Clint Hocking

Clint Hocking is a Canadian video game director and designer. He has primarily worked at the Canadian developer Ubisoft, where he first designed and wrote scripts for 2002's Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell. Hocking rose to prominence when he moved up to direct 2005's Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, which was critically acclaimed and a commercial success. He went on direct 2008's Far Cry 2, which was positively received by critics. In 2010, he left Ubisoft Montreal due to him being too comfortable and wanting a new challenge.

Three months later, Hocking joined LucasArts as creative director on an unannounced project in the United States. He left two years later without releasing a game. Soon after, he joined Valve in an unspecified role, and again left two years later, without releasing a game. A few months later, Hocking joined Amazon Game Studios as a senior game designer on an unspecified project, before returning to Ubisoft, this time at their Toronto studio, the following year. Soon after, development for Watch Dogs: Legion began with Hocking as the creative director. Across his career, Hocking has written monthly columns for the video game magazine Edge, and coined the term ludonarrative dissonance, which has been widely used in the industry.

From Montreal, Canada, Hocking started his career as a writer for website companies whilst completing his Master of Fine Arts in creative writing at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. During this time, he was experimenting with the level editor UnreadlEd, which he used to make a mod and complete a game level. With this experience, he sent his resume in as "a lark" to Ubisoft Montreal and was subsequently hired as a level designer on 2002's Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell. During development, both the scriptwriter and game designer left the project and Hocking took on both roles, in addition to being a level designer. Upon release, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell was well received by critics, receiving "universal acclaim" according to review aggregator Metacritic.

Soon after, development for 2005's Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory started and Hocking continued as the scriptwriter as well as the lead level designer. In the alpha stage of development, Hocking initially declined the creative director role due to having two positions already, but he changed his mind a week later. During the two year development, Hocking was working 80 hours a week. This high-level of working caused him to have gaps in his recent memory, such as completely forgetting a week he spent socialising with a former colleague due to brain damage. Upon release, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory was universally acclaimed by critics and was a commercial success.

Soon after, development of 2008's Far Cry 2 started, with Hocking as the creative director, this time his only role on the project. Upon release, Far Cry 2 was positively received by critics. Hocking noted some of its reception was very polarizing, which he attributed to the game breaking many conventions of its genre.

In May 2010, after almost nine years at Ubisoft Montreal, Hocking left because he felt he had become "too comfortable" at the studio and wanted a new challenge. Three months later, Hocking joined LucasArts as the creative director on an unannounced project being worked on in their San Francisco, United States studio. In June 2012, Hocking left LucasArts without releasing a new game. He stated he wanted to move "on to something new"; It is not known what projects he was working whilst at LucasArts.

Two weeks later, Hocking joined Valve in Seattle, Washington in an unspecified role. In January 2014, Hocking left Valve without releasing a game. It was suspected he was working on the unannounced Left 4 Dead 3 during his eighteen months at the company.

In April of the same year, Hocking, along with Kim Swift, joined Amazon Game Studios, also based in Seattle. Swift has previously worked on Valve's Portal, Left 4 Dead, and its sequel Left 4 Dead 2. Hocking worked as a senior game designer an unspecified project for Amazon's Fire devices. In August 2015, he left Amazon Game Studios. He said he enjoyed working with new people but we wanted to start working on something that people will get to play. He stated, "I realized I had not shipped a game in seven years". Hocking also expressed difficulties in obtaining a green card and being on his third visa whilst in the United States, he wanted to return to Canada. A few days later, he returned to Ubisoft, this time at their Toronto studio, saying it felt like a reunion. He was excited to return to Ubisoft and he stated: "I know most of the people who were involved in founding the studio personally, and almost all of them are still here". Soon after, development for Watch Dogs: Legion began with Hocking being the creative director. The game was announced at E3 2019. Hocking noted that most of the developers who worked on Watch Dogs (2014) and Watch Dogs 2 (2016) were part of his team when he directed Far Cry 2. Legion is due to be released during Ubisoft's 2021 fiscal year, which begins in April 2020.

Across his career, Hocking has written monthly columns for the video game magazine, Edge. Additionally, he was a part of an Advisory Committee with industry veterans Raph Koster, Ray Muzyka, Ryan Lesser, and Brian Reynolds to pick Special Award winners at Game Developers Choice Awards 2008.

Ludonarrative dissonance

In a 2007 blog post, Hocking coined the term ludonarrative dissonance as a term for the conflict between a video game's narrative told through the story and the video game's narrative told through the gameplay. Ludonarrative, a compound of ludology and narrative, refers to the intersection in a video game of ludic elements (gameplay) and narrative elements. In the post, he critiqued BioShock (2007), feeling that while the narrative wants the protagonist to be selfless, the actual mechanics of BioShock rely on selfishness and the pursuit of power. Since its inception, the term has been widely used when critiquing video games.

Hocking is Canadian and has a wife and one son.

Video games

Films and television