IGN publishes the full GTA VI interview with Rob Nelson

IGN has published the full interview with Rob Nelson, co-studio head of Rockstar North. He played 30 minutes of Grand Theft Auto VI for the site in July. Large parts of the conversation had never been published before.

IGN visited Rockstar North in July and watched Nelson play the game live. Rachel Weber, head of editorial development at IGN, wrote a preview in August, after the extended look on Netflix. That preview covered the main points. The full transcript stayed unpublished until 7 October.

The demo was not a fixed script, Weber writes. Several things went differently than planned, and Nelson talked while he played. The conversation therefore often follows what happened on screen.

Below is first what is new in the full interview. After that comes what the August preview already showed, and finally what is still not known.

A safehouse that belongs to someone else

The safehouse in the demo is not the home of Jason and Lucia, Nelson says. The two are staying in the house of someone else. Whose house it is, he does not say.

According to Nelson, the safehouses are closer to the camps of Red Dead Redemption 2 than to the safehouses of any earlier GTA. That goes for how interactive they are and for how much they feel like a home.

At the start of the demo, Jason has longer hair than in the trailers, IGN notes. He takes a drink from the fridge and picks up a romance novel from a table.

Jason has his own routine, says Nelson. When players switch to him, he is sometimes in the safehouse and sometimes out on his own. In the demo, he turned out to be in the shower.

A new writing team in Los Angeles

For the conversations of passers-by, Rockstar built an entirely new team of writers, directors and producers in Los Angeles, Nelson says. The game needed more depth and variety in that dialogue than the studio could make before.

Everyone in the technical, animation, design and writing teams had to become a student of human behaviour, according to Nelson. They studied how a conversation rises and falls when you walk past two people. How large the team in Los Angeles is, he does not say.

Animations that fit every body

Earlier games could not show this much variety in body types, Nelson explains. Different bodies had to share one set of animations. A short and a tall person then did not line up when they fought or sat in a car.

For GTA VI, the team built a system that adapts those animations on the fly. Nelson links it to the memory of the current consoles. The game was developed for this generation from the start.

Nobody knows the whole game

The game is so big that Nelson doubts anyone on the team knows all of it. New dialogue still reaches the build on a regular basis.

During the demo, Jason suggested robbing a police impound lot as the couple drove past. Nelson had never heard that line himself. He dropped his plan to rob a pawn shop and went for the car instead.

The team has doubled in size, partly because of the density of the world, Nelson says. He gives no numbers. In July the game was not finished yet, according to Nelson. The team would use every moment it could get for polish.

The partner at the wheel

Jason or Lucia can drive while the player shoots from the other seat. When it really works, it can feel like a scripted mission, Nelson says. He calls that totally new for Rockstar.

He gives two examples. Shooting out the tyres of the front police car can make it flip and block the cars behind it. The partner can also beat a train at the last second and cut off the chase.

Four characters were on the table

After GTA V, the team discussed how to follow up three playable characters, Nelson says. One idea was four. The worry was that players would get too little time with each of them, and so feel less connected.

That led to two characters in a relationship. Chemistry is notoriously hard in any kind of entertainment, says Nelson. According to him, the reactions within the team show that it works.

How much of the character is the player

Nelson uses Red Dead Redemption 2 to explain an idea that Rockstar takes further in GTA VI. The question is how much of a character is the character, and how much is the player.

Some players did not understand why Arthur Morgan kept following Dutch. They had not been saved by Dutch at fifteen, Arthur had. Rockstar then added that only Dutch knew where the money of the gang was. That gave players a reason of their own.

Many kind acts of Arthur were mandatory at first, Nelson says. Rockstar made them optional, so that players who chose them would feel his redemption as their own. Some lines of Arthur in the cutscenes also change with the honour of the player.

GTA VI continues down this path, according to Nelson. Jason and Lucia start out wanting to give their relationship a chance. Playing the story missions together may not be enough to keep them together.

The relationship and the story

Players who do not keep Jason and Lucia together will still see them work together for most of the story, says Nelson. Their circumstances force them to. At the very least, they stay partners in crime.

Nelson does not want to say more, to avoid spoilers. He can think of no gameplay benefit to romance. Whether the relationship was looked after does affect how their story plays out, he says.

Physical intimacy is a large part of a relationship and has to be done right, according to Nelson. The team keeps iterating until it feels right, and wants to avoid a caricature. What it looks like in the game, he does not show.

In GTA V, three characters lived separate lives, Nelson says. In GTA VI, players often wonder where the other one is, as in real life. Playing the two together feels like looking after them as a unit, he says. Rockstar did not know that would happen when it started.

Small choices and big choices

The story has many choices, big and small, says Nelson. The small ones add up. Some big ones mean a lot at the moment they are made. How many endings there are, he does not say.

Changes to a town, like the lumber yard in Red Dead Redemption 2, play a smaller role in GTA VI. They are not as big a part of the story, according to Nelson. Players can rob pretty much anything, though, such as a shop that sells headphones.

