New inside #GTAVI details from the latest Love Magazine feature with Rockstar Games, kindly provided by @topkaj777
Rockstar says the goal with Lucia was to create a character who could stand alongside protagonists such as Arthur Morgan and Niko Bellic while still feeling distinct.
Lucia was written with an immigrant background and was conceived as someone raised around Newark/New Jersey, near Liberty City, before her story takes her to Leonida.
The radio, advertising and pedestrian dialogue aren't treated as secondary content. Rockstar has a dedicated writing/production operation specifically for material happening around the player.
Rockstar says its Florida research included conversations with locals, police and gang members, with some of the stories they heard described as "terrifying."
Early research trips were deliberately done with very small groups, before Rockstar returned with larger teams once particular locations became important to development.
Development begins with extensive research trips. Rockstar travelled across Miami and Florida, including the surrounding towns and the Florida Keys down to Key West.
Developers travelled with locals, police officers and gang members to better understand Florida, including parts of the state tourists would rarely see.
Rockstar says some research trips directly influence the game, with Miami's extreme wealth, poverty, excess, craziness and "hustle" feeding into Leonida.
The team wants Vice City and Leonida to feel like somewhere players could spend hundreds of hours, with even small areas receiving extensive detail.
Rockstar has built a large amount of background dialogue, radio content, advertisements and pedestrian conversations to make the world feel alive even when the player isn't interacting with it.
GTAVI's satire will focus heavily on modern culture, including conspiracy theories and the strange ways people react to everyday events.
Rockstar says it deliberately avoids simply recreating real-world viral moments, instead creating its own distorted versions of contemporary culture.
The studio says the modern "American Dream" is more modest than in previous GTA games, owning a house, supporting a family and paying off loans rather than achieving extreme wealth.
Jason's story is not intended as a political statement about his military background. Rockstar says his circumstances push him toward drug trafficking and bank robbery, although players will influence some of his choices.
Lucia was written as somebody determined to build a better life for herself who refuses to let obstacles stop her.
Rockstar says Jason and Lucia were deliberately designed to complement each other, creating a push-and-pull relationship throughout the story.
Raul was created as an older mentor figure who brings Jason and Lucia into larger-scale criminal jobs and provides knowledge of Vice City's criminal world.
Rockstar describes the core premise as having something "hopeful and naive" about two young criminals going on the run and pushing a crime spree to its limit.
Rockstar says it wants players to become immersed enough in the world that they "get lost" in its characters and locations.
das die da keinen Konsens gefunden haben,
ich hoffe Jason rückt nicht zu sehr in den Hintergrund,
