Rockstar Games co-founder and former lead writer behind GTA, Red Dead and more, Dan Houser has given us a little taste of what went on during the development of Red Dead Redemption 2.
In a new, unprecedented interview, Dan Houser spoke at length about his work with podcaster Lex Fridman. The visionary shared a lot of inside info about Rockstar Games and the development of their games and his thoughts on them.
The Pressure Of Delivering A Rockstar Games Title
During the interview, Houser was quizzed by Fridman on how difficult was it to do creative work whilst being under such immense pressure. To which Houser responded by saying he could compartmentalise things but also that he “felt like a terrible fraud that hasn’t been found out yet.” This is despite writing, what many people would call, the several of some of the best stories in video games.
He went further by explaining as long as he and the team made something they were proud of themselves, “that was enough”. Not the reviews or financial success.
“If you don’t want go to insane or I didn’t want to go insane, I couldn’t sit there and worry about financial results. If we made something great and it didn’t sell, that would have to be okay.”
Red Dead Redemption 2 Was Different For A Number Of Reasons
Even though Dan knew each time they made a game they were spending millions of someone else’s money and they had to make it back, making a great piece of entertainment was still the main goal.
Each game he’s made, the bigger ones in particular, were stressful for different reasons. For example, he says GTA IV was difficult due to them coming off the back of the “Hot Coffee” debacle. It almost led to the company breaking down multiple times.
Meanwhile Red Dead 2 was “behind schedule” and “over budget”. So much so, Dan says he did not want to think about it one bit. In addition, the game also was “not coming together” and people doubted the team. This then added even more pressure onto Rockstar.
Also from the same interview, Dan reveals Red Dead 2 likely only happened because they cancelled the GTA V Story Mode DLC. Learn more here.
How did Rockstar do with Red Dead 2? Let us know in the comments. Stay tuned to RockstarINTEL for news updates on everything Rockstar Games.
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