Rockstar rode along with cops and gang members for GTA VI
Developers at Rockstar Games travelled through Florida with police officers and gang members to research Grand Theft Auto VI. Aaron Garbut, co-studio head and head of development at Rockstar North, says so in issue 27 of LOVE magazine. The issue reached newsstands on Monday 5 October.
IGN Benelux and Dexerto reported on the interview the same day. It is part of the long feature on GTA VI that LOVE announced last week with four new screenshots.
From Miami to Key West
Every game Rockstar makes starts with research trips, Garbut tells LOVE. On those trips the team explores both the place and its own ideas as a group, he says.
For GTA VI, a small group first spent time in Miami and the towns around it. From there the team drove through the Florida Keys all the way to Key West. They recorded locations and discussed how to bring them into the game. Later, larger groups of developers went back to study specific areas in more detail.
With cops and with gang members
The team did not only look at buildings and landscapes. According to Garbut, they spent time with locals and listened to as many stories as they could. They travelled around with cops and with gang members, he says.
Some of the people they met could be scary, Garbut admits. Yet the people who showed the team around were among the nicest they had met, according to Dexerto. The stories, places and details could be terrifying, he says. IGN Benelux writes that the team also saw the underside of society.
A day in a helicopter
The research also went up into the air. Garbut spent a full day in a helicopter with other art directors. They filmed the Everglades, the mangroves, downtown Miami and the coast.
At one point the helicopter flew low over the mangrove inlets and ended up hovering above a stadium during a concert by Beyoncé. Garbut thinks they made the local news because of it, Dexerto reports.
A place of extremes
For Rockstar, the contrasts within Florida are what matters for GTA VI. IGN Benelux sums up how the studio describes Miami: a place of extremes, where great wealth and deep poverty live side by side. Add excess, chaos and a constant drive to succeed.
The team also studied clothing, haircuts, cosmetics and the different groups in society. That should make the people of Leonida believable. Some experiences from the trips ended up in the game in a surprisingly direct way, according to Rockstar. Which encounters those are is not known.
A new screenshot in the issue
The printed issue holds one more screenshot that LOVE did not share last week. It is in black and white. Jason leans against an old car with his arms crossed, while Lucia sits on the bonnet with a revolver. X user topkaj777 photographed the page, and videotech shared it on Monday morning.
New #GTAVI screenshot in Love Magazine via @topkaj777 https://t.co/JwncnzRIEO
It is not the first time Rockstar talks about its research for the game. Earlier, IGN Benelux reported that developers had visited strip clubs for it.
GTA VI comes out on 19 November.
Source: IGN Benelux