,910 One example in Miami is that you can disqualify Moses Lee and end the race, and 148 00:10:00,910 --> 00:10:03,070 then getting Sierra on the stage. 149 00:10:03,070 --> 00:10:08,390 And you can also disqualify Sierra and get Moses on the stage. 150 00:10:08,390 --> 00:10:13,240 So instead of trying to make it a thing that you have to wait for, or a limitation, then 151 00:10:13,240 --> 00:10:19,640 we try to turn it around and then make it something that you can also control to some degree. 152 00:10:19,640 --> 00:10:21,720 So that’s the high concept design. 153 00:10:21,730 --> 00:10:25,040 The location, the targets, and the dramatic moments. 154 00:10:25,040 --> 00:10:28,660 Now, let’s talk about the nitty gritty of the level design. 155 00:10:28,660 --> 00:10:32,140 So, Miami is basically split into two halves. 156 00:10:32,140 --> 00:10:38,590 On the one side is the stands, the food trucks, VIP bars, the paddocks, a medical tent, and 157 00:10:38,590 --> 00:10:39,590 a motel. 158 00:10:39,590 --> 00:10:44,740 On the other is the multi-storey Kronstadt building, the podium building, and the marina. 159 00:10:44,740 --> 00:10:49,770 For the most part, you can see the left as Robert’s domain, and the right as Sierra’s. 160 00:10:49,770 --> 00:10:54,160 The two halves are separated by the track, where various racers are driving around. 161 00:10:54,160 --> 00:10:59,970 JAKOB: Having a race track that cuts your level in two is a really bad idea if you want 162 00:10:59,970 --> 00:11:04,940 to make a level where it’s easy to get from A to B. So the level designers spent quite 163 00:11:04,940 --> 00:11:11,140 a lot of time on finding as many ways to cross the track, spread all out throughout the level, 164 00:11:11,140 --> 00:11:12,690 up and down the track. 165 00:11:12,690 --> 00:11:17,100 That’s why there’s two overhead walkways, and a number of subway passages that link 166 00:11:17,100 --> 00:11:19,370 up to an underground parking garage. 167 00:11:19,370 --> 00:11:25,770 Now, IO describes the design of some of the best Hitman levels as being a “snail house” 168 00:11:25,770 --> 00:11:27,400 with “Swiss cheese”. 169 00:11:27,400 --> 00:11:31,730 And i think the best way to explain these terms is to look to a place that should totally 170 00:11:31,730 --> 00:11:33,820 be a Hitman DLC level… 171 00:11:33,820 --> 00:11:34,940 IKEA. 172 00:11:34,940 --> 00:11:40,380 This Swedish furniture store tries to pack as much stuff into one location as possible, 173 00:11:40,380 --> 00:11:43,170 and - ideally - it wants you to look at everything. 174 00:11:43,170 --> 00:11:47,740 So the store’s layout provides an obvious and easy-to-follow path that takes you from 175 00:11:47,740 --> 00:11:51,950 the living room stuff, through the kitchens, into the bedrooms, and through the children’s 176 00:11:51,950 --> 00:11:55,990 area before leading you - naturally - to the market hall and checkout. 177 00:11:55,990 --> 00:11:57,730 That’s the snail house. 178 00:11:57,730 --> 00:12:03,320 This Swiss cheese is all the holes between the rooms that create shortcuts - so seasoned 179 00:12:03,320 --> 00:12:08,340 IKEA veterans and staff members can bypass entire sections and get to where they’re 180 00:12:08,340 --> 00:12:09,980 going more easily. 181 00:12:09,980 --> 00:12:14,880 In the world of Hitman, the snail house allows the designers to fit everything in to a tiny 182 00:12:14,880 --> 00:12:15,880 footprint. 183 00:12:15,880 --> 00:12:20,380 An entire race track that feels credible, with all the expected amenities and hundreds 184 00:12:20,380 --> 00:12:25,800 of NPCs can be squeezed into a tiny area that’s optimised to run on consoles. 185 00:12:25,800 --> 00:12:31,420 However, the area still feels pretty enormous because the windy pathways mean every major 186 00:12:31,420 --> 00:12:34,310 landmark takes considerable effort to get to. 187 00:12:34,310 --> 00:12:36,600 And IO guides you to those locations, using 188 00:12:36,600 --> 00:12:42,030 in-universe navigation like lines on the floor, helpful signs, and maps. 189 00:12:42,030 --> 00:12:47,620 However, the Swiss cheese effect allows for dozens of secret ways to get to places more quickly. 190 00:12:47,620 --> 00:12:52,691 Fences you can scale, windows you can sneak through, elevator shafts you can climb, back 191 00:12:52,691 --> 00:12:55,220 doors that open onto new areas. 