Splinter Cell, Far Cry dev Clint Hocking leaves San Francisco studio for new mystery company on the heels of Star Wars 1313 announcement.
After two years, LucasArts creative director Clint Hocking has left the Star Wars studio. In a terse update to his personal blog, Hocking wrote that he has found new work and is in the process of relocating out of San Francisco, California.
Hocking joined LucasArts in 2010, and his time at the company was spent working on multiple unannounced projects. Previously, Hocking was employed at Ubisoft, where he worked on the 2002 original Splinter Cell game and its 2005 sequel, Chaos Theory, for which he served as the game's creative director. The developer was also creative director on 2008's Far Cry 2.
Hocking's departure from LucasArts comes after the company's announcement of Star Wars 1313, a new third-person action game. The project has players taking on the role of a bounty hunter navigating a subterranean metropolis, Level 1313, beneath the surface of the planet Coruscant. Star Wars 1313 is a LucasArts collaboration, with Industrial Light & Magic, Lucasfilm Animation Ltd, and Skywalker Sound all contributing.
For more on Star Wars 1313, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
Sounds like hehad creative differences with the publisher, and either quit or was fired. Mixed feelings about this guy. Far Cry 2 was a disappointment. Decent game that should have been much better. Chaos Theory was a great game, though. Hopefully he lands somewhere good and makes a great game in the future.
@irwin88 The entire Star Wars franchise is owned by George Lucas, all games included. So, no, he can't do that unless he works for the guy. Learn the rules of the planet.
4 Like Well the game looks decent, kind of like Mass Effect in the Star Wars universe (which isn't a bad thing), but I wish that LucasArts would make a new space flight sim. They're obviously struggling to find the unexplored bits of the Star Wars IP, and after all, space combat is the heart of Star Wars, it never gets old, and there is an untold variety of space and atmospheric missions they could come up with. There haven't really been any good space combat sims since X-Wing: Alliance, so they'd be tapping an eager market as well. And just think, as fantastic a game as TIE Fighter was, how big and furious could the battles be with modern technology?But then again, I look at the dull and repetitive on-rails space combat from Old Republic, and I think maybe LucasArts and their studios just don't have the talent today to pull it off. Whatever happened to Totally Games, anyway?
@ctusmarsius You sir are 100% correct. That is all I want for the next gen x-wing and a tie fighter remake with a nice hoth level including the evac in to space.
1 Like Wow, the comments on this article are pretty mindless. Does anyone realize how important Clint Hocking is to the industry?
He's one of the few AAA developers pushing for systemic narratives that are driven by gameplay, rather than scripted setpieces that remain the same every time. Say what you will about Chaos Theory and Far Cry 2, but you have to admit they took things further than scripted gameplay.
He's a great game designer, and I'm very eager to see what he does next.
Star wars had a lot of great games back in the day. X-Wing, Tie Figher, Dark forces, Jedi Knight, Jedi outcast, Jedi Academy, X-Wing Alliance, Battlefront 1&2..to name a few. But pretty much all of the games based on the new trilogy and the clone wars pretty much sucked. And then they just dropped the bomb with star wars kinekt and the force unleashed 2. Its nice to see them reinvent themselves. Just hope its good! Tie Figher is still on my top 10 games of all time! Just an awesome game with challenges and a lot of replay value. Please lucasarts do this right
From what people say of the current atmosphere is like working at at lucasarts game division I'd say "RUN, RUN LIKE YOUR CROTCH IS ON FIRE!" and never look back... which is sad as Lucasarts is really one of those companies that can still turn the nostalgia crank for me as they made alot of classics... oh well
1 Like They really need to stop making Star Wars Titles. They've been beating a dead horse that died years ago.
@SenorKel "They" is LucasArts, which ownes the franchise that sells like hot bread. What I don't get is why are some people like you demanding that some titles shouldn't see the production line anymore? If there are buyers, let them buy. If no one buys their product, big deal. Is it something you gain if this particular product is not made? Do you represent a rival company? Are you afraid that they will come to your house and force you to buy and play the game while you famly is watching? please tell us, there's some of us who'd like to know.
