Can you believe it: this is the origin of the GTA series

One of the creators of the Grand Theft Auto Series shared an interesting detail about how the technology that started the first GTA game came about.

Most GTA players today remember the series exclusively in 3D graphics. The slightly older Guard remembers him as the first two games were bird's eye view. But very few people know what GTA looked like when it wasn't GTA yet, around 1994. The creator of the original GTA engine, therefore, took to Twitter to share an interesting insight into how the very foundation for the game, and thus the entire GTA series, came to light.

As Mike Dailly reveals, it all came from the image above that he drew to create an isometric rendering system. This was then the result of a rotating isometric engine, and here it was demonstrated what process it was (press the space key on the keyboard to start each subsequent step).

The iteration eventually came up with a bird's-eye view engine that was used in the game itself. Of course, by the time the engine was ready, GTA was still in the pipeline as a game called Race 'n Chase.


Not even Rockstar was Rockstar at the time but DMA Design and really those were some other times. However, it's useful to know what one of the most popular video game series in the world is based on.