DGC Ep 479: Splinter Cell CT Bonus Interview with Clint Hocking

2026-07-22

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Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we revisit our Splinter Cell conversation with a return interview with Clint Hocking. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Podcast breakdown: 1:08 Interview 1:04:47 Break 1:05:11 Outro Issues covered: who is responsible for the MDA framework, moving to Montreal and working with New Yorkers, world-relative cameras, figuring out console cameras, the struggles with camera and...

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we revisit our Splinter Cell conversation with a return interview with Clint Hocking. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Podcast breakdown:
1:08 Interview
1:04:47 Break
1:05:11 Outro

Issues covered: who is responsible for the MDA framework, moving to Montreal and working with New Yorkers, world-relative cameras, figuring out console cameras, the struggles with camera and controls, a game that had all the elements, neoconservative fantasy to save the world from future threats, having a team form around the ashes of disagreement, doing three jobs, clarity in the goals, design sins, having invited moments vs supporting being better than the designer, establishing a systemic language, the most complicated doors in video games, being bottom-up, negotiating all the types of doors, everyone being on board with the approach, intrinically motivated engagement, motivating the desired experience, real-world examples of what it means to get 100%, the one job, being remote vs being in the job, level design and script writing between entwined, the state of the industry.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: UbiSoft, LucasArts, Valve, Amazon, Build Machine Games, Far Cry 2, Robin Hunicke, Mark LeBlanc, Robert Zubek, Doug Church, Red Storm Entertainment, Hitman, Halo, Xbox, Bounty Hunter, Jedi Knight, Metal Gear Solid (series), Resident Evil (series), The Fifth Element, James Bond, J. T. Petty, Rainbow Six, Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, EA, GoldenEye, Bloodborne, Sekiro, FromSoft, Dark Souls, mysterydip, Watch Dogs, Warren Spector, Psychonauts, Tim Schafer, Full Throttle, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.