When Square Enix Montreal revealed Hitman GO ($4.99) this past February, it certainly received a mixed response. On the one hand, the long-running Hitman series has always felt like a puzzle game at its core, as you experimented to find out the best method for your character Agent 47 to take out his target(s) in each of the game’s complex levels. Boiling that down into a true turn-based puzzle game for mobile seemed like a smart fit. On the other hand, this definitely wasn’t the Hitman most fans knew and loved, and change can be a scary thing. Well, for the most part Hitman GO seems to have turned out just fine, mostly because it’s a fantastic puzzle game in its own right, with or without the Hitman name.
In an interview over at Gamasutra, creative director of Hitman GO Dan Lutz dishes some behind-the-scenes info on the game’s development. Besides its great puzzle mechanics, one thing that really stands out about Hitman GO is its visuals. Its board game and diorama inspiration is pretty clear, but it’s another inspiration that really took me by surprise. Lutz states that one of the main inspirations for Hitman GO’s environments was the Rich Kids of Instagram Tumblr page. Says Lutz, “It’s kids with a lot of money taking pictures of their everyday lives, and there you see these hugely spaced-out mansions and giant yachts and there’s just kind of a lot of empty space. Hitman GO is kind of modeled after that."
It’s definitely an unexpected inspiration, but knowing about it now it all makes a lot of sense to me. Inspiration can come from the strangest of places, even Rich Kids of Instagram. There’s some more interesting tidbits about Hitman GO’s development at the full article linked below, so be sure to give it a read. And, this probably goes without saying, but if you dig stylish puzzle games and haven’t checked out Hitman GO yet, that’s something you really need to do.
