how much manpower did it take to design the enormous GTA:San Andreas maps?

[Takashi Shimura]

And I thought Vice City was big! I recently made it to San Fierro and the maps I have seen so far are at least 5 times langer than the entire Vice City map, and I haven't been to Tierra Robada/ Las Venturas yet!

Everything is so carefully designed. It's simply amazing. The terrain, the architecture of the buildings, the streets, the bridges, everything that is civil engineering. A mountain is a mountain, a cliff is a cliff (not like HL2's cliffs next to the ocean, in say, Highway 17, which look less like cliffs and more like textures on top of flat surfaces).

It must have taken an army of at least a dozen designers to achieve this. I am also thinking that perhaps the maps were designed automatically, with a limited amount of human supervision. I know this sounds like a dumb thought of my part, but what I have seen so far seems like something that would have been unbelievably tedious to have been done by hand.

Yee, I don't even want to imagine what the next GTA game will be like.

 

[Asknoone]

Watch out for the sexual inneudnos in Las Ven. Be careful there Takashi

But yeah, its big

 

[SAJ]

There are 18 or so level designers credited at the back of the manual(youve got one of those right).
But thats nothing compared to the voice credits , over sixty individual credits for "gangster voices" and at least a hundred and fifty for pedestrians.
Wow.


Edit: If you watch the opening credits there are three teams named ,one for each city. Which would acount for the variation in quality of design , as well as encouraging some individuality for each city.

 

[Sparta]

And I thought Vice City was big! I recently made it to San Fierro and the maps I have seen so far are at least 5 times langer than the entire Vice City map, and I haven't been to Tierra Robada/ Las Venturas yet!

Actually its just the one big map. Not maps, just one massive map, thats it.

It must have taken an army of at least a dozen designers to achieve this. I am also thinking that perhaps the maps were designed automatically, with a limited amount of human supervision. I know this sounds like a dumb thought of my part, but what I have seen so far seems like something that would have been unbelievably tedious to have been done by hand.

Not really. It would take a fair bit but the artists have done their research so they know what particular period or style of architecture they are building for this city or that city. Its quite fun once you get the hang of knowing what you're doing.

 

[Gray Fox]

I don't think there were much more people involved, cause the game maybe a lot bigger in term of surfuce, but VC had a lot more missions as far as I know. It took me a lot less time to complete SA then VC. As far as I know they just diverted manpower from making missions to mapping.

 

[Reginald]

I personally hope the maps don't get much bigger unless you have a way of moving around quickly from the very beginning of the game. Trekking all the way from SF to LS without access to a plane or helicopter takes ages. Although you can just break the rules and hop over the airport wall....

 

[StardogChampion]

It probably takes less than 5 mins to travel from 1 corner of the map to the other by car..

 

[Reginald]

It probably takes less than 5 mins to travel from 1 corner of the map to the other by car..

Pfft. Not with my driving skills

 

[Dalamari]

My guess is the next GTA game will be a POS, not much else they can add (except maybe improving the visuals) before it becomes The Sims w/ guns

 

[Alig]

Which only strenthens the point why GTA is one of the best games ever created if there isn't room for improvement in gameplay

 

[Dalamari]

Which only strenthens the point why GTA is one of the best games ever created if there isn't room for improvement in gameplay

It is indeed, although the missions are getting a bit boring, one uber mission in a pile of "drive here and kill this" missions gets very...ugh

 

[Reaktor4]

I personally hope the maps don't get much bigger unless you have a way of moving around quickly from the very beginning of the game. Trekking all the way from SF to LS without access to a plane or helicopter takes ages. Although you can just break the rules and hop over the airport wall....

or type jumpjet

 

[Sober]

I've not played a GTA game, but watching my friend play it and screenshots, it's more like a sandbox thing.

 

[Ennui]

Which only strenthens the point why GTA is one of the best games ever created if there isn't room for improvement in gameplay

Not necessarily, just not room in the already-specified area of gameplay that GTA defines.

 

[Reaktor4]

Not necessarily, just not room in the already-specified area of gameplay that GTA defines.

there is though.

 

[Vigilante]

And I thought Vice City was big! I recently made it to San Fierro and the maps I have seen so far are at least 5 times langer than the entire Vice City map, and I haven't been to Tierra Robada/ Las Venturas yet!

