Grand Theft Auto 3 Dev Reveals Origin of Iconic Feature

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home January 8, 2025 11 Views 7 Min Read
Grand Theft Auto 3 Dev Reveals Origin of Iconic Feature



Summary

  • The iconic cinematic camera angle in Grand Theft Auto 3 originated from a “boring” train ride.
  • Obbe Vermeij, an ex-Rockstar Games developer, has revealed the development process behind the feature.
  • The developer created the camera angle for train rides, but went on to implement it for cars after fellow Rockstar devs found it “surprisingly entertaining.”

An ex-Rockstar Games developer has revealed how the iconic cinematic camera angle in Grand Theft Auto 3 came to fruition, citing the “boring” train ride as the origin of a feature that has been present in every Grand Theft Auto ​​​​​​title since. Grand Theft Auto 3 was the first entry in Rockstar’s massively popular action-adventure series to make the jump from a top-down perspective to 3D graphics, marking the beginning of a new era for the series with plenty of massive improvements.

Obbe Vermeij is an ex-Rockstar Games employee who has worked on some of the studio’s most iconic titles, including Grand Theft Auto 3, Vice City, San Andreas, and Grand Theft Auto 4. Ever since the developer began posting numerous bits of Grand Theft Auto trivia on his personal blog in 2023, Vermeij has continued to reveal various tidbits on his Twitter account, including the reason why Claude is a silent protagonist in GTA 3. Now, in one of the dev’s latest posts, it has been revealed how the iconic cinematic camera angle came to be.

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GTA 3 Dev Reveals How Iconic Cinematic Train Camera Angle Came to Fruition

In a new post on Twitter, Vermeij said that he initially found riding the train in Grand Theft Auto 3 to be “boring.” He then explained that he had initially toyed with the idea of letting players jump ahead to the next station without actually experiencing the train ride, but that idea was impossible as it would “cause streaming issues.” So, Vermeij revealed that he decided to make the camera switch between random viewpoints near the train track to make the journey more interesting. After a fellow developer suggested doing something similar for cars, the iconic cinematic camera angle was born as the Rockstar team at the time “found it surprisingly entertaining.”

Vermeij also revealed that the cinematic camera angle remained completely unchanged in Grand Theft Auto Vice City (which is often considered one of the best GTA games to date), but was then revamped by another Rockstar employee for Grand Theft Auto San Andreas​​​​​​. A fan even went through the hassle of removing the cinematic camera angle in Grand Theft Auto 3 from the game’s files to show what the journey could have looked like had Vermeij not developed the iconic feature. The developer then responded by noting that the camera angle for the train journey would have been similar to driving a car and would have been above and slightly behind the carriage.

The ex-Rockstar Games developer recently verified some details on a massive Grand Theft Auto leak that occurred in December. The leak revealed that Rockstar Games was once working on an online mode for Grand Theft Auto 3, with a design document revealing plans for character creation, online missions, progression, and more. Following the leak, Vermeij revealed that he had written a “basic implementation” of a bare bones deathmatch for the game which would allow users to get points by killing each other. Sadly, the online mode was eventually abandoned as it “needed a lot more work.”

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