The early stages of how Rockstar Games crafted GTA 6 have been revealed.
In an interview with TroisCouleurs, Rob Nelson, Head of Development at Rockstar Games revealed just exactly how do Rockstar get started on making a game such as GTA VI and how they make it work.
Nelson explains it starts off by deciding where they want to set it. From there, a team will go and visit the area; Miami being this game’s starting point. This is to come up with what parts of that location they want to put into the game. After the base location, they dive into which “special areas” to include. In the case of GTA VI examples include the Everglades and other inhabitable spots outside of Miami. They highlight the parts of local life and create a “warped sort of version of reality”.
The Writer Picks Up His Pen
Once Rockstar have got a rough idea of what the setting of the game will be, Rockstar’s incredible writing team begin of the characters they want to bring the player into various parts of the map. E.g. can take us to the Everglades, who can manage their way through a drug deal and tower block being raided by cops etc.
After that work is done, Rockstar’s Senior Vice President of Narrative Rupert Humphries will start writing the story. Initially, one page of half the story is written by Humphries to show the general starting point of the main characters and why they move here, there and do this or that.
“This one (mission) is going to be the catalyst that is going to move them from this part of the game to that part of the game.”
There is a very important task: pushing and pulling the player through the in-game world. The team has to decide what missions and set-pieces are going to bring players to certain areas and the narrative beats that accompany them. These “tentpole” missions are first to be developed more than others. Story chapters are also used to break up the game. Grand Theft Auto VI features them much like Red Dead Redemption 2 did.
Even though there are major plot points and key missions, GTA games allow for a lot of freedom. This is a problem Rockstar solves by asking what will players do? “What if the player does something different, can we allow for it, if the player wants to go off the rails?”
Based on what we’ve seen from the Grand Theft Auto VI Extended Look, the game is going to offer a lot more freedom to players. We can’t wait to see how Rockstar will allow us to move between story and open world chaos.
You can pre-order your PS5 or XBOX copy with this link. Using the link to pre-order the game will help support this website as we’ll earn a small commission. Thank you!
For more news on GTA VI, stay tuned to RockstarINTEL and sign up to our newsletter for a weekly round-up of all things Rockstar Games delivered straight to your inbox.
Subscribe to our newsletter!
