How difficult is it to design a stealth action game？

　　When Ubisoft announced the Split Cell remake in December, it was a response to long-running speculation. While older players were hoping for a reunion after many years, they also found that the genre of stealth action games has long been in decline, and even does not exist independently. Today, you can still sneak around in Uncharted, Assassin’s Creed, or Tomb Raider franchises, and the system sometimes forces you to do so, but we don’t generally see them as mere stealth games anymore.

　　Back about 20 years ago, things were not like this. Since the late 1990s, third-person sneak games have become a wave, and stealth is seen as a rapidly rising category. Just like today’s "Chicken Eater", it is arranged under the name of many masterpieces, "Thief", "The Expendables", "Metal Gear Spy"… Of course, there is a relatively latecomer "Tom Clancy’s Cell Splitting". "Cell Splitting" has fueled this wave, and the sequels to "Cell Splitting" have witnessed the ebb tide and how players slowly lose their patience for sneaking in, until the years filter out all the unpleasantness, and the tediousness of those secret operations finally becomes a wonderful memory.

　　In 2002, people had already seen the name of American author Tom Clancy in many high-quality games, such as "Red Storm", "Ghost Recon", "Rainbow Six" and so on. At this time, a new series with stealth gameplay was about to be officially released. It has been in development at Ubisoft’s Montreal studio for more than two years. In the game, of course, you can kill like other action games, but its ultimate goal is perfect stealth without killing a single person.

　　Hugo Landrivera-Potvin, the level designer behind the original Split Cell, recalls: "We heard that at E3 2002, the Metal Gear team was there to see the Split Cell demo, with pen and paper in hand, taking careful notes. Maybe they saw Split Cell not as a normal game, but as a challenger. It made us realise we did have something on hand."

　　The development process of "Split Cell" was full of twists and turns. It started as a retro sci-fi shooter called "The Drift," set on a floating island where players could use spy tools like flying vehicles and grappling hooks to move around and shoot miniature cameras into walls. After the demo of "Drift," the development team decided instead to take a more familiar gameplay and make a James Bond-style spy game, but that project was also called off until Ubisoft bought the rights to remake Red Storm Studios and some of Tom Clancy’s older titles.

　　Red Storm is a game studio co-founded by Tom Clancy and several partners. It was established in 1996 and acquired by Ubisoft in 2000.

　　With the new IP license, Ubisoft felt it could revisit previously shelved ideas and asked the development team to make a game that treated Metal Gear 2 as an imaginary enemy. "When Ubisoft bought Red Storm, the company wanted to create a new action game set in the Tom Clancy universe," said Martin Kaya, lead character artist for the original Split Cell. "Rather, Ubisoft wanted to reference the world view in the Op-Center book."

　　"At first we designed the game around a character named Brett August, but quickly decided to create a new protagonist." The screenwriter Petty wrote a few background stories for the game, while Kaya needed to design a protagonist for the player.

　　"When I first started designing Sam, I was pretty much on my own," says Kaya. "I had some ideas that I thought were cool, but I often encountered resistance from my superiors, and sometimes they questioned every aspect of Sam’s design in lengthy meetings… For example, when I first proposed adding some kind of highly recognizable visual gimmick like Batman’s silhouette, I showed the now-unknown ‘3 Green Dots’, but that idea was almost immediately rejected."

　　Sam Fisher is the main character in "Splinter Cell," and his night vision goggles affect the way players play – allowing players to switch between thermal and night vision modes, and have become one of Sam’s most iconic character traits.

　　"Looking back now, I wasn’t professional enough, but I didn’t care about office politics at all. I still did my best to keep the design because I had faith in it. I was always proud of it. Just by seeing those green dots, you knew Sam was coming," Kaya recalled.

　　Roxy Goslan, associate producer of the original Splinter Cell, agreed. "We spent more than two years researching and refining the character of Sam Fisher, and it took a lot of effort to find an element that players will remember. I even hope that when those three green dots appear on a box, people will recognize it."

