Fascinating-sounding podcast with Hitman 3's Executive Producer, Forest Swartout Large:
https://www.gdconf.com/news/hitman-and-game-production-ios-forest-swartout-larg%E2%80%AAe%E2%80%AC-gdc-podcast-ep-18
I haven't had the chance to listen to it yet but someone put together the following summaries and, well, it certainly throws some light on why certain aspects of Hitman 3 turned out the way they did - and it makes the fact it even exists sound like an incredible achievement.
Notables:
Forest Swartout Large felt that the pinnacle of her long career was in putting together the Berlin map in Hitman III (10:20)
Forest discusses how Hitman VR was conceived within the team from the beginning of Hitman III and how challenging it was to create (15:39)
Forest talks about reaching total burnout in completion of Hitman II and also reveals other personal challenges (30:54).
Forest explains challenges of the Hitman III development team working on Hitman III through the COVID-19 pandemic (37:30).
Forest was initially prepared to ship Hitman III originally with “robot voices” for NPCs because of lack of being able to bring in sound designers and voice actors in the sound studio (38:35)
Forest discusses how IOI had been acting independently from Square Enix way before they were sold in 2017 (40:29).
The “aim logic” in Hitman II was changed just before release, and this was a big deal (46:43).
Some working at IOI were not crazy about the focus on story narrative for Hitman III but this was pushed by Mattias Engström the game director (51:59).
There was ONLY ONE gameplay programmer working on Hitman III, nicknamed “CLANG” and he was assigned to the Hitman VR team, not to regular Hitman III.
(In a previous interview, Forest revealed that there was only ONE lighting artist on the Hitman III team).
IOI knew that they would receive flack for not introducing new features and new mechanics in Hitman IIII because of the constraints of not having a gameplay programmer available on Hitman III (52:47).
Forest says that she would be happy to be involved in a weekly podcast discussing Hitman (59:34).
Forest gives a great interview. Warm and charming personality. Comes across of a lover of working on video games. Video game development is “her jam” as she calls it.
Forest raves constantly in interviews at how incredible her colleagues are who are working at IOI.
Forest says that she and others on the team are comfortable juggling multiple IPs at once.
Forest says that she is currently on holiday, but is confident in the rest of the team working on the Seven Sins DLC while she is away.
When the executive producer of Hitman III who has more than twenty years of video game development experience, had complete burnout working on Hitman 2, you know that standard video game development required so many hours of effort and stress that it deeply affects your health.
Denmark has a 37.5 hr work week, and Forest tried to coax others to work within this number of maximum hours, although Forest often have trouble working below the maximum number of hours.
Forest loves making video games, and really puts in the hours knowing that their efforts really please the fans, and loves working with such an excellent team at IOI.
You have to think of the team being a big family rather than as a corporate entity. Not everyone working at IOI liked the choices of game director Mattias Engstrom in pushing the story narrative for Hitman III. The choice of having the sixth mission, as a linear, narrative driven, metaphor as an “assassin constrained to follow a life’s path set by his handler like a linear train” was controversial within the team at IOI, but everyone got behind the vision.
Hitman III was created under budget and personnel constraints which limited what could be created in Hitman III. Forest’s job as executive producer was mostly to say “No – we don’t have the time and budget for this”. Hitman III did not have budget overruns and was completed on time because they kept to a strict game plan without allowing for bloat and feature creep.
Forest made it clear that Hitman III was built on the faith that the gaming community would appreciate “just more Hitman”, a most polished version that this expert team could bring in a third iteration of the same game. IOI didn’t have the budget of time and personnel to do much else but make the best version of Hitman for their fans, knowing that they would be criticized for not changing the formula enough.
Hitman III was also constrained because they ended up having to put more of the Hitman III team on Hitman VR. IOI were compelled to make Hitman VR, but had no idea how to make a VR game and had no clue how much effort it would take to make.
COVID-19 put a wrench in the cogwheels in making Hitman III. Absolutely “crazy” was how Forest describes making Hitman III under COVID restrictions. IOI couldn’t have voice actors in the sound studio with their sound engineers. They couldn’t do mo-cap with the standard team together on the mo-cap stage.
IOI had paid for mock reviews of Hitman III before release of Hitman III to get a sense of how well Hitman III would be received.
Square Enix paid for most of the cost of developing the engine and prototypes for what became the formula of the Hitman Trilogy in the many years before the release of Hitman2016.
Before coming to IOI, Forest was working on the Tomb Raider series with Crystal Dynamics under the umbrella of Square Enix Europe, who also supported IOI. Crystal Dyamics and IOI were running their own show under Square Enix Europe long before IOI’s WoA Trilogy was conceived in 2012-2016.
Square Enix Europe really let the different development teams drive their own destiny. IOI was always fiercely independent, and separated from Square Enix long before they were cut lose by Square Enix. I have a sense that Square Enix Europe found IOI’s independence too annoying.
Forest, Executive Producer of Hitman III put it out there that she not only enjoyed giving the GDC podcast interview, but would be game to participate in a weekly podcast on “Hitman”.
