One thing that fascinates me is looking back at early game development of popular games before they changed everything. GTA 3 was a landmark game, It changed games forever, and was a cultural phenomenon in a way not even Rockstar themselves could have imagined. Coming off of GTA2 the series had a strong fanbase, enough to warrant a sequel, but the earlier games never reached the cultural status.
Little did the world know how much the gaming industry would evolve with the
release of the 3rd entry. People were interested in the sequel, and Driver 2
gave everyone a taste, but at the time the game did not garner the amount of
interest it had once the game released. And this is what makes it so
fascinating to look back, to see the history of GTA3 in the public eye, at a
time when it was just a small blip on many people's radars...
Trying to find the first mention of GTA 3 in development was on the 26th of
February 2000. This was the company's fiscal year, and was advertising GTA3
along with other titles in development for the upcoming PS2 system.
Interestingly, IGN at the time had speculated that the game would be "internet
capable". Other than that however, nothing was shown and no further details
about the release was mentioned.
The first ever footage we got of GTA3 was shown in an Edge magazine in June 2000's issue. The advert wasn't for the game per say, but for the DMA studio who was hiring talent around the game's release. The visual design of the game didn't differ too much from the final release, but it did have more of a CG quality to it - something also IGN picked up at the time. It also had some of the more colourful and less-realistic art style which was the original target. It's not clear when the shift changed, but it is something President Sam Houser mentioned on the 1st November 2000 stating "we really are looking to bring back the rawness that the original had".
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| Scanned page from Edge Magazine |
Next was a wireframe footage of the car jacking animation. Now it's hard to
find any information where this footage came from, but according to the
uploader, the video was released on the 21st July 2000. Shortly after, there
was another wireframe release, but it's hard to find any date. According to
scouring Google Groups, it seems like the video came around sometime 10th
October 2000 and showed more of the same.
The footage shows 2 wireframe videos showing the car jacking animation -
identical to the one found in the final game. Interestingly, this was one of
the main 'eureka' moments Sam Houser mentioned he had when seeing this
animation for the first time when looking back at GTA 3's history.
All we had at this point was a job advert with some depicted CG graphics and
some wireframe footage of what he animations would look like in the final
game. Another interview mentioned earlier with Sam Houser on the 1st November
was confident to note that the game's map had been fully completed, but was
still uncertain as to the name of the final game.
Before the game went into full swing with its media coverage, there was one
last piece of media footage shown off by the end of the new year. IGN reported
on this on the 3rd of January 2001, however it is possible to find earlier
discussion back on the 30th December 2000.
The screenshot in question is the first ever footage of the game in action.
Throughout the year the game would be heavily advertised, but at this point in
time, this is all fans had to go off. It depicted the Liberty City police car
in it's original blue colour scheme (before being changed to black post 9/11)
as well as sporting the rims relegated to the sport's cars on the final game.
No real context was given as to the screenshot, but it was good evidence that
the game was shaping up nicely.
- https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OgYlcnInMJ0 --- Car Jacking
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoxIPO2GZWA&ab_channel=GTAPlaceTV
- https://www.theguardian.com/technology/gamesblog/2013/sep/09/30-important-moments-gta-history
- https://web.archive.org/web/20001205070500/http://ps2.ign.com/news/27203.html
- https://uk.ign.com/articles/2001/01/03/first-grand-theft-auto-3-screenshot
- https://www.ign.com/articles/2000/06/01/steal-these-grand-theft-auto-shots -- Edge DMA advert
- https://www.ign.com/articles/2001/01/03/first-grand-theft-auto-3-screenshot
- https://www.ign.com/articles/2000/02/26/take-two-profits-starts-ps2-internet-plans
- "New GTA3 Wireframe Leaked..." (13/10/2000) --Google groups - gta3 before:2001/01/01
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