Obbe Vermeij: Classic GTA Development Was Routine Work

Obbe Vermeij, a developer on early Grand Theft Auto titles, described the creation of those games in a recent interview as largely routine work carried out over months rather than a series of sudden breakthroughs. He outlined the daily work as writing code, designing and testing levels, fixing bugs and iterating features.

Teams followed established processes and schedules. Meeting deadlines, running functionality tests and adjusting gameplay based on internal feedback occupied much of studio time. Those activities were used to deliver playable builds on the hardware and timelines available at the time.

Technical constraints influenced decisions. Limited memory, processor power and simpler production tools required careful planning. Developers often trimmed or reworked larger ideas to fit performance limits and release schedules, with stability and playability prioritized during development.

Development relied on collaboration across disciplines. Designers, programmers, artists and testers worked in repeated cycles of feedback to refine mechanics, assets and missions. Vermeij described those routine exchanges as the way features were shaped and finalized.

The Grand Theft Auto franchise began in the late 1990s, and its early entries were produced by smaller teams with tighter technical limits than modern blockbuster productions. Those conditions affected scheduling, resource allocation and the day-to-day tasks that produced the finished games.

Vermeij recalled: “Most of the work was solving technical and design problems one by one, then testing and repeating until it worked.”