What started with an open letter to the community in January 2014, before being revealed in June 2015, was released on this day ten years ago, March 11th 2016.
Well, the ICA Facility and Paris were.
Since then IOI went independant, Hitman 2 released in 2018, Hitman 3 in 2021.
And the whole was put together under the World of Assassination title in 2023.
With it came Freelancer.
And it hasn’t stopped.
IOI will have a stream to celebrate the anniversary today at 16.00 CET On twitch, and on youtube. There will be devs talk, reveals, and much more
(link to a CET clock)
In the meantime, why not watch the making of documentary from 2016?
It’s a living, breathing world of assassination. And once you know, there’s no going back.
In the current age of Durians, Kalmers, and other powerful tools, let us remember that Hitman 2016 purposely released without a legal non-lethal melee unlock.
A breakable one-time use one was introduced after a year, in January 2017, at the high price of full completion and mastery of Marrakesh in Professional. The Crystal Ball, ironically now seen as an oddity of a joke item.
It wasn’t until a full year and a half and the release of the Claw Hammer in September 2017 that such legal non-lethal melee power was fully entrusted to the player.
That always felt like a logical step, not power creep (which is what the durian/ gas grenades suffer from). The breakable melee’s still have purpose and a niche. They are one-time, but are very fast (and can help in particle boosting if you’re into that). The Kalmer and Sieker guns are effectively power-crept out when the goldbrick, blue easter egg and the durian exist, because there’s no penalty for those items, which did exist on the Kalmer/ Sieker.
Anniversary stream notes. Hosted by @IOI_Artjoms, in a bold and impossible to ignore signature suit. And three guests!
The program:
Announcements.
Interview with Toke Krainert.
Interview with Eskil Mohl.
Interview with Anders Flodihn.
Play of the original release of Hitman 2016.
Announcements
The World of Assassination soundtrack will be released on Vinyl and on Streaming platforms.
2 versions. (more on that in a later weekly community stream)
41 tracks.
Date to be announced soon.
Overachievers, a side-story in the world of assassination released years ago written by main writer Michael Vogt, and lost to the site redesign, will be made available again through the IOI account.
The Arms Length Principle, written at the same time but never released, will be made available, also on IOI accounts.
Lead level designer on the first two years of the live content
Level design on 007, tech design on 007
Now back on Hitman for the celebrETs, and pretty much everything
In IOI since 2014, 12 years, at 24 years old.
Join at the end of pre-production of Hitman 2016, as an Intern.
Paris was present, but Story Missions were not there yet.
Sapienza was a sniper level, then converted into a sandbox, then cut by 30% in size.
Marrakash was just started, Hokkaido not.
Hitman 2016 was his first full game development, a lot of learning of the techs, the systems, the map.
His favourite contribution is a House Build on Sand, because one of his first “in-charge, free” contribution.
His “baby” is Dartmoor, a Death in the Family, for which he was track owner.
Hasn’t launched H2016 since starting the work in H2.
A Space Station level was floated around as an idea.
He sees his progression in his work, because some knowledge are from playing, reading, some are from working and internalizing the process. He saw it smoothing out.
When each map released episodically, it gave them a chance each time to celebrate. And they did so with a drink from the location of the map. He remembers drinking a Budweisser after the release of Colorado.
Interview with Eskil Mohl
Senior Game Designer.
At IOI since Absolution (Arti first Hitman)
He did systemic dialogues on Absolution (non-scripted dialogue, “barks”), and the NPC AI linked to them.
Favourite contribution: NPC reactions and behaviour if a lot of mess is made, how they return to their normal state, the waking-up of NPC whose clothes you stole and need to re-clothe themselves,the body-bags, the weapons on the ground, the clean up. Worked with David on it.
Another is the throwing of non-lethal melee, Absolution being limited to lethal ones.
A third is what happen if you start a choke-hold and don’t go to the end of it, which gave us all the awkward “in you arms” dialogue there. The dialogue if you are too close to an NPC…
Modern Hitman are intentionally more lenient on social stealth, not being caught if too close, or running, to allow more play with it.
**Interview with Anders Flodhin
Character and 3D artist
Since 2003. Was away for some of it.
Worked on Absolution. Was part of the incubation for then titled “Hitman 6”.
Part of his work is to design the characters in a way that shows who they are in the universe, and in the game. Was do they wear, what fashion, maybe more conservative clothes…
The Maelstrom was very interesting to create, since he is a generic NPC, with everyday clothes, for most of the level. Him being a warlord is still visible in his “hero clothes” state. The challenge was how to make a NPC that is both a normal guy, and a myth.
Target unused concept art are not reused for generic NPC.
IOI has, over the year, build a large library of 3D assets to create outfits for the crowd NPCs.
Unique NPCs are a separate process.
He looks fondly at what IOI managed to be, to hold, between 2017 to 2021. Squexit, going independent, facing COVID, still making two games. It’s amazing.
Miscs:
IOI was surprised by the reception of the Co-Op announcement. They want to truly polish it before showing it. It will take time.
30M hours in freelancer and only 8.9M in contracts
For freelancers short lifespan, it seems to be quite popular! Which makes it even weirder why they don’t give it the love it deserves..
But its pretty cool to see how much time we all spend collectively, since the first game released!
Well I know IOI have talked about potential further updates to Freelancer, so lets see what happens. Looking at the figures, people are definitely still invested in it, so there is hope we may get further updates. From my side, that would be absolutely awesome as Freelancer I’ve played consistently since it launched
I feel like an ET missing from the list…
Jokes aside it’s quite impressive to see how far the franchise has come, especially after the “mixed” community reception from Absolution.
I especially remember how glad I was seeing the 2016 trailer and realizing one of my favourite series was not in an indefinite hiatus.
IOI will have a stream to celebrate the anniversary today at 16.00 CET
There will be devs talk, reveals, and much more
IOI will have a stream to celebrate the anniversary today at 16.00 CET 
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