@SenorKel They're better than most ''AAA'' games. Battlefront was better than CoD (or at least what it's become) Jedi Knight held it's own , Knights of the Old Republic is often considered one of the better/best rpg's of all time , Star Wars Old Republic has done massive damage to WoW , and even the licensed movie-titles weren't horrible as far as movie titles are concerned.
6 Like @SenorKel I disagree. It's a great universe, but I think they've just been doing it wrong, and Jedi's are to blame for it (figuratively of course). The overdone, overemphasised Jedi concept in these games are boring. This game puts you in the shoes of a bounty hunter with a more interesting locale. We still don't know what to expect from it, but I daresay it looks to be the best Star Wars game to date (in my most humble opinion).
@Devils-DIVISION ''More interesting Locale'' ... really? All I saw was generic space corridors.
I agree, I think it will be quite refreshing to play something other than a Jedi for once. I mean, I'm sure there are still going to be Jedi/Sith in the game as bosses or something.
Also why I really like Republic Commando, no Jedi, just guns.
@Custodian405 Indeed. Though I'm pretty sure the devs said there will be no Jedi's at all in this game. Dunno, maybe I misheard, but we'll find out either way.
4 Like Creative director, huh. Hope that means there's gonna be decent Star Wars games from now on.
he got canned for shaving all of his hair. when you make games, remember to grow your hair as long as possible.
I don't even remember him working on any titles at LucasArts except possibly the unreleased Star Wars game. Perhaps he was also the janitor.
6 Like I blame Kinect: Star Wars. That game was a travesty to the Star Wars legacy. From now on, if anything bad happens to the Star Wars brand, I'll blame it on Kinect: Star Wars, basicallly: Clint Hocking > Kinect: Star Wars
2 Like One of my fondest gaming memories as a kid was playing Tie Fighter. Frigging brilliant game with alot of challenge and replay value. I found Force Unleashed II in the bargain bin and thought what the hell, could be fun. It was ridiculously short and held your hand like a toddler throughout. Boo, I say! Boooooo!!!!!
1 Like It doesn't seem to bode well for the future of this company considering the similar situation which saw Haden Blackman's resignation from the company during the development of the critically and commercially disappointing Force Unleashed II. If Hocking's departure is any indication of what to expect from 1313, I'm certainly worried. He's a great designer, though, and I look forward to see what he accomplishes at his next post.
Not seeing a story on two of Cryptic's core developers getting new jobs this month...
Though to be fair, history has shown that staff return to Cryptic often.
3 Like Lucasarts used to be one of the most respected devs in the industry. Grim Fandango, Monkey Island, X-Wing, TIE Fighter, Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II.
But ever since the new millenium they've been on a steady decline. Still, I feel lucky to have played their games when they were at their prime.
I remember how excited I was when I read about this guy joining Lucasarts. Then they went on to release not a single game in 5 years....
1 Like He's probably frustrated that they're still making shit titles and not focusing on Battlefront 3. He probably wants to take his talents to a company that will make decent games.
1 Like Happy for him. LucasArts sounds like one of the more aggravating places to work over the past few years.
Probably got the hump with Lucas the puppet master sticking his beak into everything and decided it weren't worth it, maybe he got sick of churning out sub-par tat that devoted fans (myself included unfortunately) would buy regardless of quality
When LucasArts offered to triple Clint's pay if he just stayed for the rest of the production of 1313.... his response? no hocking way .
I would too. For a while not many companies made what LucasArts did , but if I had a penny for every game out there almost exactly like 1313 .... well.... I'd be rich enough to double Clint's paycheck.
When Lucas Arts switches creative directors, people end up getting the axe. I hope 1313 is really far along, but never had any real hope that it was anything other than a Gears of War clone.
@jazilla Oh come on, really? A Gears of War clone? Are you just trolling or do you know nothing about 1313? Wow.
You know what you should do start calling Gears a Black Thorn clone seeing how it was pretty much the first game with cover shooting mechanics. And if that is all people are basing that opinion off of then hey fair game.
Here's a Star Wars 1313 web doc introducing us to the underworld in the game.
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