The studio art-directed every one of them, creating around 600,000 animations, but appearance is only the surface. These pedestrians are assigned personality traits that help determine how they respond: temperament, aggression, where they are, what they have seen, and how the player has behaved towards them. Different districts have their own demographic and professional textures. —Simon Parkin in Edge's GTA 6 cover story
Grand Theft Auto 6's NPCs are so incredibly complicated, it briefly sent the studio into a bit of a "horrifying" spin, requiring an entire team of writers and producers to be assembled just to handle the workload. This has since been doubly confirmed by the studio in a recent mega-preview from our friends at Edge:
"This same philosophy governs the streets," the preview reads, "Rather than relying chiefly on procedural systems to assemble interchangeable crowds, Rockstar established an entire Los Angeles-based team of writers, directors and producers devoted to making Leonida's NPCs more individually realised."
According to the feature, that meant creating an absurd number of animations: "The studio art-directed every [NPC], creating around 600,000 animations."
What's more, "these pedestrians are assigned personality traits that help determine how they respond: temperament, aggression, where they are, what they have seen, and how the player has behaved towards them. Different districts have their own demographic and professional textures."
As for what a "professional texture" actually is, Rockstar North co-studio head Rob Nelson goes into more detail: "Who's going to be aggressive? How many people are going to go for a weapon? How many are going to test me?" Nelson says, repeating the same self affirmations I make daily in the mirror.
The preview continues: "The old GTA pedestrian, a kind of moving prop waiting to panic when the player points a gun, has here splintered into a kaleidoscopic range of possible reactions. Back on the sidewalk, that abstraction suddenly becomes practical. The man with the dog has decided that Jason's stare constitutes a test.
"He squares up, then unclips the leash from the animal's collar. Nelson turns and runs. The dog gives chase. A flock of pigeons bursts into the air. Finally, the animal loses interest and trots back to its owner. Jason slows to a walk, selects a pack of cigarettes from his inventory, lights one, takes a drag, and continues down the street."
Really, the way the preview puts it, GTA 6 seems so thoroughly complicated you could legitimately just sit there and people-watch for a bit: "On the opposite side of the road, Nelson spots an arrest taking place. A suspect is being cuffed by two police officers, who have left their vehicles unattended. He sneaks up to one, clicks the boot open, pulls out a shotgun and slings it onto his back, before walking on, leaving a puff of cigarette smoke curling in the air. We have been watching for three minutes."
Is this sort of immersive sim, top-end simulation particularly necessary in a videogame that, in its purest form, is about wildly driving vehicles and committing crimes? If you're Rockstar, clearly it is, and I can't say I'm not impressed by the amount of craft reportedly on display here. We'll see how it all holds up when millions of people are playing.
On console, that is—we're still waiting to hear about a GTA 6 PC launch date. Rumor has it that the wait won't be too long, but we're not holding our breath.
You can read Edge's GTA 6 feature story over at GamesRadar.
