Eskil Mohl
Jakob Mikkelsen is game director and Eskil Mohl is associate game director on Hitman 2
Where to hear and read about Eskil Mohl1 episode or test
Eskil Mohl is associate game director on Hitman 2 at IO, working beside game director Jakob Mikkelsen on levels like the Miami race. The most useful lesson from his work is to build levels from targets on fixed schedules, then give players many ways to disturb them and shape the outcome.
We like to taunt our targets as well.
Making Hitman 2's Best Level
Eskil Mohl: the story and the lessons
1Eskil Mohl's role on Hitman 2
Mohl is associate game director on Hitman 2. He works alongside game director Jakob Mikkelsen and joins him to explain how the Miami race level was built, from a location idea to disguise tiers.
Most of the design principles are described as the team's approach, and many of the direct quotes come from Mikkelsen. Mohl's own lines are shorter.
Mohl compares level teases to a cannon with gunpowder nearby. Small hints and temptations push players toward more kills. A military robot with facial recognition makes you go looking for a photo of Robert Knox.
The same logic runs through overheard conversations, visible set-ups and the challenge list, which can be turned off. Items and clues sit near related opportunities so the player's mind lights up with a plan.
Mohl says the team likes to taunt its targets. Mikkelsen calls the taunting poetic justice. It fits the Miami podium, where the champagne trophy can be poisoned and the pyrotechnics rigged.
2How Mohl's team builds targets and their routines
Every Hitman level starts as a location idea. The team brainstorms with a 'wouldn't it be cool if' question, such as a race, a fashion show or the slums of Mumbai. Miami became the Global Innovation Race.
Racing games keep you on the track, so Hitman 2 lets you explore everything but the track.
Each target gets a type, such as dweller or roamer. Robert Knox is a dweller who loops through his lab, balcony and office. Sierra Knox drives for nearly 20 minutes, then roams the VIP area on foot.
Mixing types in one level gives the player different problems to solve.
Fixed schedules let players build plans they can trust. The world marches on indifferent to Agent 47 until he pushes against it. Knowing the fashion show ends tells you Viktor Novikov will be on stage.
Mikkelsen puts it this way: "If you know, as the player, that something will happen, then you can build a plan on that knowledge."
The team asks what could go wrong for every target. Breaking Knox's air conditioning sends him to eyedrops you may have poisoned. Switching off the satellite or breaking his car pulls him out to fix it.
Each answer needs set-up, such as poison, a secure room or a disguise.
IO made Sierra Knox lose the race by default. To reach the podium kills, the player must help her win or sabotage Moses Lee. The steps play like point-and-click problem solving.
IO went back and forth before deciding. Letting the player choose the outcome puts them in power, which Mikkelsen calls very Hitman.
Waiting is the cost of schedules, so IO adds shortcuts. Some characters run to speed things up, and disqualifying Moses Lee or Sierra ends the race early. One option starts the mission with the race nearly over.
The aim is to turn a limitation into something the player controls to some degree.
3How the Miami level was laid out
The map is a winding snail house with Swiss cheese shortcuts. The winding path fits a credible race track and hundreds of NPCs into a small, console-friendly footprint. Fences, windows and elevator shafts let veterans almost teleport.
Novices follow the path while veterans feel mastery from finding the holes between rooms.
Floor lines, signs and maps guide players through the winding path. In-world navigation leads players to major locations without interface markers. The shortcuts stay secret for players to find.
Most rooms have two exits so no one gets stuck. Kronstadt can be entered by the front door, the parking lot, the podium building or a walkway door. Toilets are the usual dead ends.
Players feel they make their own decisions rather than follow a scripted path.
The track splits the map, so crossings are spread along it. Two overhead walkways and several subway passages link to an underground parking garage.
Mikkelsen says a track that cuts the level in two is a really bad idea if you want easy travel from A to B.
4Disguises, iteration and variety in Hitman 2 levels
Disguises work as keys in tiers of security clearance. In the Kronstadt building, anyone can enter the lobby, an IT uniform opens the second floor and a guard uniform opens the top floor.
The team maps out who works in a location first, then layers the disguises by access.
The best disguise is placed late in the level. If the first disguise a player finds is the strongest, the rest of the level's gameplay is wasted.
Open levels scatter small stealth puzzles instead of linear ones. Hitman Absolution was linear, with guards at a door. In Miami, a generator can distract an engineer in Moses Lee's pit building or a doctor in the medical area.
The team keeps replaying levels to fix moments that are too easy. A Paris section in Hitman 2016 was fixed because Viktor Novikov was alone too long and became an easy kill.
Mikkelsen says the more times they boot up the level before shipping, the better it gets.
