Earlier this summer, word surfaced that Ubisoft Montreal creative director Clint Hocking had left the employ of the French publisher. Within the development community, speculation ran rife about where one of the primary architects of Far Cry 2 and the Splinter Cell series would wind up.

Clint Hocking will be feeling the Force at LucasArts.

Today, that question was answered. Following Twitter posts by a Ubisoft community developer, LucasArts has confirmed to GameSpot that Hocking is now in its employ. “We are pleased to announce that Clint Hocking has joined LucasArts as creative director on an unannounced project,” a LucasArts rep said. […]

Read the full article on GameSpot.

Ubisoft’s creative director Clint Hocking, who’s shipped games include Splinter Cell, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Far Cry 2, announced that he’s leaving the company after spending nine years with its Montreal studio.

Hocking did not specify whether he already has plans to join another developer or whether he intends to continue working in the game industry, but he expressed a need to avoid the bad habits that he believes are inevitable whenever he finds himself comfortable and content with his station in life.

"In the 451 weeks that I have been here, I have adopted many new habits," Hocking explains in a post on his personal blog. "It has taken tremendous effort to prevent those habits from atrophying into bad ones. Pride burns into hubris. Willingness wilts into desperation. Confidence slows to stubbornness. Passion boils into anger."

He adds, "Each of these faults and others – without care and constant self-examination – risk becoming habits. I am too comfortable. I am too content. And I know where that can lead for me. Fortunately, for the first time in my life, I know the way forward."

Though the creative director has shipped only three titles during his nine years at the company, he points out that those releases have sold a total of more than 12 million copies and have each received an average Metacritic score of over 90 percent. "I’ve been very lucky to say the least," he admits.

Good luck Clint!

Ubi Montreal’s Yannis Mallat, Far Cry 2 lead Clint Hocking, POP producer Ben Mattes, and EndWar director Michael De Plater discuss the French publisher’s approach to film-game cross-pollination.

The first day of the 2009 Game Developers Conference Monday saw some of Ubisoft’s leading lights gather for an informal panel. On Monday evening, Ubisoft Montreal CEO Yannis Mallat, Far Cry 2 creative director Clint Hocking, Prince of Persia producer Ben Mattes, and EndWar creative director Michael De Plater perched on barstools in a chic restaurant atop the Moscone Center to face a small group of reporters.

Specifically, the quartet had gathered to discuss the growing convergence of games and films. The subject is particularly dear to Ubisoft’s corporate heart, as it has been laying the groundwork to begin film efforts itself. Last year, the company purchased the license to make movies–and any other media properties–based on the Tom Clancy brand. Shortly thereafter, it bought Hybride, the Montreal-based effects house behind Sin City, 300, and Snakes on a Plane.

 For his funny but down-to-Earth presentation, Clint took the angle of demographics, and tried to shed light on the "typical groups" that we call "generations". As he presented numbers of working people in each "gen", he explained the historic context that came with them: the War Gen, Baby-Boomers, Generation X and, finally, Generation Y. For each of them, he illustrated the context such as wars and economic crisis change, and then made links between what a group of people wants based on what their parents had… and the consequences of their actions.

With more serious graphs, Clint proposed an hypothesis on the evolution of the players and of developers of games, based on workforce statistics and numbers of potential players in the population. Some of the slides left a strong impression on the audience: attendees lengthily discussed the period when three generations occupied an equivalent space on the labor market. Other attendees remembered vividly that GenX will have been a circumspect working generation, even if it was the generation that laid down the basis of the video game industry.

See you there tonight!

When: Wednesday, February 25th @ 7:00pm
What: IGDA-Montreal Presentation Night
Where: The SAT, 1195 St.Laurent
Why: Clint Hocking Speaks!
Who: All game developers, and those related to the game industry
Entry: free for IGDA members; $5 for non-members

Around the third year of a given console generation, everyone starts to speculate about what the Next Generation of technology will be like. But for the first time ever, the biggest change that faces the game industry is not a technological one but a demographic one. Almost all players of modern video games — and almost all developers of modern video games — up to this point in history have been the males of Generation X. This has had powerful, far-reaching repercussions on the field of game design. As Generation X is rapidly overwhelmed by the much larger Generation Y demographic and other new gaming demographics, the old Gen X concepts of what a game is and what a game should be are changing.

In this presentation, Clint looks at the changing demographics of gamers and the repercussions those changes will have on our industry.

When: Wednesday, February 25th @ 7:00pm
What: IGDA-Montreal Presentation Night
Where: The SAT, 1195 St.Laurent
Why: Clint Hocking Speaks!
Who: All game developers, and those related to the game industry
Entry: free for IGDA members; $5 for non-members

Around the third year of a given console generation, everyone starts to speculate about what the Next Generation of technology will be like.

