How Hitman Designs Its Most Creative Elusive Target Elimination Methods

How does IOI devise Hitman World of Assassination’s inventive elimination methods? Its senior level designer says it is a mix of giving the target fitting justice, clever toy box mechanics, and a satisfying payoff reveal.

IO Interactive has revealed its approach for shaping the most imaginative Elusive Target takedowns in Hitman World of Assassination.

The ongoing Hitman game recently got another major update with a fresh Elusive Target mission named The Host, which sends Agent 47 after YouTuber JackSepticEye’s in-game role, Finn Colton.

Like every new Elusive Target mission, players can use their creativity to remove Colton in plenty of ways, which is part of what the series is known for, and according to senior level designer Marin Ansdal, IOI follows a very specific process when building these methods.

For every mission, the team brainstorms many elimination ideas and chooses the ones that satisfy the most of its success criteria, Ansdal said after the mission launched.

Ansdal explained that the target’s personality and the mission’s story matter as much as the mechanics, even though the player still has freedom to be inventive.

A strong signature elimination, he said, is a blend of giving the target poetic justice for a central flaw, engaging toybox mechanics to set things up, and a strong, satisfying payoff.

For instance, JackSepticEye’s character Finn Colton is fixated on making online content and shows little concern for safety or ethics. So the team created an elimination where you overheat and ruin his generative AI server farm with him trapped inside, while his employees record the moment on their phones.

Hitman World of Assassination’s the newly added Elusive Target mission, The Host, is now available at no cost to play now until November 25.

Ansdal also described IOI’s method for choosing the game’s targets, confirming that once a celebrity or public figure is involved, the level designer and writer take over, and the team looks for a location that suits the talent and builds a story that matches their tone and genre.

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