How might you adapt a long-running, big-budget PC/console game franchise to the mobile market as a standalone product in a way that best takes advantages of the platform's strengths?

That's exactly what the devs at Square Enix Montreal grappled with when making Hitman Go, the hit 2014 mobile game that kicked off a run of Go mobile game adaptations. At GDC 2015, Hitman GO game director Daniel Lutz delivered a postmortem analysis of the game and its unorthodox design concept: an extremely minimalistic turn-based strategy game with diorama-style set pieces.

He revealed how Square Enix Montreal managed to come up with such a unique design among internal controversy, and how distilling the franchise to its core and working within well-established constraints proved to be the most appropriate way to bring Hitman to a whole new platform.

It was a great talk, and if you missed it all those years ago you cacn now watch it for free over on the official GDC YouTube channel!

About the GDC Vault

In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its new YouTube channel offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.

Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC, GDC Europe, and GDC Next already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.

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