Rules are only guidelines, so each level feels different. Levels vary in verticality, crowd density and size, and are designed as a chain. Night Call before Miami is dark and claustrophobic, while San Fortuna after it has a huge fortress.
Making Hitman 2's Best Level
Shows how a Hitman level is built, from a location idea and clockwork targets to a layered level layout and disguise tiers, and why this makes open-ended stealth levels replayable. The worked example is the Miami race level in Hitman 2, where Sierra Knox not winning the race by default adds a puzzle on top of the kills.
Mohl is associate game director on Hitman 2. He works alongside game director Jakob Mikkelsen and joins him to explain how the Miami race level was built, from a location idea to disguise tiers.
Most of the design principles are described as the team's approach, and many of the direct quotes come from Mikkelsen. Mohl's own lines are shorter.
Mohl compares level teases to a cannon with gunpowder nearby. Small hints and temptations push players toward more kills. A military robot with facial recognition makes you go looking for a photo of Robert Knox.
The same logic runs through overheard conversations, visible set-ups and the challenge list, which can be turned off. Items and clues sit near related opportunities so the player's mind lights up with a plan.
Mohl says the team likes to taunt its targets. Mikkelsen calls the taunting poetic justice. It fits the Miami podium, where the champagne trophy can be poisoned and the pyrotechnics rigged.
Every Hitman level starts as a location idea. The team brainstorms with a 'wouldn't it be cool if' question, such as a race, a fashion show or the slums of Mumbai. Miami became the Global Innovation Race.
Racing games keep you on the track, so Hitman 2 lets you explore everything but the track.
Each target gets a type, such as dweller or roamer. Robert Knox is a dweller who loops through his lab, balcony and office. Sierra Knox drives for nearly 20 minutes, then roams the VIP area on foot.
Mixing types in one level gives the player different problems to solve.
Fixed schedules let players build plans they can trust. The world marches on indifferent to Agent 47 until he pushes against it. Knowing the fashion show ends tells you Viktor Novikov will be on stage.
Mikkelsen puts it this way: "If you know, as the player, that something will happen, then you can build a plan on that knowledge."
The team asks what could go wrong for every target. Breaking Knox's air conditioning sends him to eyedrops you may have poisoned. Switching off the satellite or breaking his car pulls him out to fix it.
Each answer needs set-up, such as poison, a secure room or a disguise.
IO made Sierra Knox lose the race by default. To reach the podium kills, the player must help her win or sabotage Moses Lee. The steps play like point-and-click problem solving.
IO went back and forth before deciding. Letting the player choose the outcome puts them in power, which Mikkelsen calls very Hitman.
Waiting is the cost of schedules, so IO adds shortcuts. Some characters run to speed things up, and disqualifying Moses Lee or Sierra ends the race early. One option starts the mission with the race nearly over.
The aim is to turn a limitation into something the player controls to some degree.
The map is a winding snail house with Swiss cheese shortcuts. The winding path fits a credible race track and hundreds of NPCs into a small, console-friendly footprint. Fences, windows and elevator shafts let veterans almost teleport.
Novices follow the path while veterans feel mastery from finding the holes between rooms.
Floor lines, signs and maps guide players through the winding path. In-world navigation leads players to major locations without interface markers. The shortcuts stay secret for players to find.
Most rooms have two exits so no one gets stuck. Kronstadt can be entered by the front door, the parking lot, the podium building or a walkway door. Toilets are the usual dead ends.
Players feel they make their own decisions rather than follow a scripted path.
The track splits the map, so crossings are spread along it. Two overhead walkways and several subway passages link to an underground parking garage.
Mikkelsen says a track that cuts the level in two is a really bad idea if you want easy travel from A to B.
Disguises work as keys in tiers of security clearance. In the Kronstadt building, anyone can enter the lobby, an IT uniform opens the second floor and a guard uniform opens the top floor.
The team maps out who works in a location first, then layers the disguises by access.
The best disguise is placed late in the level. If the first disguise a player finds is the strongest, the rest of the level's gameplay is wasted.
Open levels scatter small stealth puzzles instead of linear ones. Hitman Absolution was linear, with guards at a door. In Miami, a generator can distract an engineer in Moses Lee's pit building or a doctor in the medical area.
The team keeps replaying levels to fix moments that are too easy. A Paris section in Hitman 2016 was fixed because Viktor Novikov was alone too long and became an easy kill.
Mikkelsen says the more times they boot up the level before shipping, the better it gets.
Rules are only guidelines, so each level feels different. Levels vary in verticality, crowd density and size, and are designed as a chain. Night Call before Miami is dark and claustrophobic, while San Fortuna after it has a huge fortress.