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The creative director of the next Assassin's Creed game, Assassin's Creed: Codename Hexe, says that he will never repeat the level of crunch he experienced as the creative director of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory.
Speaking to Edge Magazine, Clint Hocking explains that he "took on too many tasks and too many responsibilities" as the lead developer behind the Splinter Cell sequel, which was developed in just two years. Hocking, who served as a scriptwriter and lead level designer, eventually also took on the mantle of the game's creative director. Eventually, he found himself working 80-hour weeks, which he's previously said gave him brain damage, resulting in memory loss.
"[I was] effectively doing three jobs at the same time," Hocking says. "I was enthusiastic and passionate about doing that work, but it took a toll on my personal well-being." Thankfully, Hocking hasn't repeated that level of work since - while he did pull double-duty as creative director and scriptwriter on 2008's iconic Far Cry 2, by the time of 2020's Watch Dogs: Legion, he was only serving as creative director, a role he's repeating on the upcoming Assassin's Creed Hexe.
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"20 years later, it's clear I would not, and could not do the same [amount of work]. Now I only have one job. I am just the creative director, and I try to surround myself with people who are better than me at those other jobs. Certainly, this has proven more sustainable, and hopefully I'll get to keep doing it for another 20 years."
If nothing else, the kind of extended crunch that Hocking is talking about has become less prevalent over the past two decades as devs speak out more against unsustainable work practices, so hopefully, he'll never be in a position to have to work quite that hard again.
While we know very little about Hexe - at the beginning of this year, it namedropped the project for the first time in more than two years - the rest of Hocking's collected works are impressive. Splinter Cell, Chaos Theory, and Far Cry 2 were all extremely well-received titles. Unfortunately, both Hexe and the upcoming Splinter Cell remake are still pretty much AWOL, so we'll be waiting a while to learn more about Hocking's work.
I'm GamesRadar's Managing Editor for news, shaping the news strategy across the team. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.
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