　　Another level designer, Neil Alfonso, believes that actor Michael Ironside’s voice allows Sam to leave a deeper impact on players. "As a great tech ninja, Sam is older than most protagonists in video games, and Ironside’s voice is too good."

　　The Split Cell team was small and did not receive much disruption from company executives during the development of the game. "In terms of the specific design, the company executives almost never stepped in and let us do it," Alfonso said. "However, as the game design became more difficult, they provided us with good guidance to ensure that the game was friendly enough for new players."

　　Mr. Kaya adds: "I remember during the prototyping phase, the company gave us free rein and everyone had the opportunity to share their thoughts on the game. For a 25-year-old newcomer to the industry, the experience of working with the team was particularly exciting… On the other hand, when the game was unveiled at E3 2002, all eyes were on us."

　　The small, nimble team frequently changed the game’s content during development. "The team was so small, there were only seven people in charge of game design and level design, so it was easy for us to communicate with each other," explains Landrivera-Potvin. "All levels have a designated location, a specific main storyline and goal to complete, but we still have a huge creative freedom to be creative when designing levels and secondary goals."

　　In many ways, the way the original "Cell Division" was developed was completely different from the modern 3A masterpiece.

　　"We didn’t have a creative director," says Mr. Goslan. "The direction of the creation was determined by the team members, and I was one of them. At the time, Ubisoft Montreal was a very young studio and we didn’t have any other’mentors’ other than the editorial team. We developed Split Cell purely based on intuition, but took the time to do research and analysis."

　　Goslan also revealed that Split Cell was one of the first Ubisoft games to go through a lot of playtesting during development. "Our goal was to make a game that people would love, so we spent a lot of time optimizing the content and improving the fun and playability of the game."

　　One interesting question: Was Tom Clancy himself involved in the development of the original "Split Cell?" "To be honest, I never saw him in the office," Mr. Kaya said. "I think Petty, the game writer, was in touch with him, but I don’t go to those kinds of meetings." Mr. Goslan also noted that Tom Clancy was not an outsider. "He read the script and gave us a lot of good advice."

　　The original Split Cell was designed, executed and tested very quickly. In many cases, as soon as the development team brainstormed an idea, they immediately tested it and then decided to keep it or cut it in the game. "We created the basic levels very quickly and spent most of our time perfecting the gameplay modules, such as making sure all the patrol guards were in the right place at the right time, or making sure all paths worked through constant testing," said Randrivera-Potvin.

　　Of course, the team made mistakes. "The first levels we made were never finished, and we made mistakes. But in the long run, that experience led us to decide to design more linear levels. Plus, I believe those levels were later redesigned as bonus levels."

　　Split Cell has undergone other major changes during development, two of which Mr. Landrivera-Potvin mentions. "First, we changed the direction of the level design. In the game, players can use different methods such as stealth, combat and tool use to move through a certain area, but the progression through the level is linear," he said. "But according to our original vision, the level design direction is open-ended, and the game map contains multiple interconnected areas, which is closer to the’Thief ‘series."

　　"Unfortunately, we were inexperienced at the time and made the biggest mistake that junior level designers often make, that is, the scale of the level created was too large, resulting in a very bad game rhythm… After adjustment, the direction of level design finally developed in a better direction."

　　"The second big change was part of the core design. We found a glaring problem during development: Sam Fisher was too strong. For example, at first the player could take any weapon from the enemy, but in a game that focuses on stealth, players may not be interested in unlimited ammo, so we removed that option."

　　Mr. Alfonso had a similar idea. "Personally, I think the removal of Sam’s ability to pick up weapons on the battlefield was the biggest single change in the game." But of all the content that was cut by the development team, this was not the strangest. "There was a time when we designed collectibles that floated in the air and you had to make quick jumps to collect them, which was completely out of tune with the game, but we later gave up."

