Rockstar Developer reveals stresses of making GTA III and Vice City

A developer at Rockstar for GTA 3 and Vice City revealed the stresses of making the games, and we've got the details here!
Grand Theft Auto 3 Police Aiming At Car With Headlights
Image: Rockstar

The development of Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was a stressful time for the team at Rockstar North. In a recent blog post, former Rockstar developer Obbe Vermeij revealed some of the challenges the team faced while making these two groundbreaking games.

According to the blog post, one of the biggest challenges the team faced was the sheer scope of the project. Grand Theft Auto III was the first game in the series to be set in a 3D world, and it was also the first game to feature a fully open-world environment. This meant that the team had to create a massive amount of content, including a detailed city, a variety of vehicles, and a large cast of characters.

The team also had to deal with a tight deadline. Grand Theft Auto III was originally scheduled to be released in 2000, but it was ultimately delayed until 2001. This meant that the team had to work long hours and under a lot of pressure. Despite the challenges, the team at Rockstar North was able to create a game that was unlike anything that had been seen before. Grand Theft Auto III was a critical and commercial success, and it is considered to be one of the most influential games of all time.

Yet the development of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was just as stressful as the development of Grand Theft Auto III.

“The way of working was mostly the same as gta3. It was all about the missions. The story was pretty thin. NY were determined to up the level of voice acting and they hired loads of celebrities. To get Ray Liotta to voice the main character was huge. In those days actors still considered games a step down from movies. Liotta was prefect for the part.”

Obbe Vermeij

The team had to create a new city, new characters, and new vehicles. They also had to deal with the added pressure of living up to the high expectations that were set by Grand Theft Auto III.

Jorge A. Aguilar

Jorge A. Aguilar

Jorge A. Aguilar, also known as Aggy, is the current Assigning Editor.

He started his career as an esports, influencer, and streaming writer for Sportskeeda. He then moved to GFinity Esports to cover streaming, games, guides, and news before moving to the Social team where he ended his time as the Lead of Social Content.

He also worked a writer and editor for both Pro Game Guides and Dot Esports, and as a writer for PC Invasion, Attack of the Fanboy, and Android Police. Aggy is the former Managing Editor and Operations Overseer of N4G Unlocked and a former Gaming editor for WePC.

Throughout his time in the industry, he's trained over 100 writers, written thousands of articles on multiple sites, written more reviews than he cares to count, and edited tens of thousands of articles. He has also written some games published by Tales, some books, and a comic sold to Telus International.

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