The Grand Theft Auto series has long become a cultural phenomenon and has had a huge impact on the gaming industry and pop culture. It feels like we were playing the classic just yesterday, but in reality, it's been 30 years! What has become of the fate of talented developers who created this unique gaming world? Unfortunately, the once cohesive team found themselves embroiled in legal battles over money, reminiscent of a Mexican standoff. Want to know more of this? Dive in!
Self-Taught Geniuses
Not many people are aware of the stories of the individuals who contributed to the ambitious GTA project and Rockstar. These stories, however, are quite intriguing. They offer a fascinating insight into the world of game development. Many members of the original GTA team did not have formal education in game development. They compensated this with their passion for video games and broad knowledge, which allowed them to create one of the most iconic series.
We were lucky to find biographies of several key figures involved in the development:
David Jones — bought an Amiga 1000 computer with his
severance pay after being laid off from his job. On this ancient
PC he developed the indie game Menace. Before GTA, he created the
iconic game Lemmings.Mike Dailly — developed the graphics engine
used in Grand Theft Auto and its sequel. Gaming engines were
relatively new at that time and few teams could boast of their
presence.
Leslie Benzies — taught himself programming on a Dragon 32
computer and later developed his own game. His understanding of
principles allowed him to oversee the entire technical aspect at
Rockstar.
Sam and Dan Houser — avid lovers of video games, movies, and
music from childhood. Their role in today's terms could be
described as "conceptualizing the cultural code of the project,"
shaping the setting, world, storyline, and characters, and
integrating thematic elements from movies and television, such as
"Miami Vice," "Carlito's Way," "Scarface," and others.
Aaron Garbut — joined DMA Design as an artist and quickly
made a name for himself. He received individual recognition in
GTA 2's credits for his contribution to the project's
development. He still works at Rockstar and leads Rockstar North.
Diego Angel — studied at a film school as a 2D animator,
attended a computer graphics conference out of curiosity, and got
hooked. He bought a Silicon Graphics computer, first taught
himself graphics effects, and then continued to improve graphics
in his company, Angel Studios. His studio's Angel Game Engine was
the foundation for the RAGE engine, and the
studio became Rockstar San Diego.
Rock Music and Ostentatious Crime
It's known that the Houser brothers, two key figures in the GTA franchise, are the children of actress Geraldine Moffat, who played supporting roles in crime dramas, and Walter Houser, who managed Ronnie Scott's nightclub in London's elite Soho district and was acquainted with major music labels of the 70s and 80s.
As David Kushner claimed in his book "Jacked: The Outlaw Story of Grand Theft Auto," older brother Sam became fascinated with criminal stories from an early age because his mother acted in films of this genre, and younger brother Dan followed suit. Their father's work, who was acquainted with famous musicians and producers, allowed the brothers to discover new artists and songs and gain wide genre knowledge ahead of the masses. In their teenage years, they found themselves in New York, where they were enchanted by the atmosphere of the 80s "city that never sleeps."
Music as a Career Starter
In the early 90s, Sam began his career at BMG Music — shooting concerts on video. In 1994, business owners set up a new interactive entertainment division, where the older brother moved, pulling Dan along. In 1996, Sam began leading the development department at BMG Interactive. Yes, the founding fathers of GTA essentially started their journey thanks to music and some protection from their father.
Here, the Housers meet developers from DMA Design — David Jones, Michael Dailly, and Aaron Garbut, and conceive an unusual idea for a "no-rules" racing game called Race and Chase. We won't dwell on the development details. It's important to note that after complicated negotiations with BMG management as well as meeting Leslie Benzies, the Housers convinced the bosses to complete the project. Closer to the end, the title changed to Grand Theft Auto. Immediately after its release in 1997, a series of intellectual property resales occurred, and the franchise was acquired by the young but aggressive company Take-Two.
How Was the Name "Rockstar" Invented?
In one of the interviews, Jamie King, one of the studio's founders and vice president of development, described the creation of the label like this: Where does the name Rockstar Games come from? It comes from Sam Houser's absolute love affair for rock and roll in the 70s and 80s and being able to name every single music producer, album that was seminal, film director, critical movie and just loving that whole time frame and like the way he grew up and his parents' network and his friends and their parents and the whole rock and roll scene and coming from the music industry, which Sam and Terry did ultimately, right, by starting at B&G and Terry was up at Arista Records and there was a conversation about, well, like, Sam, you love rock and roll so much, let's f*cking call it Rockstar, right? … We were at a roller coaster park when we called it Rockstar Games.
Terry, mentioned by King, is Terry Donovan. He also is one of the founders of Rockstar Games and was well acquainted with Sam Houser, having worked with him at the BMG Entertainment record label. Their shared love for music and Western crime drama brought them together. I think it [name the studio Rockstar] was reflective of a cultural desire to show that games were for grown ups and not just kids. And that the people that were playing games and making games were actually pretty damn cool, weren't just nerds, and that video games were going to be like a superior form of entertainment and engagement than movies and music. —Jamie King
Another Side of Crunch Culture
If you've ever wanted to work at Rockstar, the first thing you might hear about is crunch culture. Until recently, the studio was notorious for it. There's a justified belief that the company neglected the atmosphere in the workplace and made employees work overtime until they achieved results.
