Grand Theft Auto: Vice City – Origins and Evolution
Launched in October 2002, Grand Theft Auto (GTA) Vice City followed the success of its predecessor, GTA 3. Initially intended as a mission pack for GTA 3, the game evolved into a standalone title.
“Originally it was supposed to be a mission pack to [GTA 3]”, explained former Rockstar North technical director David Vermeij in an interview posted on his blog. “Only once [GTA 3] did as well as it did and Vice City started to look sufficiently different from [GTA 3], was the decision made to make it a standalone game.”
“This was quite far into the project. (maybe 6 months or so).”
While GTA Vice City retained many of the gameplay elements found in GTA 3, its development involved creating a new city for players to explore and additional missions. “The artists and level designers used the [GTA 3] code base for a while until the programmers were available to make code changes,” Vermeij explained.
“Despite the success of GTA Vice City for Rockstar, the development process was more stressful than that of GTA 3 due to the high expectations and the prior game’s achievements.”
“However, the performance of GTA 3 and its accolades made the development process more tolerable for those involved.”
“Everybody just powered through on adrenaline but it became clear that we needed a bit more of a gap for the next game” Vermeij added.