Former Rockstar North Technical Director Obbe Vermeij shared some behind-the-scenes details about decision-making process behind Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The game was released 20 years ago, so it is a great occasion to share some insights.

Vermeij revealed that the developers initially planned to place the three cities of San Andreas on separate maps. This approach was considered due to the limited memory capacity of the PS2, and separating the cities would have helped bypass these technical constraints.

This decision would have brought several other advantages, according to Vermeij. For example, creating unique police cars, ambulances, and fire trucks for each city could have been much easier. It would also have simplified file organization on the disk, which would have facilitated better streaming. Additionally, players' behavior would have been more predictable, which would have further helped in game optimization.

The artists at Rockstar North were almost ready to work on three separate maps. However, in a final meeting, the developers ultimately decided against it. They concluded it would be best to create one large map instead of splitting it into three. Despite this, the developers still designed unique models and weather conditions for each city.

Vermeij ended his message by wishing San Andreas a happy anniversary, noting that Rockstar had created a truly remarkable game. The action title was released on PlayStation 2 20 years ago, and it later became available on Xbox and PC a year after.

Main image: steampowered.com

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