- Hitman World of Assassination senior level designer Martin Ansdal shares the process of getting YouTuber Jacksepticeye on board for his Elusive Target mission
- Ansdal says Jacksepticeye “immediately gave us carte blanche to make him as evil as we wanted”
- He adds that “I’d like to think we matched his energy and went all in”
Hitman World of Assassination‘s latest Elusive Target mission stars YouTuber Jacksepticeye, and he allowed IO Interactive to make his character, Finn Colton, “as evil as we wanted.”
That’s according to senior level designer Martin Ansdal, who discussed the behind-the-scenes creation of the Elusive Target missions in an interview with TechRadar Gaming. The developer said Seán William McLoughlin, aka Jacksepticeye, “seemed genuinely excited” about starring in ‘The Host,’ since it’s a franchise he grew up with, and permitted the team to go as wild as possible with his character.
Jacksepticeye “immediately gave us carte blanche to make him as evil as we wanted and complete freedom in designing the signature eliminations,” Ansdal said. “Some celebrities are understandably a little concerned when they see themselves in the context of the game, but Seán was asking us specifically to push it further. I’d like to think we matched his energy and went all in.”
For this Elusive Target mission, Ansdal revealed that the team flew to the Brighton office to meet with Séan “very early in development,” which also meant “he had a lot more input on the mission design.”
“He added a lot of small touches, including the beeping sound the content creator cameras make when they’re remotely activated,” the developer said. “There is a very dark scene in the mission where Finn Colton ‘looksmaxxes’ while watching his old audition tapes. For this we had to get Seán to voice act as a child, which was a lot funnier behind the scenes than the horror of the in-game moment suggests.”
For these specific missions, the senior level designer explained that this is a collaboration between him and the writer, as each Hitman mission has a branching narrative and several creative elimination opportunities, as well as “a vast ambient script to make sure the mission supports player freedom and replay.”
“Usually we only do one recording session with the celebrity, so we optimize their script heavily and let the supporting cast fill out any gaps,” he said.
Ansdal continued, saying he was “incredibly impressed with Seán’s performance given that he is not a traditional actor,” and he is “incredibly affable and charming,” as he is used to “projecting that through the screen in his videos, which is a kind of performance in itself.”
“We tried to empathize that quality in his script cause we felt that would give the best result,” he added.
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