A Rockstar Games developer who worked on Red Dead Redemption and more has revealed what it’s like to work at the company and how staff were pushed past their mental limits during production. Plus, he shared stories of driving Sam and Dan Houser about in his car for fun.
Kris Roberts is a former designer that worked at Rockstar Games San Diego for several years. He helped develop titles such as Midnight Club 3, MC Los Angeles and Red Dead Redemption. The designer has now sat down and spoke with KIWI TALKZ, a YouTube channel that interviews game developers about their experience in the industry.
The interview covered a wide range of topics from what it was like to work at Angle Studios and through the transition to Rockstar San Diego and the production of games like Red Dead Redemption. Here’s what he had to say about the crunch that took place during RDR1’s development:
“An executive Sam, Leslie, whoever is going to come this weekend. We need to be all hands on deck. I remember a couple specific examples of a Friday afternoon. Management would send out a email that said, “Just so we’re all clear we need to be here this weekend.” And then a follow-up email would say, “And this weekend doesn’t just mean Saturday.”
I’ve made promises to my kids about what we’re going to do this weekend. At Friday afternoon at 4:30pm you’re telling me I need to be here on Sunday regardless of what’s going on? That’s unacceptable.
It wasn’t because if you have a certain number of issues in Bugstar or if you have critical things that must be fixed before the next build or if you have a legitimate business case for putting in that weekend time then we want you to be here. It was more like “no, we need to put on the show of appearance that everybody’s here all the time because we have an executive visiting or something.”
This ended up being one of the “top 4” reasons why Roberts left Rockstar Games. Kris also explained how them multiplayer team did not have work let up once the game went gold. The singleplayer dev team were able to rest a bit but it only took a bigger mental toll on the online staff. The targets set by the NYC office where “unrealistic”.
“I remember there was a Gant chart they (NYC) provided to show how we could get there that had deliverables in the past that we hadn’t even started yet. And it was like this doesn’t make any sense!”
Driving Sam and Dan Houser
As for personal opinion of Sam and Dan, Roberts can share more than the average Rockstar staffer. Where many Rockstar Games staff have never met or even seen Sam or Dan Houser, the designer did have “good personal interactions” with Sam, Dan, Leslie and more.
“Sam really did want to participate in the development of what we were doing with multiplayer. He would frequently participate in play tests and stuff.”
He knew Houser brothers more than others with Sam wanting Roberts to give him a drive out in a BMW M Roadster near the end of Midnight Club’s production. The designer recalls taking both Sam and Dan on drives individually. Dan enjoyed it so much he told Sam who then asked if he could have a go. The developer can say he never had a personal negative experience with the pair. However, he did spot others at the end of such occurrences.
“I never had like a oh my gosh, these guys are psychotic or anything experience, but I’ve heard stories…”
Be sure to watch the full interview with the designer here as it is full of more Rockstar Games and development stories.
KIWI TALKZ has also interviewed other Rockstar Games developers prior to this one. This includes an environment artist who worked on GTA 6 discussed how the game changes over time and what it was like to work at Rockstar during GTA 6. Check it out here. More recently, an audio designer shared his thoughts on GTA VI and how it will evolve compared to past titles.
Plus, we reported on how another developer revealed the bad parts of Rockstar’s culture back in the day. On top of that, a different developer discussed a canned combat overhaul for GTA V. You can read all about it here.
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