192 00:12:55,220 --> 00:13:00,480 These create tiny shortcuts between the major locations that give you a feeling of mastery 193 00:13:00,480 --> 00:13:02,200 as you find them. 194 00:13:02,200 --> 00:13:06,190 Where a novice hitman player is schlepping it from one side of the map to the other, 195 00:13:06,190 --> 00:13:09,760 a veteran player can almost teleport around the map. 196 00:13:09,760 --> 00:13:12,500 Here’s another level design technique. 197 00:13:12,500 --> 00:13:15,970 JAKOB: We try to avoid dead ends. 198 00:13:15,970 --> 00:13:20,110 Though typically toilets are dead ends. 199 00:13:20,110 --> 00:13:24,640 But most other rooms actually have at least two exits. 200 00:13:24,640 --> 00:13:26,390 So you’re never stuck stuck. 201 00:13:26,390 --> 00:13:32,070 There might be some challenge or some things you have to overcome, but you’re never at 202 00:13:32,070 --> 00:13:34,290 a dead end where you have to turn around. 203 00:13:34,290 --> 00:13:37,400 Multiple exits also means multiple entrances. 204 00:13:37,400 --> 00:13:41,530 So the obvious way to get into the Kronstadt building is through the front door - but you 205 00:13:41,530 --> 00:13:46,210 can also enter via the parking lot, find a route via the podium building, walk through 206 00:13:46,210 --> 00:13:49,020 this door up on the walkway, and more. 207 00:13:49,020 --> 00:13:52,490 This gives the player more options, and lets them feel like they’re making their own 208 00:13:52,490 --> 00:13:56,970 decisions - and not following a set, scripted path. 209 00:13:56,970 --> 00:14:02,600 With these locations designed, IO also thinks about how the disguise system will work. 210 00:14:02,600 --> 00:14:07,360 Hitman, of course, is a unique stealth franchise because the game isn’t really about hiding 211 00:14:07,360 --> 00:14:11,670 behind walls or in cardboard boxes: it’s about hiding in plain sight. 212 00:14:11,670 --> 00:14:16,529 So you can knock out a guard, take his uniform, and then wander about in the security offices 213 00:14:16,529 --> 00:14:17,529 without much worry. 214 00:14:17,529 --> 00:14:23,430 In Miami, Agent 47 can freely explore the stands area and most of the Marina section 215 00:14:23,430 --> 00:14:25,520 unobstructed, as a member of the public. 216 00:14:25,520 --> 00:14:29,480 But he’ll need a VIP badge to access these areas. 217 00:14:29,480 --> 00:14:33,290 And he can only explore these areas when dressed up as a security guard. 218 00:14:33,290 --> 00:14:37,420 And it gets even more complex than that - you’ll need to be one of the Knox’s elite guards 219 00:14:37,420 --> 00:14:42,070 to get into the hotel area, and each racing paddock is locked off unless you’re dressed 220 00:14:42,070 --> 00:14:44,100 up in team colours. 221 00:14:44,100 --> 00:14:49,380 But often in Hitman, areas are built in tiers of escalating security clearance. 222 00:14:49,380 --> 00:14:53,029 In the Kronstadt building, anyone can enter the lobby and visit the showroom. 223 00:14:53,029 --> 00:14:58,070 But you’ll need an IT guy uniform to explore the second floor, and a guard’s uniform 224 00:14:58,070 --> 00:14:59,320 to visit the top floor. 225 00:14:59,320 --> 00:15:04,330 JAKOB: When we design the level, early on we map out: what people would be working here? 226 00:15:04,330 --> 00:15:07,040 What kind of disguises would be great? 227 00:15:07,040 --> 00:15:12,580 And then we have to figure out how are they layered in terms of what gives you access 228 00:15:12,580 --> 00:15:13,580 to when. 229 00:15:13,580 --> 00:15:16,290 And then also how early do you meet them in the level because if the first disguises you 230 00:15:16,290 --> 00:15:22,390 meet is the best one then we’re wasting a lot of gameplay for no reason. 231 00:15:22,390 --> 00:15:28,300 For the smaller moments in a level, IO actually learned a lot when making Hitman Absolution. 232 00:15:28,300 --> 00:15:33,890 This was a much more linear game in the series with more traditional stealth moments like 233 00:15:33,890 --> 00:15:37,770 needing to distract some guards who are standing in front of a door. 234 00:15:37,770 --> 00:15:42,790 For the more modern and open-ended Hitman games, these microscopic stealth moments are 235 00:15:42,790 --> 00:15:45,240 simply scattered all throughout the level. 236 00:15:45,240 --> 00:15:50,710 So in the pit building for Moses Lee’s team, this engineer needs to be distracted, probably 237 00:15:50,710 --> 00:15:52,730 by messing with a generator. 238 00:15:52,730 --> 00:15:57,310 And getting to this guy in the medical area for one of Sierra’s challenges means dealing 239 00:15:57,310 --> 00:16:05,540 with this doctor, who can also be distracted by a nearby generator. 