Jamie King, in his interview, confirms that the company worked hard, but the management did not lag behind the employees: The day after GTA 3 came out, we had to make Vice in a year. We had to help Remedy and 3D Realms and finish Max Payne, which is also like an amazing game that I got to work on from the vibe. Right. And the bullet time and the noir and snow. And so we had like no time to pat ourselves on the back, though it did feel good. And then across Vice and when we hit it again with Vice, we're like working seven days a week. We're so busy, but we are definitely really enjoying it.
When we moved to New York and we worked on GTA 3 … and there were like 12 of us. We kind of grew quite a bit like marketing. And then we built out a whole film department for the mocap, all the editing, all the gameplay clips, all the sales tapes, all the intro movies, everything. We just sort of built out post-production.
And we just just didn't stop. Right. There was never too much like, oh, let's stop and pat ourselves on the back and feel good. It was always what's next, what's next?
Then, you know, the next consoles are coming out. And the middleware is not going to work. Renderware is not good anymore. We need to be independent. We had to build a whole new game engine, which is RAGE. The Rockstar of Arts Graviton, which I was really lucky and got to kind of work at the beginning. I got off the plane from being at Rockstar Vienna, trying to get Max Payne ports done. And it's like EA just brought Renderware. We need our own engine. So we had just brought Rockstar San Diego Angel.
Now, the game has some beautiful characters, beautiful levels, and beautiful artwork. It also had some fantastical characters, like real kind of anime-like crossover stuff. And it was sort of a story, but it wasn't.
I love Revolver because it was a great experience where we came over from New York and we really sat down and went through, all right, here's the storyline. … And we built out the script. And then we sort of got rid of some of the wackier characters. And then we sort of looked at the levels and it was like, let's do what we can with the level that we've got in terms of gameplay.
And for every associate producer and producer myself, we had to work very hard to prove that we weren't just people who worked at the publishing and came from marketing and didn't know anything. — Jamie King
Through the Veil of Secrecy
All the founders of Rockstar Games are known for their rare public appearances and lack of interviews. Throughout GTA history, the Houser brothers and Leslie Benzies have left little online trace. They don't engage in social media or capture circles. Who are these people? Let's try to uncover the mystery.
[My relationship with Sam Houser] was good, it was good. I'm very good. I'm a people person. So I know how to handle people. I don't let ego get in the way. So I collaborated very well and worked very well with him, but people had their difficulties. He [Sam] was very direct and all. I liked him a lot and worked a lot with him very well. We had [some kind of] a friendship.
Of course, of course [the same was with Dan Houser]! He would come to San Diego, I would go to New York alot, and we would have lunch together. I worked with them for two years. Active, also very dear. — Diego Angel [Do you remember them as happy times?] Yeah, amazing. I'm like 27. And we really believed in Grand Theft Auto, even when it wasn't in 3D, right, which the American gaming audience struggled with at first. Like the sensibility, the dialogue, what you were doing, the freedom, this you could just run around a map and pick up vehicles and drop them off at will and have guns and just go off and just, you know, make up gameplay as you went. We always felt like that was something special.
[Some years later] I was really tired and I just got for whatever reason, the difference of opinion with Sam and we were really close friends and it's just like it just stopped working for me, right? And I was just so tired. I'm like, whatever, I'm out, right? So I left because I thought the situation was one way and the situation was actually a different way. And the way I found out, I was just like, I don't want to do this anymore. — Jamie King
Just took all the fight. It just took all the excitement out for me. And I sat with Sam and I'm like, I don't want to do it. Right. I just don't want to do it. And at that point, we've been working seven days a week and I was sort of sacrificing everything for it.
And I just felt like life's too short and there's other things I want to do. And I, you know, how lucky am I? I worked on Three and Vice and San Andreas, the beginnings of Four and Redemption and Midnight Club, Bully, all of it. And I'm like, I'm good.
No. I mean, we never bump into each other. We don't talk to each other. I mean, it's all cool. You know what I mean? For bumps into and be like, oh, what's up? But just very different worlds. — Jamie King
Attention to Details
From the outset, the "rock stars" decided that their video games would strive for realism. Need a virtual analog of New York, Los Angeles, or Miami? They went to the locations to map out and photograph landmarks. If the setting is in the 80s, they watched relevant films, magazines, advertisements, fashion, and cars to capture the right atmosphere.
Here is where the Houser brothers' contribution is most evident: Rockstar had many talented individuals, but they were all craftsmen in their own right—whether in programming, design, marketing, or business. Ultimately, to an artist, it didn't matter which car he drew, and to a programmer, how accurately a certain mechanic worked. Sam and Dan viewed video games from the perspective of culture, a universal phenomenon, and good/bad taste. They always noticed anachronisms or inconsistencies, such as a restyled car appearing after the game timeline. It's no wonder they made everyone redo everything to fit the setting and timeline. Today, all major publishers hire cultural experts to avoid mistakes and prepare the right assets for employees who work but don't see beyond their noses. But in the 90s few understood the value of such a meticulous approach.
