Rockstar Games created an entire team dedicated to what some might consider “background noise” for GTA 6.
The tidbit comes from GTA 6 developers who recently spoke to Love magazine about the open-world epic. Rockstar’s senior vice president of narrative, Rupert Humphries, says there’s “an amazing team of writers and creatives” focused on creating the “‘background noise’ that makes the city and the world come to life.”
According to Humphries, that includes a “specific team of pedestrian dialogue writers in LA and then a team of advertising and comedy writers across New York, LA, and London.” He adds: “It’s a team from all sorts of backgrounds and walks of life, but we all share a sense of humor and a desire to have a bit of fun with the ridiculousness of humans and the media and advertising. And none of us see it as background! It’s all part of the tapestry of the game and creates the experience of living in this wild world.”
Open world writing director, James Horton, says the studio apparently “dreamed a lot bigger this time around,” building entire teams for details that might be after thoughts in other open-world games.
“There are no shortcuts when it comes to building a world like this: it’s a question of giving the right people the resources they need to build something that’s not only vast and varied as a whole, but where every part rings true no matter how small it is, or how closely you look at it,” Horton explains. “It needs to wash over you when you’re sprinting down the busiest street in the city, hearing snatches of a hundred different conversations as you go; and it needs to be totally convincing if you decide to stop and pay close attention to any one of those conversations.”
Horton even argues that, in some ways, there’s “no background” in GTA 6. The difference between “background” and “foreground” simply depends on whatever the player is paying attention to at any given moment. Focus on a random NPC, and you might find a character with their own interesting inner life. “No one you meet is an extra; they’re not only full characters, everyone you meet is the main character in their own story,” Horton continues.