Levels are composed of nodes and lines, and presented like a board game with characters modelled as miniature figures.

As the player advances through levels, new enemy types and mechanics are introduced to increase the complexity of puzzle solutions.

However, the game received a positive reception with praise for the art, aesthetics, simple gameplay mechanics, and translation of Hitman to a mobile device.

[7] Later stages may require the player to collect keys located on the board and unlock doors that block access to the level objective.

[10] The studio's original aspiration was creating triple-A console games within the series and expanding to a team size of 150 people.

[1] Daniel Lutz served as creative director,[1] and the team size peaked at eleven people throughout the remainder of the game's development.

An initial working prototype and a basic level editor were developed in a few days and after two weeks the first version of the game was presented to the remainder of the studio.

[13] While designing Hitman Go, Lutz and his team considered some specific factors such as the game's price, gameplay time, the brand, the genre, the audience's expectation, production restraints, and the business model.

[11] Instead, they felt that translating Hitman into a board game was more appropriate as it gave players time to think and plan before executing moves.

This feature was cut from the final version for gameplay reasons as it allowed players to kill any target on the board and prevented the puzzles from working as intended.

Instead of creating detailed textures which requires additional memory, the artists chose to use colour swatches so that most characters shared materials.

[3] Writing for Destructoid, Brittany Vincent also expressed approval of the clean menus and user interface icons, and thought that the game levels resembled dollhouses.

[5] Joystiq reviewer, Agnello called Hitman Go an impressive debut title for Square Enix Montréal and said that the play style suited touch-based devices.

[3][5] One aspect of the game's design that drew criticism was that limitations of the grid system had led to a lack of paths available to complete a level.

While Gies of Polygon thought that the mechanics of distraction and murder had been interpreted well in the board game setup, he was disappointed that some levels could not be completed without killing non-target guards.

[2] Both Eurogamer and IGN writers thought that the in-app purchases were overpriced but remarked that they could be easily ignored when level solutions are so regularly shared on the Internet.

[33] At E3 2015, Square Enix Montréal announced Lara Croft Go, a successor to Hitman Go set within the Tomb Raider universe.

[35] In the game, players use touchscreen controls to move Lara Croft around a level composed of nodes and lines.

[34] While the core mechanics and design are similar to Hitman Go, the developers did not want Lara Croft Go to feel like a re-skin, so an emphasis has been placed on the puzzle-driven exploration and gameplay elements of the Tomb Raider brand.