Legal Duels in American Courts
The conflict between Leslie Benzies and Dan Houser was initially murky. Benzies claimed that the brothers persuaded him to take a long creative leave, and when he returned to work, he was told that he had long been fired. According to Benzies, he was dismissed without apparent reasons and was not paid the due royalties. In response, Take-Two representatives filed a counterclaim, asserting that he violated the terms of the contract and left the job without a valid reason. The lawsuit was settled a few years ago without any public details about who won what.
I think it's unfortunate. I think it's a shame and a bit sad. I'm not surprised by any of it. Like I read that lawsuit right now, none of none of it surprises me on both sides. Right. It's just a shame.
Leslie was dynamite and was instrumental in growing DMA into Rockstar North and really delivering, leading the team that delivered on the code side. And, you know, when we finished Vice City, right, a few of us flew to Anguilla the next day to plan San Andreas. It was me and Terry and Dan and Leslie, right? It's like, you know, he [Sam Houser] was "I love Leslie" and he was great and it's just sad. It's just unfortunate. But, you know, the old days can't stay the same. — Jamie King You know, if I had his money, I'd be like, yeah, please. Yeah, I'm going to go write a book. I might just travel. I mean, how much more does he [Dan] need to do? I wouldn’t be surprised if Dan writes a book because he's an amazing writer, right? He has a tone and a wit. I'd love to see him write a book. — Jamie King commenting Dan Houser Rockstar departure
Legacy
In their childhood, both Dan and Sam dreamed of working in the music industry. They didn't abandon this passion when developing GTA. The first game in the series already featured a radio, with songs recorded in-house. In the second game, characteristic features of the series emerged, such as full-fledged radio stations and DJs, as well as satirical advertising breaks.
The number of songs only continued to grow, gradually filling up with more and more famous artists. Rockstar began to use music as an important part of the immersive gaming experience. For example, when completing missions for a particular gang in their car, the ethnic music of that group would play. In GTA 5, car radio became a fully-fledged element, with DJs, advertisements, banter between songs, and almost 250 licensed songs: from Creedence Clearwater Revival and Johnny Cash to 2Pac and Dr. Dre. Listening to the radio in the game became akin to listening to real radio; there are so many songs that you can listen for hours without hearing the same one twice. The way the Houser brothers changed our perception of music accompaniment in games deserves recognition as their legacy in the industry.
Rockstar Founders Aren't Waiting for GTA 6
The "rock band" that gave the world GTA eventually disbanded. What do the founding fathers of Rockstar and GTA think of their brainchild after all these years? Let's find out.
I haven't played GTA 5 at all. I did get 4 just to run about and then see what the engine was like, but most of the games... I mean, GTA 3 and 4, I don't know about 5, but I hate this kind of blocking off of content where you just want to drive about, because that's the fun bit. In Vice City, all I did was steal a car, drive about, steal a fire engine, and do a lot of missions.
I have no interest in these big long stories. I just don't have the time for it. So yeah, I don't really care about the newer games. They're just kind of for younger generations that have the time to waste. I never really did the missions, but that was part of the fun, and I didn't feel guilty about it. Well, that's what I'm saying about being an arcade game. It's just that immediate kind of fun of getting into this mayhem, and then if you died, okay, we'll start again.
I didn't really care that much, and that's the core mechanic of it, and that's still kind of there, but the later games kind of block it off a little bit. I think GTA 5 is more open. It's just this kind of bigger open world rather than... GTA 4, they had whole cities blocked off, like barriers and stuff, and that was just horrible, but I think it's certainly more open now.
So, to some respect, it's kind of getting back to its original, which is just letting people play. My son plays it. I mean, they go and have mad fun and do stunts and stuff all over the place. Again, they don't play the missions. They play about it, which is what the original game was. Yeah, yeah. — Mike Dailly commenting his expectations about next GTA
I love five. … I love Redemption. I think they [Rockstar] are doing an amazing job. If you think [about it], if you look at it. They used to publish games for $60 at retail. [Now] you had all the free to play models, the MMOs, right? You know, mobile gaming, microtransactions. They completely embraced it, right? They created online versions that are amazing. GTA 5 is still one of the most popular and how many years has it been out? And they're able to keep engaging with fresh content and to monetize that. [So, of course, they're not in a hurry to announce six.] … They're printing money, they're printing money. At the same time, the company's really evolved and the Rockstar brand has evolved, right. … I don’t want to go back to Rockstar. I had an amazing time. I love it. It's just I'll never forget it. … And it is different now to when I was there. — Jamie King I sold the company [we know it as Rockstar San Diego], I sold it well. And I said, well, that's it, we've come this far. And I'm not going to stay here for the rest of my life; I wanted another experience. Let me tell you a little personal detail of mine: the day I arrived in the United States, the first day, that day, I talked to myself and said: «I would return to Colombia». And I did it. — Diego Angel about Rockstar future
*** The history of Grand Theft Auto is a fascinating saga of how a group of talented and ambitious developers overcame all obstacles on their way to one of the most successful video game series. Today, other people continue to delight fans worldwide, while the original team has scattered to pursue their own projects.