Ten Years Down

I realized earlier today that it's been ten years since Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory shipped.

Obviously, a lot has changed in that time, but I'm not going to wax nostalgic about that. I thought instead I would regale you a never before made public tale of what that game meant to me.

Chaos Theory was a hell of a project. I began as the Lead Level Designer and the Scriptwriter, which meant from the start I was doing two serious, full time jobs. I had to get the level design team queued up to deliver 12 maps that were of much higher and much more uniform quality than those in the original game, and I had to make sure we had a story and script that worked all the way through. I also had to get a commitment from that entire team that - come hell or high water - we would not cut a single level. This was doubling down on both the team, and on quality - it meant everyone on the level design side was bought in, but it also meant I could work with confidence on a script that would not later be hobbled by having to move or cut levels.

At the same time, there was a lot of stuff to fix in terms of the global vision of the game. The original Splinter Cell had been a big hit, but it was not without its serious faults. Punishing 'Game Over' gating and brutal trial-and-error gameplay that we should have fixed in the original needed some challenging and innovative solutions if Splinter Cell was to be moved forward.

Development was hard. Sometime around Alpha, mandate came down from Ubi that all internal projects needed to have a Creative Director. Mathieu Ferland - the Producer - asked me to do the job. I said no. I was not convinced that it was not just a bullshit management position and I was worried that I already had two jobs. But after a few discussions with friends and family and the team, a week or so later I changed my mind and became Creative Director, Lead Level Designer and Writer for the game. If you watch the credits, you'll see that three of the first five names in the credits are me. The other two were Mathieu Ferland, and the Art Director, The Chinh Ngo. Anyway, these responsibilities came with a heavy price, though. I spent most of the 24 months of Chaos Theory's development working 80 hours a week.

About six months after I became Creative Director, when the game was around Beta, my good friend Dave (who had been an AI programmer on the original Splinter Cell, and who is currently one of the founders of Tiger Style) came to Montreal to visit. He stayed with us, and he slept in our spare room for a week or ten days. That week I took 'time off' - by which I mean I left work at 6pm or so every night so we could have dinner and hang out. It was fun - I've been told. I don't really remember.

I went to GDC in March of 2005, while the game was in the distribution process, and I gave a talk about the narrative structure of the game. Of course, I also got to hang out with Dave under far less stressful circumstances. Over dinner one night, we got to talking about the time he'd last been in Montreal. During that discussion, I kept correcting him about what we'd done the last time he was in Montreal, but we kept disagreeing about the details and the timing. Over the course of the meal, we realized that I actually had no memory of his trip to Montreal six months previously, and that I was recalling a previous visit he'd made about a year or so before that. Dave had spent a week living in my house. I had curtailed my work week down from 70-80 hours to a normal 40 in order to spend time with him. We had eaten great meals, gone to great bars, seen movies, played games, and talked about our careers and the industry and our pasts and our futures, and all of it was simply fucking gone. I could not remember any of it.

To be clear - I do not mean I didn't remember what we did or what we talked about. I mean that I literally had no memory of the events. To me it was like it never happened. It was like he never visited. There was just an empty space in my brain that had been overwritten by the stress and anxiety of Splinter Cell. Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory gave me brain damage.

Once we realized that the incongruities in our conversation were the result of a legitimate failing of my memory, Dave helped me trying to find a handle. We talked about it over dinner, and then on and off over time. I spoke with my wife about it (she, of course, had full recollection), and eventually, I was able to pin a few minor pieces of my memories to the cork board of my brain and piece together a kind of past.

Over time, I was able to slowly reconstruct some significant part of that lost week. I remember a few meals and a few conversations in a few bars. I remember my friend being in my house. I remember us drinking coffee together and smoking cigarettes.

Writing it all down, now, I have to confess I have mixed feelings about it. I am really, truly proud of what we accomplished with Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. It stands the test of time as one of the best games ever made. At the same time, the personal cost for making it was real and serious. It's not about forgotten beers in some bar on St Laurent. It's about brain damage and the loss of life. To this day, I am still not sure what the right equation is there. I'm still not sure if it was worth it. I'm still not sure if I would do it again if I had the chance.

Anyway, here's something you've never seen before:

Comments

[Paul Jensen]

Just wanted to say Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory was one hell of a game - the gameplay, the humour, the soundtrack, the storyline, everything! It was brilliant - I'm sorry to read how much you sacrificed for it with the memory loss you suffered. For what it's worth, you did a great job!

[Scott Baar]

Thanks for making chaos theory. I played the first 4 splinter cells but was never able to finish the last level on the first one (or the dlc level I told held off on until i beat the last level), and I played a ton of multiplayer badly on the 2nd and fourth one, but chaos theory is the only one I ever finished. If you implied that that the other stories were not as coherent because of cuts or multiple visions, you're dead on. In every other splinter cell half the time I would start the mission and be "where the hell am i?". I would have to reload the save from the last mission and maybe, maybe, a character would say in one line quickly where I was headed next mission. But chaos theory always had a better flow between levels and within levels too. It made it harder to put down than the rest.

[Paul]

Hi Clint, 80 hour weeks...sounds insane and brutal. I can't believe this was even possible. Gotta say though, Chaos Theory is still the best in the series and one of the finest stealth games ever, and the script is huge part of it. Those interrogations are timeless. And the mission design...simply fantastic. Also, whoever chose Amon Tobin for OST made brilliant decision there.
Now I kinda wish I could play another game from you, been so long since FC2.

