I came out a week ago short version of interview with Jamie King, co-founder of Rockstar Games. Now the entire timing is presented to the public – it is twice as long, and there are enough interesting details.
What new have we learned?
- The former co-founder of R * is currently working in the esports industry with MLS, NHL, MLB and renowned global brands.
- After leaving Gta 3 there was no time to engage in harvesting (at that time they worked 24/7) – it was necessary to develop success. The developers worked on GTA: Vice City, helped with the first Max payne, in the meantime, the office expanded, the number of employees became more and more (a dozen people started) and no one was going to stop there. An important step in this was the move from RenderWare, which EA acquired, to its own game engine. The guys from San Diego were responsible for it, and units from Scotland (Rockstar North itself) and Vienna (it has been closed for 15 years already) helped them.
- Sam Hauser contributed Red dead revolver nine month. It developed the idea of a bullet-time from MP, tweaking it for duels. Someone was dissatisfied with the very first RDR, because the “troika” already had an open world, but not in the western. But the “rock stars” were satisfied because they were able to lay the foundation for the future series.
- Hauser Sr., as president of the publishing house, understands that the main driving force of the company is the development studio. But that doesn’t mean New York was just picking up the cream. King himself found weapons specialists who were later filmed. They were also used in preparation for short film for the second part, and during the development of the third. The motion capture models were also used by the main office staff.
- In times GTA: Vice City There has been a lot of criticism of the developers, but Jamie is glad that they were honored to be the pioneers in the discussion of computer games between “parents, children and government.” “Rockstar” understood what they were doing, but they always believed in this and in freedom of speech, believing that they had a good, witty product, and not one whose goal was to become antisocial.
- Stars of the caliber of Ray Liotta (voiced by Tommy Vercetti) and Samuel L. Jackson (Frank Tenpenny) took two years to negotiate. During a meeting at a restaurant, Liotta suddenly decided to joke, and entered a role similar to Goodfellas (“Nicefellas”, 1990), which frightened and amazed the developers. However, those “got it back”, forcing the actors to give all the best in the recording booths. King called the opportunity to work with idols “amazing”, but Rockstar itself would later turn down celebrity partnerships because of “their egos.”
- Former GTA producer called book by David Kushner “About half true”, nothing more. Rockstar Games have never liked stories about themselves. You can remember at least their reaction to movie from bbc… Jamie explains partly by saying, “None of us had a chance to tell the story right.”
- Music licensing was mainly done by Terry [Донован]because he came from Arista Records (Iggy Pop, Avril Lavigne and others), he had experience with that. But King also had to work in this area. He negotiated for months with Capital Records (The Game, Katy Perry, etc.) to get key rap songs for GTA: San Andreas… Agreements with Courtney Love, the widow of Kurt Cobain, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers were not easy. It was very difficult to fight for some critical songs.
- When asked why the GTA does not feature real car brands, the expected answer was received. It is incredibly difficult to come to terms in terms of such rights, and logically, they are not needed in principle. Because the developers wanted them to have as much content as possible, self-generated, so as not to depend on anyone. Also, the creators wanted the game itself to be the star, and not its individual components.
- In the files of the troika, they found references from multiplayer. What plans did R * have about this? The developers removed the multiplayer mode, because they considered it not good enough and did not want to spoil the game with it. It so happened that their “rock stars” embodied not in 2D and not even in the 3D era, but only by going to HD.
In the future, Jamie King does not expect much change from GTA in terms of general mechanics, since “the core is already there, and it works”, but predicts changes in the issue of the proprietary Rockstar Games humor. Who else, if not a person who worked from the inside, can see and understand such things? ..
Source: gta.com.ua