A former Rockstar Games animator that worked on their most recent releases has shared details about his time at the company. During a new interview, the ex-employee also revealed a shake up to combat that he pitched for GTA V.
The developer in question worked at Rockstar Games’ New England office between 2012 and 2017. This meant he had a hand in the development of both Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption 2. Some of the specific work he did for GTA V includes character switching animations between the trio. For Red Dead Redemption 2 he largely focused on animals such as the Cougar.
The animator spoke with KIWI TALKZ, a channel that primarily interviews game developers about their stories. An interesting topic the developer talked about is when companies don’t take feedback from their developers when it comes to things such as processes. The animator stated companies have invested so much time and money into their development pipelines that they are scared to reset and try new things.
In terms of GTA V’s combat system, the developer shared an idea he had for it. He wanted to “fix how you swing/punch” by taking the existing animations, tweaking them a little, in turn making them feel better on the controller. What inspired the animator’s thought process was The Last of Us. It released a few months before GTA V came out and he played through it. He took the “cool stuff” they did in that game to Rockstar who were not interested at all.
That’s how you grow as a team and how you make better games. You need to be open to the people’s feedback that are actually working on the game and that are creating the game for you. But a lot of times companies get very, very you know close-minded.
Be sure to watch the full interview with the animator here. (UPDATE: The video has since been removed.)
KIWI TALKZ previously interviewed another Rockstar Games developer to learn about the company’s culture which was not so pleasant at times. You can read all about it here.
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