[AEP]

The more you unfurl about your time spent on CT, the more I appreciate it -- both you talking about it and the time you sunk into production. This piece and the episode of Tone Control where you spoke a bit about CT and FC2 were fantastic. I think they should be part of the required reading for anyone interested in the Inside Baseball angle of CT. It truly was a fantastic game. Like most fantastic games of a considerable production cost, you really start to consider how many individuals sacrificed their time and how much. As more is expected from the audience and the fidelity of everything (AI, visuals, interactions/systems, etc.) increases, so too does the individual sacrifice, I believe.

Also, I wanted to share a small bit about Blacklist's development. For a long time, internally (obviously) we used parts of Amon Tobin's CT soundtrack as placeholder until we got our soundtrack proper. The Abandoned Mill in London used The Lighthouse, for example.

[AEP]

Hah, it was actually Displaced, my bad. It seems I've had lapses in memory too.

[Stefan]

Cool story. Good quality takes good sacrifice, i guess. One guy lost some of his memory, while millions (probably) got something that they will never forget. Fair trade if you ask me :P

[auouywonz]

absolutely love this game and I'm glad you gave up your brain so I could have it - curiously intimate

[Rishabh]

@Stefan
nailed it.

[Mark D]

Feeling your pain my friend. I've gone through two extended stretches like that - both shorter than yours though - and am still torn about them. During the most recent I kept joking that it was so intense that I wasn't making any new long-term memories, and it was actually noticeably true while I was in it.

Having gone through these periods I'm not sure I'd do anything different now - there is something interesting and wonderful about exploring what you're capable of when singularly focused on a task for an extended duration. I suppose the key is to make sure you're in a position where you can take maximum benefit of the sacrifice, and to minimize the negative impact it could have on others.

[eric yo]

OMG that was awe... no fucking hell no.

Everyone knows CD's are useless appendages. Replace every creative director with a stinking moosehead on the wall. Put a post-it on it that reads "Work Harder / Crunch Time!" The stink of the moose head will permeate the office and have the same effect as having a live creative director.

Holy crap can CD's take later lunches? Where the fuck do they go for lunch? Holy shitballs you realize everyone else ate at their desks right?

Creative directors are the ultimate dilbert promotion. You can't code? You can't do actual work? Can you eat lunch for three hours? CoooL!!!

This "article" better not be a pathetic wind-up to a kickstarter... Gin is expensive isn't it?

[Mason Lawlor]

So funny to hear this story because I was 13 when this game came out and still remember picking up my pre-order, taking it home and unwrapping it. I can remember my first knife kill... oooohhh.

Now I'm 23 and work my own 80 hour work weeks in the creative industry. Who knows, that game could even be the reason I'm now an animator. So keep in mind that despite the precious chunk of your life you put into that game, you've changed my life. And I'm sure many others.

It's funny.. you probably think I'm being esoteric. But there's a complete linear path from my obsession with Splinter Cell to where I am now. It's ironic. Thanks for the great work mate.

[Javi Garcia]

You might have lost some memory but you gave good memories to thousands of people, and those will be never forgotten by us, thank you for all of your efforts to this day there's no other Splinter Cell game like Chaos Theory!

[Ryan]

Still one of the greatest multiplayer experiences ever. The 2 vs 2, Spy vs Merc design was brilliant and far ahead of its time. In an era ruled by SOCOM and Halo, it was definitely the "alternative" gaming experience, but in my opinion, the better of its time.

[pqrk]

The original Splinter Cell and Pandora Tomorrow were some of my favorite games when they were released. When I first played Chaos Theory, I was floored. The visual fidelity the team was able to push out of that original Xbox was the most impressive feat I had seen in gaming to that point. The leap from Pandora Tomorrow to Chaos Theory could have been a generational one. The story always had me, the characters, the dialogue, I loved that universe and gladly lost myself within it.

In my book, the original Splinter Cell trilogy stands as one of the finest achievements in video game history. What you put out was nothing short of incredible. That you suffered this way is unconscionable, but for what its worth, the fruit of your effort is something I enjoyed immensely. Brutal crunch time hours didn't produce a masterpiece, talent did. To treat humans, and in this case an especially talented set of humans, as old cars to be run into the ground is one of the great under-reported and truly terrible practices of an industry with such pop culture cache.

No one should be treated this way.

[Mike]

Chaos Theory is one of my all time favourite games, I can't tell you how many times I've replayed it! Thanks so much for your efforts, sorry to hear the effect it's had on your health. I would love you to make another. None of the subsequent SC games can hold a candle to Chaos Theory!

[Andrea Spiga]

I'm really sad to hear what happened to you.
I think I'm not going to look at that game in the same way.
You had a really tough time making it and history also.
A "Thank you" it's clearly not enough.

[LKBD]

Wow, that must have been very hard at this time for you. I hope these are only small oversights.
We can't say if it was worth it but we can say that even 10 years after, a lot of people love this game and still consider it as one of the best stealth games ever made. And for this, you will always have our eternal gratitude.

[Olly Skillman-Wilson]

Every time you write about Chaos Theory or Far Cry 2- two of my most memorable gaming experiences, I wonder how long until the next Hocking creation will surface.

When, if ever, will you have to make that kind of sacrifice again, or have that degree of creative freedom/control over a project?
Will we ever see another Hocking game. I really hope we do, on a purely selfish note.

[Guido_Mercati]

Splinter Cell: #Chaos Theory. Ten years down.

[Justin Morse]

Just got done playing it. Had an itch to experience the first level yet again. One of the best games ever made.