240 00:16:05,540 --> 00:16:08,160 And now, there’s one last thing to do. 241 00:16:08,160 --> 00:16:13,400 JAKOB: And then from that point on, we iterate like crazy. 242 00:16:13,400 --> 00:16:17,470 The more times we can actually boot up and start the level before we ship it, typically 243 00:16:17,470 --> 00:16:19,530 the better it gets. 244 00:16:19,530 --> 00:16:21,660 We get smarter all the time. 245 00:16:21,660 --> 00:16:26,800 The developers definitely try to find moments that make the game too easy or too hard, and 246 00:16:26,800 --> 00:16:29,230 rearrange elements until it feels right. 247 00:16:29,230 --> 00:16:34,240 For example, they fixed a section in Paris in Hitman 2016 because Viktor Novikov was 248 00:16:34,240 --> 00:16:37,160 alone for too long, and became an easy kill. 249 00:16:37,160 --> 00:16:40,060 The designers also think about other challenges. 250 00:16:40,060 --> 00:16:44,830 Sniper Assassin requires IO to not giveaway the sight lines too easily. 251 00:16:44,830 --> 00:16:49,790 The challenge is often about luring a target into a good spot to take them out - not simply 252 00:16:49,790 --> 00:16:53,660 waiting around for the target to wander into the perfect location. 253 00:16:53,660 --> 00:16:57,350 And suit only requires some more tinkering - but not much. 254 00:16:57,350 --> 00:17:06,069 JAKOB: Suit only is interesting because we don’t really have to do that much to actually 255 00:17:06,069 --> 00:17:08,549 make it work. 256 00:17:08,549 --> 00:17:14,159 No matter how hard we make this game, no matter how hard we make it, they will always find 257 00:17:14,159 --> 00:17:15,240 a way to beat it. 258 00:17:15,240 --> 00:17:18,640 ESKIL: I remember thinking that in the beginning: “this is impossible. 259 00:17:18,640 --> 00:17:24,760 There’s no way you could do suit only, and then I remember Jakob just saying “no, don’t worry…” 260 00:17:24,760 --> 00:17:26,659 And that’s a Hitman level! 261 00:17:26,659 --> 00:17:29,869 But, these rules might not work for every stage. 262 00:17:29,869 --> 00:17:35,230 JAKOB: I’m personally very opposed to rules dictating how things should be, because then 263 00:17:35,230 --> 00:17:37,740 everything’s going to be the same. 264 00:17:37,740 --> 00:17:42,929 So I prefer that we use them as guidelines, because we need to challenge ourselves in 265 00:17:42,929 --> 00:17:43,929 this thing. 266 00:17:43,929 --> 00:17:49,789 Indeed, IO tries to make each level different, with different levels of verticality, different 267 00:17:49,789 --> 00:17:52,190 densities of people, different sizes. 268 00:17:52,190 --> 00:17:55,429 And even and thinks about them in terms of being in a chain. 269 00:17:55,429 --> 00:18:00,490 So the mission before Miami - Night Call - is dark and claustrophobic. 270 00:18:00,490 --> 00:18:05,429 And the level after Miami - San Fortuna - has an enormous fortress that takes up most of 271 00:18:05,429 --> 00:18:10,379 the map, leaving agent 47 very few places he can explore safely. 272 00:18:10,379 --> 00:18:14,110 So the Hitman games have all sorts of level design techniques - and I think they can be 273 00:18:14,110 --> 00:18:16,350 applied to all sorts of games. 274 00:18:16,350 --> 00:18:20,830 This idea of characters moving on a schedule as a way to let players make plans, and make 275 00:18:20,830 --> 00:18:22,980 the world feel alive. 276 00:18:22,980 --> 00:18:27,360 This IKEA-inspired language of snail houses and Swiss cheese. 277 00:18:27,360 --> 00:18:29,500 And the multiple tiers of safety. 278 00:18:29,500 --> 00:18:34,679 This is what makes Hitman levels so good, so replay-able, and so much fun to master. 279 00:18:34,680 --> 00:18:39,040 And I think lots of designers can learn from this. 280 00:18:41,320 --> 00:18:42,820 Hey, thanks for watching! 281 00:18:42,820 --> 00:18:45,809 And cheers to Jakob and Eskil for their time. 282 00:18:45,809 --> 00:18:49,519 All of my backers can watch the full interview, over on Patreon... 283 00:18:49,519 --> 00:18:54,940 ESKIL: This is crazy where the one game where you cannot drive a car, and the first thing 284 00:18:54,940 --> 00:19:01,389 we wanna do is show cars - is everybody gonna go “ooh, you can drive in the new game!” 285 00:19:01,389 --> 00:19:07,309 Patrons on the behind-the-scenes tier also get a look at the process of making this episode. 286 00:19:07,309 --> 00:19:12,899 Special thanks to everyone who supports GMTK and keeps the show going, month after month!