Clint Hocking

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Clint 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 résumé 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. After the release of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, Ubisoft Montreal began development for 2005's Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory 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 game's two-year development, Hocking was working 80 hours a week. This large workload 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, a first-person shooter featuring an open world environment set in a fictional African country, started with Hocking as the creative director and scriptwriter. Upon release, Far Cry 2 was positively received by critics. Hocking and critics noted some of its reception was polarizing, which he attributed to the game breaking many conventions of the shooter and open world genre. Some gameplay elements, which immersed the player, critics found polarizing. This included when the player's firearm would jam, a map being a crumpled piece of paper in the player character's hands as opposed to one found within a menu, and malaria which the player character can get throughout the game and needs to treated by medicine from civilians otherwise the player character will die.

In Their Own Story

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, based in San Francisco, as the creative director on an unannounced project. 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. In April of the same year, joined Amazon Game Studios, also based in Seattle. Hocking worked as a senior game designer an unspecified project for Amazon's Fire devices. In August 2015, he left Amazon Game Studios. Hocking said he enjoyed working with new people but wanted to work on something that people will get to play, having realized that he has 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, which was another reason 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". Hocking's first project at the studio was as creative director for Watch Dogs: Legion, a game that 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 was released in October 2020 and received mixed reviews from critics. By July 2021, he returned to Ubisoft Montreal. Hocking, alongside Jonathan Dumont, will serve as Assassin's Creed Infinity's (Codename Hexe) creative directors with Dumont and Hocking leading the Ubisoft Quebec and Montreal divisions, respectively. Hocking left the studio in February 2026 as a result of company restructuring; the game's development will continue under Jean Guesdon, the new creative director. In May, he founded Build Machine Games, a new independent video game developer, to create games that are "emotionally resonant [and] socially relevant" in Canada.

Reader's Guide

It was positively received by critics, though Hocking and critics noted some of its reception was polarizing, which he attributed to the game breaking many conventions of the shooter and open world genre. Gameplay elements that critics found polarizing included the player's firearm jamming, the map being a crumpled piece of paper in the player character's hands as opposed to one found within a menu, and malaria which the player character can get throughout the game and needs to be treated by medicine from civilians otherwise the player character will die. For a deep dive, seek out Hocking's 2007 blog post on 'ludonarrative dissonance' using BioShock as a case study; it's a must-read for understanding his design philosophy.

Did You Know?

• Clint Hocking coined the term 'ludonarrative dissonance' in a 2007 blog post critiquing BioShock.
• During the two-year development of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Hocking worked 80-hour weeks, which caused gaps in his recent memory—he completely forgot a week he spent socialising with a former colleague due to brain damage.
• Hocking left Ubisoft Montreal in May 2010 because he felt he had become 'too comfortable' at the studio.
• Between 2010 and 2015, Hocking joined LucasArts, Valve, and Amazon Game Studios but did not release any new games during that period.
• Hocking founded Build Machine Games in May 2026 to create games that are 'emotionally resonant [and] socially relevant' in Canada.