Two lunchtime companions chat about how crazy the video game they are making is and how they could take it even further. The game is Grand Theft Auto, and the idea that just came to mind is about to become an icon in video game history.
On one side of the table is Ian Johnson, a new programmer who has landed at DMA Design recently. The other, Stewart Waterson, the artist to whom we owe all the iconography of the first installment of the saga GTA and the story told in this recent interview.
“I think one of the key turning points was when Ian and I joked about having tanks in the game. It was very ridiculous. There was no reason to justify it. There was no reason to develop it beyond being something indestructible, very dangerous. and hilarious to destroy things. “
That short meal was more than enough for both of them to convince themselves of how willing they were to carry out their plan. That same day they would stay up late, they would take a car and put a pedestrian on top capable of shooting.
“The premise was that we already had the vehicle code that we could use, and also a ballistics code that allowed a pedestrian to rotate and shoot in eight directions. Our idea was that if we put the pedestrian on the car, we made the car go slower and that we were exaggerating the damage of the bullets, you already had a basic version of a tank. “
And they do it like that. Dodging the bullet with excuses about bugs and fixing textures when asked by their project manager, they stayed working on the idea until they put the tank in the game. They checked that it worked and went home.
Returning the next day they found a ton of testers and teammates making a fuss. They had discovered the tanks and they were having a great time, so when the crew chief arrived and saw such a mess, he automatically turned to them to ask what they had done this time.
Nobody could blame them because it had become clear to what extent it was a good idea, so the tanks stayed in the game and became part of the history of the saga GTA and, of rebound, also of the one of the video games.