Everything is so carefully designed. It's simply amazing. The terrain, the architecture of the buildings, the streets, the bridges, everything that is civil engineering. A mountain is a mountain, a cliff is a cliff (not like HL2's cliffs next to the ocean, in say, Highway 17, which look less like cliffs and more like textures on top of flat surfaces).

It must have taken an army of at least a dozen designers to achieve this. I am also thinking that perhaps the maps were designed automatically, with a limited amount of human supervision. I know this sounds like a dumb thought of my part, but what I have seen so far seems like something that would have been unbelievably tedious to have been done by hand.

Yee, I don't even want to imagine what the next GTA game will be like.

If you think that's amazing look at World of Warcraft.

 

[StardogChampion]

If you think that's amazing look at World of Warcraft.

GTA is so much more detailed than WoW.

 

[Reginald]

There are loads of things they could refine in the game. And a lot of new gameplay features to add. I think they went a bit wayward with statistic balancing this time though. Keeping your Los Santos girlfriend happy while doing missions in San Fierro is really hard.

Basically, San Andreas is still just another rung on the ladder. They can add loads of stuff like knock-on effects, organized crime, career paths, freeform missions... etc.

They day Rockstar sell out to EA, that's when you need to worry.

EA Executive: "Your character will need to go to the toilet 6 times a day to avoid serious illness. And if you don't clean your safe house, you will get cockroaches."

 

[KagePrototype]

If you think that's amazing look at World of Warcraft.

Yeah, but that game took almost half a decade to make, while San Andreas took significantly less.

Rockstar North is an interesting development house; their method of employment is to hire people new to the industry, and work them like crazy on a game before letting them go. They encourage you to stay and work at their offices for long hours; they even have beds, showers, gym facilities and food courts there. Think of it as an initiation into the video game industry; they work you like dogs so you can take on pretty much anything any other company will throw at you.

 

[StardogChampion]

There are loads of things they could refine in the game. And a lot of new gameplay features to add. I think they went a bit wayward with statistic balancing this time though. Keeping your Los Santos girlfriend happy while doing missions in San Fierro is really hard.

You don't have to take care of your girlfriends at all, you can do all that once you've finished all the missions.

Yeah, but that game took almost half a decade to make, while San Andreas took significantly less.

Rockstar North is an interesting development house; their method of employment is to hire people new to the industry, and work them like crazy on a game before letting them go. They encourage you to stay and work at their offices for long hours; they even have beds, showers, gym facilities and food courts there. Think of it as an initiation into the video game industry; they work you like dogs so you can take on pretty much anything any other company will throw at you.

Do you think they'd give members of the public a tour like Valve?

 

[Jintor]

Apparently they've got a zombie-proof door. And the real location of their headquarters is unknown - just 'somewhere in that other place'.

 

[KagePrototype]

Apparently they've got a zombie-proof door. And the real location of their headquarters is unknown - just 'somewhere in that other place'.

Is that what they call Edinburgh nowadays?

Do you think they'd give members of the public a tour like Valve?

I doubt it.

 

[Cole]

Hmm...is the world as big as Arena(Which btw is the first Elder Scrolls spanning the whole continent, then Daggerfall spanned half of the continent)?

 

[Sparta]

Which only strenthens the point why GTA is one of the best games ever created if there isn't room for improvement in gameplay

There's tons of room for improvement. Mostly the missions. Way too tedious at first but they start getting a little more varied and interesting when you get to San Fierro

GTA is so much more detailed than WoW.

No, it isn't.

 

[Reginald]

Hmm...is the world as big as Arena(Which btw is the first Elder Scrolls spanning the whole continent, then Daggerfall spanned half of the continent)?

San Andreas is bout 150% the size of Morrowind I would say. Less missions though. I think that is the next direction in which the series needs to go. Multiple roots and you can choose your alignment etc.

 

[Sparta]

San Andreas is bout 150% the size of Morrowind I would say. Less missions though. I think that is the next direction in which the series needs to go. Multiple roots and you can choose your alignment etc.

Yeah i really wanna see multiple routes and what not. They also need a better combat system too. If they can make the combat system anything like Freedom Fighters then the next GTA game will be the best game ever.