HITMAN 25th Anniversary stream - guests: David Bateson, Jane Perry, Toke Krainert, Michael Vogt, Eskil Møhl, and MOOD Publishing

Hitman: World of Assassination
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In Fall 2000, IO Interactive released its first title, Hitman Codename 47.
25 years later, the studio and the franchise have travelled a long eventful way.

And it’s time to celebrate it.
A month before the North American release of C47, November 20th.

IOI will have a stream today, at 13.00 UTC to do so, and to “share some behind the scenes stories from the dev team as well as a few special guest appeareances!”

Hitman 25th Anniversary
Hitman 25th Anniversary1080×737 163 KB

Nothing ever truly ends, only grows more worth celebrating.

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The stream has started.

Gabe (SoMe manager), and Katherine hosting.
Programm:

  • David Bateson and Jane Perry to be guests, at the very end of the stream.
  • Devs galore.
  • People calling into the stream
  • More about the Board Game

To set expectations: no talk of the co-op this stream. The team is still hard at work on it.

First Guest - Toke Krainert @krainert

Started in 2014 at IOI, He started as level designer, then lead level designer at the first year of the live content. Then level designer and lead technical designer on 007. And now back to lead level designer Hitman.

On IOI:

  • It’s been a ride. The studio has been through multiple phases.
  • From owned by Square Enix, to independant.
  • From being a single game track studio, to a multi-game track one.
  • From the tumult of Absolution reception, to the optimism and assurance of WoA.

On Hitman:

  • At the start of Hitman 2016, they struggled to onboard players.
    This is when the opportunity/missions stories were created. They were not here at first.
  • In Dartmoor first pitch, the target brother was comatose, and could be disconnected from his life support. But it was too dark.
  • All Easter Eggs that he knows of have been discovered. And the community finds them fast.
  • Exciting to see a new generation of player get into Hitman. First from Blood Money/Absolution to Hitman 2016. To now new generation inside the WoA.
  • Hitman went from niche, to known and a staple. Hitman being talked repeatedly by Game Maker Tools Kit is good to see,
  • Favorite level is Sapienza. As cliche as it is.The historical setting. The first nailing of the formula…
  • Levels start first with the location. But some can change. As an example, from Scotland, then going to England because it fits better.
  • Absolution was the starting point for the gameplay mechanics. Blood Money for where they will be toyed with (a semi-open world).

Second Guest - Michael Vogt

At IOI since 2012. Briefly on Absolution. Main Writer on WoA, now on First Light.

On writing the trilogy:

  • Started from the character.
    To him, 47 is a gentleman thief, that happens to be an assassin.
    In his story, 47 never fired a gun because he doesn’t need to.
    (yay my way of playing is canon :grinning_face:)
  • He was not comfortable with writing a stone cold killer. Even less a “schizophrenic” character, that would accommodate the player most chaotic violent play, yet structured and professional in story.
  • For him, 47 is damaged, and broken by the institute. No empathy. But he knows it. So he lends this responsibility it to someone. Diana.
  • 47 cannot do a hero’s journey. Absolution tried.
  • He always liked the line “We won a long time ago. This? This is maintenance”, from the Hokkaido/S01 closing cinematic.
  • Some locations never happened. One was an airship. It’s too small. It never went above talk.
  • The murder mystery was a long time wish, that they finally made in Hitman 3.
  • On the humour: one rule. Never admit that something is funny. Always straight-faced.
  • He always wanted 47 and Diana to ride out in the sunset, and leave it open ended.
  • Happy to have a full character arc. 47 kinda emancipated himself from Diana. Vogt does not know where he will go. Because it belongs to 47 now.

Third Guest - Eskil Mohl @E-mol

At IOI since 2011. As AI writing consultant, first on Absolution. Growing into WoA. Then to VR, and now the co-op.
He built the AI dialogue system. With Ulf Johansen.

On the VR:

  • Hitman in VR was a tall order. With at the time 2 games worth of content.
  • The challenge was that the game is animation driven, from button presses. See how much can be made into intuitive movements, like the manual reload…
  • But the game is full of unique set pieces, so it was a question of production management.
  • He appreciate the chocking/subdue mechanics.
  • Something he was very happy to see are the lockpick and keycard VR mechanic.
  • It also highlight the life of a dev work. Because it’s important, and he is very happy to see. And then it was ignored as intuitive so with no reason to highlight it by the players.
  • He always likes the throwing mechanic, and the humble brick.
  • He really wanted to see Freelancer in VR. And is grateful and happy to have made it, and to see the comments and reactions to it.

On the Co-op:

  • Co-op is looking extremely promising.
  • Seeing hostile NPC not targeting you but the other player. Offering a new angle to see them is a highlight.

He is amazed of the speedrun. He remembers the years of work on Dubai finished in seconds.
But it’s the design. And it’s a delight.

Fourth and fifth guest - MOOD publishing - Jacob and Ole

Jacob Moeller (art director), and Ole Steiness (board designer, previously video game designer)
MOOD started around 2019 with cinematic novels, moving into board games in 2020.

