GTA DS meetings held in pub - Hall

By Tom Bramwell Published 26 March, 2009

Rockstar Leeds explains dev process.

Rockstar Leeds man Gordon Hall has revealed the secrets behind the success of the portable versions of Grand Theft Auto: meetings at the pub, and everyone in the office plays the game once a week.

Speaking to The Times, Hall explained the two main rules at Rockstar Leeds. "Rule one is that every other meeting takes place down the pub, where we can talk and the ideas flow," he said. "See that road over there? There's a pub up the hill that'd go out of business if it wasn't for us."

And rule two? "Once a week, we have a day where we stop work, and everybody in the office, my PA included, will play a portion of the game we're working on at random. We listen to everybody's comments and try to make improvements accordingly. Over the two years we've been working on Chinatown Wars, everyone you see in here has played every single section of the game. We all know it inside out."

Hall also commented on the controversy that games like GTA: Chinatown Wars attract. "I want to get to the stage where we can produce a game for adults without people being shocked by the fact that we've done so," he said simply.

We, as you might remember, were very happy they did so, giving GTA: Chinatown Wars 10/10. Now if you'll excuse us, we're off to Yorkshire to plant some bugs in a pub.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (12) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • DFawkes #1 3 years ago

    Official: Slacking off to meet at a pub makes you make brilliant games. Anyone for a few pints of creative inspiration?
    Not that they're slacking off, I'm sure it'd just be a meeting in a more confortable environment, leading to random drink talk. You can get some great ideas from that I'd imagine.
    Edited by 1 at 26/03/09 @ 09:10

  • monkeylite #2 3 years ago

    Office meeting in a pub is actually pretty normal. Nothing at all special about that "Rockstar".

  • VandelayIndustries #3 3 years ago

    monkeylite
    Not here maybe, but State side?

  • Floppy #4 3 years ago

    @ VandelayIndustries. "Not here maybe, but State side?"

    Rockstar LEEDS. Emphasis on the Leeds part, Leeds UK.

  • monkeylite #5 3 years ago

    We do it every now and then (once or twice a month), usually near the end of the day. It is all in good spirit. Not as often now (cost saving, bah).

    Yes, here in the UK too. Perhaps you guys have boring bosses.

  • Evolution #6 3 years ago

    At Uni, my course supervisor once did a brilliant lecture on games design, saying how a lot of ideas are concieved in pubs by a group just drinking and writing down ideas. There's a certain point when the ideas reach a creative peak, and then start dropping off suddenly. The difference between a good game and a bad one is from which side of that peak the ideas came from.

  • redneon Verified Programmer, SUMO Digital #7 3 years ago

    @Evolution:

    It's probably related to the "Ballmer Peak":

    [link url=http://xkcd.com/323/
    ]http://xkcd.com/323/
    [/link]

  • elephant_stone #8 3 years ago

    Such a good game! I wish my office did the same with every other meeting being held in the pub!!

    I dont think its all slacking off down the pub though in the games industry. I went for an interview at Rockstar Lincoln (QA department) once and they hammered it into my head that its dead dead busy - although they have days out paint balling and stuff.

    I didnt get the job
    :(

  • Fur_Cough #9 3 years ago

    The key question is which pub? Perhaps that's the trade secret. At the moment I'm imagining Whitelocks rather than Yates'.

  • shotgun44 #10 3 years ago

    coke and hookers. good boys

  • Zachm #11 3 years ago

    I think you missed one of the more interesting things in the interview:

    "I am allowed to look around, as its 80 employees sit in open-plan silence at blinking screens, tweaking, playing and testing Chinatown Wars and other games whose very existence the company will officially deny."

    Is this San Andreas Stories maybe?

  • LowEnergyCycle #12 3 years ago

    @elephant_stone
    "I went for an interview at Rockstar Lincoln (QA department) once"

    I know the very job, it's still advertised for right now. Shame I don't know German, Spanish, Korean or Mandarin.