　　As well as not allowing players to collect weapons and ammunition at will, some of the team’s other designs also make Split Cell more difficult. "Another big design change is that we’ve added a triple alarm mechanism," says Mr. Landrivera-Potvin. "Every time the alarm goes off, all enemies become harder to deal with, and if the alarm goes off three times, the player’s mission fails. This change was controversial because it forced players to choose to sneak through levels, but I think it made the game better."

　　"In any case, these changes have turned the original Splinter Cell into an excellent game. Although the difficulty is huge… maybe too difficult… I believe this is one of the reasons why it is remembered by players."

　　The team also cut out other parts of the game, but they were relatively unimportant. "I remember Steve Dupont [chief animation director] constantly communicating to me various improvisational ideas, such as having Sam use a knife to fight an enemy hand-to-hand, or giving him the ability to open the door with a corpse on his back," Kaya said.

　　These ideas seem good, why did the development team throw them all away? "Like any cool-sounding idea, it may not be hard to conceive, but it’s too hard to implement without breaking any existing mechanisms."

　　However, Kaya noted that the development team also retained certain ideas that came up off the cuff, including the Split-jump. "In fact, we didn’t use it very much. I suggested Steve animate the Split-jump, but I remember in the early days of the game, Sam could only do it in two scenes."

　　In 2002, the original "Split Cell" was one of the most technically successful games of its time. To this day, some scenes in the game still impress players. But according to Alfonso, due to time constraints, the development team also had to cut some content in the game. "In order to be able to release in time, we cut most of the content set in the ice and snow of Russia, leaving only the nuclear power plant level in the PS2 version."

　　One of the biggest third-party games on the original Xbox console, Split Cell was released as a limited-time exclusive to the Xbox, and its Xbox version is also technically better than the PS2 and GC ports that came out later. "The dynamic lighting model in the game relies heavily on the architecture of the console," Alfonso explained. "Microsoft also provided us with additional help to optimize the content and performance of the game."

　　After its official release, "Split Cell" was widely praised, helping to attract many players to the Xbox. Although "Halo" is widely regarded as the iconic game on the original Xbox, "Split Cell" is not far behind. "Split Cell" borrows some elements from other games, but it is also self-contained, making players feel both familiar and fresh. At E3 2002, the developers of "Metal Gear" came to see the demo of "Split Cell" for a reason.

　　Today, Split Cell is one of the most highly regarded "Tom Clancy" games of all time, but the developers have remained humble. "I don’t think anyone in the team wanted to create a classic from the start," says Mr. Kaya. "Frankly, we just wanted to create a game that was really fun. When we saw the excitement of people trying out the demo, we realized it was almost there."

　　Rondriveira-Potvin agreed. "I don’t think anyone could have predicted that’Splinter ‘would become a classic.’ Splinter ‘did generate a huge response at E3, but you never know if it will live up to the expectations of the media and players."

　　Mr. Goslan is nostalgic for developing the original Splinter Cell. "It was one of my best experiences in the game industry," he says. "The important thing was that there were not too many restrictions and Ubisoft was almost completely devolved. At the time, Ubisoft knew it was a big risk but they were willing to take the risk. It was important."

　　Kaya is optimistic about the future of the "Splinter Cell" franchise. "As long as there are developers creating’Splinter Cell ‘games, the franchise will continue to be dynamic, and each new game will bring creative new ideas." However, the truth is that Ubisoft has not released a formal series since 2013’s "Splinter Cell: Blacklist", and many players are not satisfied with the direction of the Sam Fisher story in the series. Fortunately, there is still a future.

　　So far, Ubisoft has not revealed any more content for the remake of "Split Cell". The Ubisoft Toronto studio that put it into production only guarantees that this is a completely remade game that can enjoy the addition of the latest graphics technology, but it seems that the gameplay is relatively original. Compared to the open world, the game is still a linear level system.

　　How hard will it be? Will it bring back the long-lost pure stealth?

　　This article is compiled from: gamesradar website

　 　Author: Wait a minute

　　The making of Splinter Cells – How the decision to "ruthlessly enforce stealth" created a classic

　　Original Author: Ian Dransfield, GamesRadar Staff