How do you adapt Hitman:

  • The foundation is to identify and capture the essence of the franchise, the core pillars.
  • It’s to capture the story moments, gameplay situations and mechanics. And translating them into another medium.
  • Not transporting them. But recapture them with the board game own language of design.
  • For Hitman it’s:
    • the planning
    • the creativity
    • the two going together with adaptability
  • In the board game, it’s communicated by the gameplay, but also the visual.
  • The cards are a junction of both.
  • The objective is to have the players feel smart in the planning, and have fun when adapting.
  • There are no game over for any of the players.
  • They advise to follow the KickStarter page to have the news of the board game.

Sixth and seventh guests - David Bateson and Jane Perry

Jane Perry - Diana Burnwood in World of Assassination
David Bateson - Agent 47 in the whole Franchise

How did you end up getting your roles, in the franchise:

  • Bateson: He was in an arena. It was a fight to the death. He was at the right place, at the right time. He was in a booth, and showed the visuals. IOI needed a voice. And found it. He thought the game had a Bladerunner feel to it. And he did the voice accordingly.
  • Perry: She was first the tutorial in Absolution. One day Michael Vogt said that they wanted to do a new take on Diana, “would you like to?” She was a bit nervous for the British accent.

How does it feel to voice characters that have been around for 25 years, a long history, and so much meaning for so many people?

  • Bateson: It’s humbling. They meet dedicated fans. For them it can be to their childhood. And it can also be for hundreds of hours worth of entertainment.
  • Perry: It’s a gift to have a character you can know so well. They can be picked up right up, no matter the months between sessions.

How does the evolution of the relationship between the characters goes to you?

  • Perry: Diana is 47 moral compass, going to the burgeoning sense of 47 becoming more human and gaining his own compass. Asking if they are still together on some moments.
  • Bateson: The relationship matured. The evolution was unspoken.

Have you taken anything from your character.

  • Bateson: He recognize in 47 something of him. Of being on the outside, looking inside. Aloneness (not loneliness). He would like to meet 47, drink a beer, play some pool. As closed as the small talk would be.
  • Perry: She loves Diana’s extreme intelligence, organization, elegance, and sense of humor. Diana is a character she would look to. The relationship with 47, deep, intimate, professional and platonic. Diana never integrated into her. But she wish she could.

Where would you want to imagine the future of the characters?

  • Bateson: They should move to business together, a resort. They need a vacation.
  • Perry: Diana more active in the field.

If you had to do a week end gateaway with one of your character, which, and where?

  • Bateson: Diana would have better conversation compared to 47. But he would like to hang out with 47.
  • Perry: Diana would have everything organized.

What are your character most iconic/favourite line?

  • Bateson:
    “Names are for friends. So I don’t need one.” (his favourite)
    “Your future is death. Any Questions?” (which he finds adorable)
  • Perry:
    “Good afternoon 47, your target is the 25th anniversary of Hitman.”
    “I shall leave you to prepare.”

Finale

Happy Anniversary Hitman.
There are party hats on the heads and party crackers in hands.

:tada: :partying_face: :birthday_cake:

Jane Perry, and Clemens are in the chat.

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Also here’s the YouTube link for it

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Someone @ me if a Silent Assassin or Contracts PS5 port gets announced.

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Seems like its just a bunch of interviews. At the top of the stream, they didn’t even hint that anything would be revealed at some point, so might not be anything too exciting here…

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To him. Not exactly canon. And I would argue that, although 47 may not need to fire a gun, that doesn’t mean that from time to time he wouldn’t, if just to change things up and keep his methods inconsistent to avoid connecting patterns in his work. There’s a reason why only other cloned killers like Grey and Parchezzi were able to recognize when he was responsible for a hit. Although, I do agree about the hero’s journey.

This is my surprised face. :unamused_face:

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Honestly really like the dev interviews, it’s always nice getting insight behind development.

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I couldn’t watch the stream, any update on the Kickstarter for the Hitman board game?

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Notes are done.
Everything should be there.
More or less.

Good stream.
The devs, the interviews, the different points of views, the party crackers…

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so - once again, nothing regarding the original 3 trilogy

disappointment-immeasurable

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Thank you for taking and relaying all of these notes!

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Or seemingly anything else relevant to content.

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The fact that I could tell both lines and specifically the second (very generic) line in an instant and knew exactly when he said both is worrying.
Such badass lines tho.

(First is Amusement Park in Blood Money and second is Fortune Teller kill in Ahbos btw)

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I really like Mr Vogt’s way of thinking (“this is maintenance” happens to be my favorite WOA line too, aside from silly guard quotes). This got me a bit more confident about First Light.

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Man… I was looking forward to it… Yes, I am also immensely disappointed

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Love this. I hope you can frame the other player as well, though that may be too difficult to undertake on a now outdated game engine.

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I’m also excited for the board game! Looks like lots of fun haha. Will totally follow the KickStarter. :eyes:

For what it was, I enjoyed the stream. :slight_smile: It’s still honestly crazy that we have support on a…10 year old game now. Damn

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Problem is, the support is starting to feel like it’s for a 10 year old game.

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Thanks for the well detailed thread @LandirtHome and for the breakdown of the interviews :slightly_smiling_face:

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Really thought they’d do something for the anniversary.

Wasnt expecting much, but was expecting something. Anything.

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I’m bummed I missed this stream. I’ll be catching up as soon as I’m back from my work trip (=

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