Design and level design totalled seven people – leading to easy interactions between us. On the other hand, after the game was showcased at E3 in 2002, all eyes were on us."īeing worked on by a small, nimble team meant things would always be progressing, changing and moving forwards, as Landreville-Potvin explained: "The team for the original Splinter Cell was a small one. ![]() It really was a team effort and an exciting time for a 25-year-old new to the industry. Everyone would participate in establishing what the different aspects of the game would be. For the prototyping phase, we were pretty much left to our own devices. "The corporate structure was fairly hands-off when it came to the actual design," he told us, "but they provided some great guidance to keep a semblance of accessibility as the game got more and more difficult."Ĭaya corroborated this stay-away management aspect, saying: "From what I can remember, upper management wasn't particularly present early on. Alphonso said the game was unlike anything Ubisoft had done before. This sort of enthusiastic creativity wasn't just limited to the design of Sam Fisher – Splinter Cell had a small team working on the game and didn't see much interference from the powers that be. That was always the vision for him, and then getting Michael Ironside to be his voice just totally nailed it." We worked so hard to find a really identifiable element – I remember wishing that the three dots could be alone on a box and people would be able to recognise it."Īnd, of course, there was the Ironside element – something Neil Alphonso, level designer on the game, is still a big fan of to this day: "Apart from being a badass tech ninja, I always liked that Sam was older than the typical video game protagonist. Roxane Gosselin, associate producer on the first game, agreed: "The Sam Fisher character took more than two years of research and improvements to finalise. That is probably one of the things I am the most proud of, the idea that when you see those green dots, you know right away that it's Sam." I still fought tooth and nail for that concept simply because I believed in it. "Looking back now," Caya continued, "it wasn't really professional on my part – but I just didn't care about office politics. One of modern gaming's most iconic elements of design, Sam Fisher's night vision goggles weren't just an element that affected how you played, allowing you to cycle between heat and night vision modes – they defined the character. Martin Caya, lead character artist on what became Splinter Cell, said: "After Ubisoft acquired Red Storm back in 2000, the company wanted to create a new action game based on the universe found within the Tom Clancy novels, more specifically the Op-Center book. ![]() ![]() The team was tasked with making 'a Metal Gear Solid 2 killer'. With this new licence to hand, the studio figured it could make something with the idea that had been put on hold. But that project didn't move much and was shelved – until Ubisoft acquired Red Storm and the Tom Clancy back catalogue. Initially it was a retro sci-fi shooter called The Drift featuring flying vehicles, floating island settings and – tellingly – spy gadgets like a grappling hook and the ability to shoot cameras into walls.ĭevelopment on The Drift didn't get much further than a demo stage before the idea segued into something more familiar – a James Bond-style spy game. ![]() Splinter Cell was not just another game it was a challenger." Splinter Cell had been bubbling away under the surface for years, but it took a long time to be recognised. "The moment we all understood we had something," says Hugo Landreville-Potvin, level designer on Splinter Cell, "was when we realised the Metal Gear team was in the crowd, pen and paper in hands, carefully taking notes.
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