Håkan Almer
Where to hear and read about Håkan Almer1 episode or test
Håkan Almer appears in a Game Maker's Toolkit episode on Hitman 3's Berlin level, Apex Predator, and is quoted on how the team shaped it. The lesson to take from him is to drop the main objective when it limits how players explore.
let's just make everything optional so you have more freedom as you explore
Making Hitman 3's Best Level
Håkan Almer: the story and the lessons
1Håkan Almer and the choice to make every Berlin target optional
Berlin began as a normal Hitman level with one main target. The first plan had Montgomery as the primary target and the only one with a bodyguard. The other targets were optional extras.
That is the usual Hitman shape, built around a single central kill.
Almer proposed making everything optional to give players more freedom. The team dropped the primary target because it limited how players could explore. Almer's line was "let's just make everything optional so you have more freedom as you explore."
The final level has eleven targets and the player only needs to kill five.
Optional targets turned one level into over 400 possible runs. Any five of the eleven complete the mission, which gives over 400 combinations. The level differs on each playthrough.
Players can pick sets that suit sniper, suit-only or speedrun goals, and each target drops a useful item such as Agent Tremaine's radio tower key.
2How Almer's team handled armed targets that fight back
Berlin was the first Hitman level with armed targets who fight back. The targets do not go into lockdown or use bodyguards. They simply try to kill you.
Level designer Bjarne Kristiansen said the team had to work out how to design for that.
Almer accepted that guards standing down looks silly but works. He said guards standing down "feels silly on paper but it kinda works." The level resets to a playable state instead of collapsing after an alert.
Kristiansen put the principle this way: "The machine needs to be able to keep running, no matter what happens."
3What the Berlin team tried and cut on the way to Apex Predator
The team tried marking every target and found it overwhelming. An early build showed ten marked NPCs on floors above and below the player. On a first playthrough that felt swamping, so targets became unmarked and had to be found.
Players now watch for suspicious people and wait for them to call their handler.
Instant-shoot, paired and summoning targets were all cut. Targets that shot on sight killed the player after one spotting. Paired targets meant being busted by two at once.
A target that called all the others to one place could end the mission after a single slip. The designers kept targets independent.
A free first target and a stolen earpiece teach the new idea. An opening "snack target" is a free kill that introduces hunting agents. Taking the first goon's earpiece lets the player hear the handler, so the level can update them without a handler character.
Making Hitman 3's Best Level
Shows how Hitman 3's Berlin level, Apex Predator, breaks the series formula with eleven hidden, armed targets, and how the designers tuned it through prototypes that failed. The worth-watching part is the list of rejected versions (instant-kill targets, paired targets, targets that call each other) and why each one was cut.
Berlin began as a normal Hitman level with one main target. The first plan had Montgomery as the primary target and the only one with a bodyguard. The other targets were optional extras.
That is the usual Hitman shape, built around a single central kill.
Almer proposed making everything optional to give players more freedom. The team dropped the primary target because it limited how players could explore. Almer's line was "let's just make everything optional so you have more freedom as you explore."
The final level has eleven targets and the player only needs to kill five.
Optional targets turned one level into over 400 possible runs. Any five of the eleven complete the mission, which gives over 400 combinations. The level differs on each playthrough.
Players can pick sets that suit sniper, suit-only or speedrun goals, and each target drops a useful item such as Agent Tremaine's radio tower key.
Berlin was the first Hitman level with armed targets who fight back. The targets do not go into lockdown or use bodyguards. They simply try to kill you.
Level designer Bjarne Kristiansen said the team had to work out how to design for that.
Almer accepted that guards standing down looks silly but works. He said guards standing down "feels silly on paper but it kinda works." The level resets to a playable state instead of collapsing after an alert.
Kristiansen put the principle this way: "The machine needs to be able to keep running, no matter what happens."
The team tried marking every target and found it overwhelming. An early build showed ten marked NPCs on floors above and below the player. On a first playthrough that felt swamping, so targets became unmarked and had to be found.
Players now watch for suspicious people and wait for them to call their handler.
Instant-shoot, paired and summoning targets were all cut. Targets that shot on sight killed the player after one spotting. Paired targets meant being busted by two at once.
A target that called all the others to one place could end the mission after a single slip. The designers kept targets independent.
A free first target and a stolen earpiece teach the new idea. An opening "snack target" is a free kill that introduces hunting agents. Taking the first goon's earpiece lets the player hear the handler, so the level can update them without a handler character.