New information has revealed that the NPC tech players know and love in Rockstar games was prototyped more than a decade ago, in 2014.
A lot of anticipation and hype surrounds GTA 6, not only because it’s the most anticipated game in the past few years, but also because everything the devs have shown so far has players more excited than ever. One of Rockstar’s strengths is making the world feel lived-in, with NPCs that feel like an actual part of it. Now we have also progressed to interacting with these NPCs a lot more, and it all leveled up with a prototype several years ago.
Rockstar’s Insane NPC Interactions Were Prototyped for Red Dead Redemption 2 Years Ago
Through his latest YouTube post, Jason Schreier has mentioned a Red Dead Redemption 2 prototype for NPC interactions. Rob Nelson, the head of development at Rockstar Games, recently spoke to Schrier about an RDR2 prototype that their vice president of animation, Mark Tennant, had prepared. The prototype was first shown to Phil Hooker, who was apprehensive about showing it to Nelson, as he was known for incorporating every ambitious element into the game, no matter how much work it meant for the team.
The prototype itself is the NPC interaction method that players have grown so fond of in Red Dead Redemption 2, where players can press and hold L2/LT to ‘Greet or Antagonize’ somebody. Once this prototype was shown to Nelson, his words were, “This is incredible; this will revolutionize the way our games and our worlds work.
Some More GTA 6 Details
Beyond the Red Dead Redemption 2 prototype, Schreier shared several insights about GTA 6 from his visit to Edinburgh (thanks videotechuk). Some of the developers for GTA 6 have been working on the project for over 11 years and initially focused on map design and research in Miami. The game experienced a challenging period in its development from 2019 to 2022, but conditions began to improve from 2022 to 2023.
Regarding GTA 6, it was revealed that the game has narrower, denser roads than GTA 5. Additionally, the game almost had a different weapon selection interface, but they eventually went back to the wheel. The GTA 6 Extended Look coming to Netflix was Rockstar’s idea, with marketing head Mark Adamson proposing it. Developers in the studio have creative freedom, and Rockstar lets artists add small environmental details and features themselves. Lastly, Rockstar almost got a Miami office.
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