Gaming News GTA: Rockstar’s iconic series might never have existed without this game!
Stratospheric on the video game scale, the GTA series has truly democratized itself with a third episode to remember. But before this masterpiece of the PlayStation 2 era came about, Rockstar’s developers had to build on past experience. And without any of the titles released on Nintendo 64, the GTA we know probably wouldn’t have taken this form or even never existed.
It is the Eurogamer.net site to return to this very interesting story. In the 1990s, the studio that would adopt the Rockstar North name was called DMA Design. Imagine a very small company back then, with walls so thin that flushing the toilet made them shake. Based in Dundee, Scotland, DMA was the origin of Lemmings or the very good Unirally on Super Nintendo. At the time of the transition between this console and the future Nintendo 64, the company signed an agreement to create three games. One of them stuck in some memories, but not necessarily for good reasons…
Body Harvest, the predecessor of GTA?
At the time of signing to Nintendo, developers at DMA Design are excited and are beginning work on a concept that will mix the open universe of Grand Theft Auto (then in preparation at the company’s premises) with a Series B vibe. In the mid-1990s, GTA is certainly three-dimensional, but the view is breezy and the game doesn’t have the immersion that GTA will have in full 3D with a third-person focal length. With the Nintendo 64, a more powerful console than a PlayStation, DMA Design wants to go even further. Imbued with the codes of films like Planetary Danger (1958), Monsters Attack the City (1954) or Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959), Body Harvest is an ambitious game. The gameplay offers great freedom and allows you to grab vehicles to move in order to reach different objectives placed on the map. In short, the classic pattern of future open worlds.
A battered game between Scotland and Japan
Unfortunately, while the tone and references (particularly Godzilla) probably pleased Nintendo, development didn’t go as planned, due to poorly optimized tools. The Japanese publisher also wanted an RPG component, which raised additional concerns. Chosen as one of 13 launch titles for the Nintendo 64, Body Harvest hit a dead end and Nintendo invited the game’s developers (well, part of them) to Kyoto to work with its staff. After disappointment with the setting (Scots thought they were discovering a studio full of color while Nintendo Japan looks more like a hospital), prospects got to work. Body Harvest has finally evolved into something more sober, less B-series and much less mature than the concept originally envisioned by the staff at DMA Design. And above all, it suffered from the different stories that came from Nintendo Japan and its American branch. One wanted a toned down scenario and simplified adventure, the other wanted a more complex and detailed script!
Finally, by many reports, Body Harvest appeared on Nintendo 64 in October 1998, well after the console’s launch. It did not make a positive impression, but all the experiments allowed the artists of DMA Design to delve into this game and the difficulties of creating GTA III. Without Body Harvest, the GTA series probably wouldn’t have gone in this direction as it really served as a “blueprint” for a future big hit. He was just too ambitious for his time.