But for the first time ever, the biggest change that faces the game industry is not a technological one but a demographic one. Almost all players of modern video games — and almost all developers of modern video games — up to this point in history have been the males of Generation X. This has had powerful, far-reaching repercussions on the field of game design. As Generation X is rapidly overwhelmed by the much larger Generation Y demographic and other new gaming demographics, the old Gen X concepts of what a game is and what a game should be are changing.

In this presentation, Clint looks at the changing demographics of gamers and the repercussions those changes will have on our industry.

Source

Keynote speaker Clint Hocking: “Today I’m going to talk about the future of game design”

February 10, 2009 – Vancouver, BC – Game Design Expo 2009 saw game industry professionals and enthusiasts from across North America converge in Vancouver, BC for a sold-out weekend of lively talks and panel discussions. The third annual expo – which has quickly cemented itself as a major event on the industry’s calendar – took place on February 7 and 8 at Vancity Theatre at the Vancouver International Film Centre, and at the Game Design campus of Vancouver Film School (VFS), Canada’s premier post-secondary entertainment arts institution.

Keynote speaker Clint Hocking, Creative Director at Ubisoft Montreal (Splinter Cell , Far Cry 2 ), gave the packed house an exhilarating start to Saturday’s Industry Speaker Day. His ambitious and provocative presentation, “The Next Generation of Player”, set the tone for the rest of the day’s exciting lineup, which also featured presentations by designers and producers from companies like Epic, Insomniac, Microsoft, and Radical.

Hocking led the audience through a rapid-fire rundown of game console history, up to an impending “massive demographic shift” in 2015, and asked the question that should be on every game designer’s mind: Who is Generation Y, and why should we care? “Today, I’m not going to talk about the formal aspects of game design,” he explained. “Today, I’m going to talk about the future of game design.”

Hocking’s keynote kicked off a day that ran the gamut from far-reaching explorations of how games are designed and played to behind-the-scenes looks at hit titles like Gears of War (Epic senior animator Scott Dossett) and Resistance 2 (Insomniac lead designer Drew Murray). A panel featuring a number of industry luminaries closed out the day, beginning as a discussion of Pre-Production, Prototyping, and Pitching, but hitting upon even more fascinating topics, as moderator Victor Lucas (Electric Playground) led the group through a wide-ranging and spirited discussion on sequels, the future of the industry, and the economy’s impact on game development.

On the event’s second day, VFS’s Game Design campus opened its doors to more than 400 registrants in a free, day-long Open House. Aspiring game designers and their families were treated to a hands-on slate of sample classes, interactive gameplay, and exclusive industry presentations. A Women in Games panel was an especially big draw, as it delved into one of the biggest challenges facing the industry today. The panel members were enthusiastic about the continued increase in the number of women working in the game industry, and discussed what they enjoyed most about their game careers. “It can be ridiculously hard but ridiculously rewarding,” concluded panelist and Electronic Arts game designer, Tara Mustapha.

This year’s event culminated in the exclusive announcement of Vancouver Film School’s first-ever $30,000 Women in Games Scholarship, which covers one aspiring female game designer’s  full tuition to VFS’s acclaimed one-year Game Design program. Details on six other scholarships, ranging in value from $2,500 to $7,000 and sponsored by G4techTV, EA, Big Fish Games, Annex Pro, Obsidian Entertainment, and Radical Entertainment, were also revealed.

Visit gamedesignexpo.com in the coming days for a full wrap-up and photo highlights of this year’s event.

VFS is proud to partner with the following event sponsors in making Game Design Expo a hit in 2009: G4techTV, EA, Ubisoft, Annex Pro, Big Fish Games, Obsidian Entertainment, Radical Entertainment, The Georgia Straight, Biz Books, Vancouver ACM SIGGRAPH, Women in Games International, Vancouver, and TechVibes.

About Game Design Expo

Game Design Expo is an annual event for game industry professionals and enthusiasts hosted by Vancouver Film School’s Game Design program. Since the inaugural event in 2007 and continuing through the sold-out 2008 and 2009 weekends, Game Design Expo has played host to such industry luminaries as Don Daglow, Ron Gilbert, Eric Zimmerman, Clint Hocking, Ellen Guon Beeman, and Kelly Zmak, and creative leaders from companies like Bungie, Activision, EA, BioWare, LucasArts, and Crystal Dynamics/Eidos.

gamedesignexpo.com

About Game Design at Vancouver Film School

Students in the one-year Game Design program at Vancouver Film School train to be part of any video game development team by learning all aspects of game design, from visual storytelling to level design principles to the production process, ultimately creating playable games themselves. In 2008, the Los Angeles Times identified VFS as one of the top 10 game schools “favored by video game industry recruiters” out of more than 200 other schools.

vfs.com/gamedesign

Vancouver Film School’s faculty and Game Design Expo speakers are available for print, television, and radio interviews upon request. For more information, please contact:

Thuy Khuc, Public Relations Coordinator

Vancouver Film School

+1 604.631.3563 or toll-free in North America 1.800.661.4101

thuy@gamedesignexpo.com