Red Dead Redemption 2’s Writer Read Victorian Novels During the Game’s Development

05.12.2025 Comment Views: 35

Dan Houser, co‑founder of Rockstar Games, said the GTA series’ approach to world‑building calls to mind the novels of Charles Dickens.

In the interview he also referenced other canonical writers — Tolstoy and Zola — to stress that open‑world games can evoke the sense of a living, engaging society.

They’re not on Dickens’ level, but they echo his method of crafting a world. You get the impression the games aim to build a unified, intriguing society.

This notion helped shape the narrative of Red Dead Redemption 2.

To that end I devoured Victorian novels and listened to the audiobook of “Middlemarch” every day on my commute. I loved it.

He added:

I wanted the game to feel a bit more innovative in terms of storytelling. We aimed to give the characters three‑dimensional life and to capture the sense of life and death in the 19th century.

Houser also named Arthur Morgan and Niko Bellic as his favorite protagonists: