Summary
An ex-Rockstar Games developer has revealed how the iconic cinematic camera angle inGrand Theft Auto 3came to fruition, citing the “boring” train ride as the origin of a feature that has been present in everyGrand Theft Autotitle since.Grand Theft Auto 3was the first entry in Rockstar’s massively popular action-adventure series to make the jump from a top-down perspective to 3D graphics, marking the beginning of a new era for the series with plenty of massive improvements.
Obbe Vermeij is an ex-Rockstar Games employee who has worked on some of the studio’s most iconic titles, includingGrand Theft Auto 3, Vice City, San Andreas,andGrand Theft Auto 4. Ever since the developer began posting numerous bits ofGrand Theft Autotrivia on his personal blog in 2023, Vermeij has continued to reveal various tidbits on his Twitter account, including the reasonwhy Claude is a silent protagonist inGTA 3.Now, in one of the dev’s latest posts, it has been revealed how the iconic cinematic camera angle came to be.
GTA 3 Dev Reveals How Iconic Cinematic Train Camera Angle Came to Fruition
In a new post on Twitter, Vermeij said that he initially found ridingthe train inGrand Theft Auto3to be “boring.” He then explained that he had initially toyed with the idea of letting players jump ahead to the next station without actually experiencing the train ride, but that idea was impossible as it would “cause streaming issues.” So, Vermeij revealed that he decided to make the camera switch between random viewpoints near the train track to make the journey more interesting. After a fellow developer suggested doing something similar for cars, the iconic cinematic camera angle was born as the Rockstar team at the time “found it surprisingly entertaining.”
Vermeij also revealed that the cinematic camera angle remained completely unchanged inGrand Theft Auto Vice City(which is often consideredone of the bestGTAgames to date), but was then revamped by another Rockstar employee forGrand Theft Auto San Andreas. A fan even went through the hassle ofremoving the cinematic camera angleinGrand Theft Auto 3from the game’s files to show what the journey could have looked like had Vermeij not developed the iconic feature. The developer then responded by noting that the camera angle for the train journey would have been similar to driving a car and would have been above and slightly behind the carriage.
The ex-Rockstar Games developer recently verified some details ona massiveGrand Theft Autoleakthat occurred in December. The leak revealed that Rockstar Games was once working on an online mode forGrand Theft Auto 3, with a design document revealing plans for character creation, online missions, progression, and more. Following the leak, Vermeij revealed that he had written a “basic implementation” of a bare bones deathmatch for the game which would allow users to get points by killing each other. Sadly, the online mode was eventually abandoned as it “needed a lot more work.”
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WHERE TO PLAY
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