The world has been given a tiny glimpse into the uber-secretive world of Rockstar North thanks to a fascinating new blog from former technical director Obbe Vermeij, who, in just a few short weeks, has shed light on the company's cancelled spy game Agent, discussed a zombie game abandoned by the company after it was deemed to be too depressing, and more.
Vermeij served as technical director at Rockstar North from 1995 (when the studio was still known as DMA Design) to 2009, meaning his time at the company spanned the creation of Grand Theft Auto has a series right through to Grand Theft Auto IV.
Since launching his blog earlier this month, Vermeij has been sharing anecdotes about a number of Rockstar's games, touching on everything from the company's streaming tech for Grand Theft Auto III - which struggled enough that the art team was forced to shove a building in the middle of a long stretch of Portland road to ensure players wouldn't run out of building before they could load in - to early efforts at implementing multiplayer in GTA III.
In the latter case, the team experimented with a "basic deathmatch" that would let players drag each other out of cars and kill each other to earn points, that "worked but [was] glitchy" and was eventually abandoned as the team "were running out of time".
Perhaps the most interesting anecdotes shared so far, however, relate to the games that might have been; one of these includes Rockstar's notorious Agent, a spy game set during the Cold War in the late 70s that was formally announced as a PlayStation 3 exclusive in 2009 and then, after years of silence, simply fizzled out into obscurity, its web pages and trademarks abandoned.
According to Vermeij's new account, Agent started life as a demo - featuring a "hang glider and a car turning into a submarine or something" - built by Rockstar North to encourage other studios in the company to use the GTA Engine. That demo would eventually evolve into full production, at the encouragement of Rockstar president Leslie Benzies, with half of Rockstar North working on Agent (internally known as "Jimmy", because what else would a Scottish studio call a James Bond inspired game?) while the other half developed GTA IV's DLC and GTA V.
According to Vermeij, Agent would be a more linear experience compared to GTA, and would take place across a number of classic spy movie locations, including a French Mediterranean city, a Swiss ski resort, Cairo, and finally culminating in a "big shootout with lasers in space". Rockstar is said to have worked on Agent "for over a year" - a downhill skiing chase scene with guns was developed, for instance - but "the game wasn't progressing as well as we'd hoped."
With Grand Theft Auto V - a project "the whole company would have to get behind" - looming, the Agent team "tried to cut the game down in an attempt the get the bulk of it done before the inevitable call from NY would come" but it "became clear that Jimmy was going to be too much of a distraction for us and we ditched it." Vermeij recalls Agent was "handed over to another company within Rockstar but never got completed".
And so farewell Agent. But that's not the only intriguing might-have-been shared in Vermeij's blog so far. He also spends a little time reminiscing on a zombie project known as Z, which, using the code created for GTA San Andreas, would take place on a "windswept foggy Scottish island". Here, players would find themselves under constant attack from the undead, needing to find vehicles and fuel to get around. Development on the idea progressed for around "several months", according to Vermeij, but, ultimately, "the idea seemed depressing and quickly ran out of steam." And so the idea was dropped to focus on GTA IV.
Vermeij's blog is a illuminating read, and an intriguing anecdotal dip back through the ordinarily shadowy history of one of the most successful - and most secretive - developers in games industry. Needless to say,
it's well worth perusing.