Where a GTA starts

Choice was a big item on the proverbial whiteboard, Nelson says. Satire is not the first thing Rockstar thinks about. The setting comes first: Miami and Florida, which became Vice City and Leonida.

Then the team travels there and meets as many people as it can. Next come the experiences, places and people the player should meet, and a set of characters to carry it. Only then does the team look at what to improve.

Two things stood out for GTA VI, says Nelson: choice, and connecting who the player is in the story with who the player is in the open world.

No current slang

Because development takes so long, Rockstar does not jump on current events, Nelson says. Very specific political issues and memes date fast. Broader themes are fine to satirise.

The characters also avoid very contemporary slang, according to Nelson. Jason and Lucia are a certain age, but they need to feel somewhat timeless. Rupert Humphries, senior vice president of narrative, made a similar point in LOVE magazine earlier this week.

The backstories of Jason and Lucia are only partly told in the game, Nelson says. Some of it is said outright, some only hinted at. The team left room for interpretation on purpose, so players can connect with them more easily.

Smaller details from the demo

• Lucia hides in a mini mart and buys a baseball cap and gum, while a police officer walks past outside.
• A yellow cross marks a person who is knocked out and will not get up.
• Adrenaline helps to get away from the police.
• Buying and wearing a new outfit in a shop removes all heat.
• Every weapon that has been bought is always in the back of the personal vehicle.
• Jason and Lucia can work out together, and the stats of both go up at once.
• Players can climb into the dumpster with the man who gives legal advice.
• Holding down on the D-pad sets a waypoint.
• A damaged car can be repaired before delivery, because the fence pays less for it. The scanner also shows what a Pay ‘n’ Spray would pay.
• The demo started at the small house of Jason, and in 30 minutes Nelson did not reach the beach.

What the August preview already showed

Much of the gameplay in the demo was already known from the preview of August. The site never wrote about that preview, so the main points are below, as Nelson explains them in the full interview.

The police

The police only know about a crime when someone sees it or an alarm goes off. The spot then becomes a hot area on the map. One star is easy to shake off, and the dispatch knows very precisely what happened, says Nelson.

The police remember what the player wears and drives, and know they are looking for a couple. A cap and glasses are not enough, a new outfit is. Spare clothes can be kept in the trunk. A different car and splitting up also help.

Hollow white stars mean the police do not know who the player is. Narrow alleys and running on foot are often the best way out of three stars in the city. Whoever gets arrested sees Busted and respawns, as in earlier games.

The Criminal Profile

The Criminal Profile tracks what kind of criminal Jason and Lucia are. It differs from the honour of Red Dead Redemption 2, Nelson says. What a mission or a robbery requires is fair game. Unnecessary violence, again and again, can push the profile in a certain direction.

That can affect how the world reacts and how the story plays out. There is no right or wrong way to play, according to Nelson. The relationship between Jason and Lucia is a separate system.

Stealing cars

Not every parked car can be stolen right away. Some need tools that come later in the story, such as a slim jim or a key cloner. Carjacking a driver always works.

A scanner on the phone shows whether a car is locked, has an alarm or a tracker, and what it is worth. With an advanced tracker, the car has to keep up its speed or the police find it. The streets are narrower and more realistic in scale than before, says Nelson.

Money and robberies

Money matters more than in earlier GTA games, according to Nelson. Some parts of the story require players to earn money first. Shops, banks and payday loan places can be robbed, alone or together.

A safe can be blown open, but that damages part of the haul. The code can also be found in the building. Loot such as jewellery goes to a fence. A fence gave Jason and Lucia the code to the impound lot from the demo.

Daily life in Leonida

Jason and Lucia can text and call each other at any time. Ignoring a message can hurt the relationship a little. Holding R2 lets them hold hands, and they hold doors for each other.

Hair at home can only be cut shorter. New styles come from salons and barbers, each with signature styles of its own. Eating gives a large health boost, overeating adds weight and the gym adds muscle.

Ryde Me, the version of Uber in the game, works as fast travel, with a chat with the other passengers. Snapmatic is there for browsing and following, not for posting, since the two are on the run. There are more radio and TV ads than ever.

Focus works like Eagle Eye in Red Dead Redemption 2 and shows things and police. Animals can be studied, as a collection. People notice when someone listens in or follows them, and they may get aggressive. Lucia always joins a fight of Jason, and the other way round.

Missions

The escape from the tower block in the extended look has several routes. In the mission with Raul, the player first shoots while Lucia drives, then takes the wheel. There is a suggested way out of the chase, but it is not required.

The ankle tag of Lucia is part of the story and part of how Jason and Lucia come together, says Nelson. He does not explain more.

What is still not known

• Whose house the safehouse in the demo is.
• What happens when the relationship of Jason and Lucia falls apart. Nelson did not want to say more.
• How the game shows physical intimacy.
• How far the Criminal Profile changes the story.
• How many endings there are.
• What the ankle tag of Lucia means for the story.
• How large the new team in Los Angeles is, and how many people work on the game.
• What has changed in the game since the demo of July.

Grand Theft Auto VI appears on 19 November for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S.