Developed by Obbe Vermeij, who worked between 1995 and 2009. worked as technical director at the Rockstar North studio, published interesting information on his blog about several unrealized or canceled projects from this famous studio.
Agent
The first game described is the spy action thriller Agent, probably Rockstar’s most famous canceled game, which was even officially unveiled in 2009. Vermeil states that the game’s development took place concurrently with GTA IV. Unlike the Grand Theft Auto series, the game it must be linear and traditional mission composition.
In them, players had to visit Cairo, a Swiss ski resort or a French Mediterranean city. But a mission to space also had to be available. The whole concept is a lot reminded me of the James Bond movies. But development didn’t go according to plan, and after internal delays and a move to another team, it was finally cancelled.
Zombie action
Vermeil went on to say that Rockstar North has been toying with the idea of a zombie game for some time. It was immediately after the release of GTA: Vice City, when the developers felt they could try something different. The game, codenamed Z, would take players to a Scottish island and run on the technology base of the aforementioned Vice City.
Transport had to play an important role, for which it was necessary to constantly find fuel and at the same time fight the attacking zombies. But in the end, this format remained only in the minds of a few developers. After a short development, which only lasted about a month, the title was frozen. The entire team then moved on to developing GTA: San Andreas.
GTA: Vice City was supposed to be just an add-on
According to Vermeige, Rockstar originally expected Grand Theft Auto: Vice City will be released as an expansion for GTA III since 2001. The developers worked with this concept before the third part and several months after its release. The change came just about six months after the release of GTA III, when its financial success was about to be fully realized. The company’s management subsequently decided to make GTA: Vice City a full-fledged game.
Then the whole team went on a working trip to Miami, where the developers photographed individual locations and drew inspiration. But Vermeil described the actual work on the game as more intense and demanding compared to GTA III. This was mainly due to the short development time which the authors were given only 12 months. Thanks to the use of technology and mechanics from GTA III, it was possible to meet the deadline. For both GTA III and Vice City, the developers also struggled with the small memory of the PlayStation 2 console, which, for example, only allowed 7 different car models to be loaded at the same time, including police cars. In the case of GTA III, the authors also worked on multiplayer for some time, but in the end they did not have time to implement it due to lack of time.
GTA: San Andreas with individual cities
In another post, Vermeil mentioned several moments from the development of GTA: San Andreas. It is reported that at the time of development, all major decisions had to be approved by the top five Rockstar players. Vermeil once tried to convince this group to make San Andreas there was only one compact gaming card, which would allow a smooth transition between individual cities. But the company’s management initially preferred the concept from the third part, the game world of which was divided into several strictly separated maps.
Ultimately, then-Rockstar North studio president and producer Leslie Benzies helped realize Vermage’s concept. Compared to the authors of Vice City they have more time to develop San Andreas, which helped implement a number of innovative mechanics at that time. In addition to the structure of the game world, stealth passages or gradual development and modification of the character, who could even change weight during the game, finally appeared.
Additional Information Unfortunately, Obbe Vermeij will not be adding posts to his blog for some time. When he revealed himself, Rockstar warned him: stop disseminating inside information. Barring possible legal action, Vermeil said the blog is not worth the further ire of some of his former colleagues. However, he said he was surprised by the relatively strong reaction to talk of games 20 years ago.
Source :Indian TV
