STUDIOS // ROCKSTAR NORTH | BETA
modest when you make them think back about how far they have come. But he elaborates: “The team is larger, there is more organisation, more process and order to manage the complexity.” Somehow, though, through all that
growth, Rockstar North feels intimate when Develop visits. The layout is almost completely open, although spread across a few floors, there are no rooms or sections that keep vehicle people away from level designers. It’s not lost on Develop that this studio, like the games it creates, is very much an open world of its own. Semple explains: “We’re here because of the game, and the people are core to making the games and how we run – and their relationships are key to that. If they aren’t collaborating and communicating, it doesn’t work. Art has to talk to code, the props people have to talk to the level designers. Sure, there’s more people, and the roles have become more specialised, but we’ve made sure to keep it open. “I think all of that is reflected in the game –
everything is so seamless and connected because of the way it is made. We don’t see it any other way. The investment of effort we put in – creatively, emotionally – you just cannot afford to isolate sets of people.” It’s very different from other studios of equivalent stature or scale. But the huge silos of studios at other publisher run operations, the vast campuses owned by the superpublishers, says Semple, are ‘probably the antithesis of everything we do’. That reflects itself in how the team
conduct themselves. Sure, there’s line management, and a structure, and teams with responsibilities, but questions about who tells who what to do are treated like they are almost irrelevant, archaic. “We don’t have all that management side of things –we are still all connected with the staff, whether it’s directly or those people with their leads,” says Benzies. Ideas from any member of the 360-strong
team can rocket through the building and into the game, he adds: “It doesn’t matter who you are –we recently had a guy come in as a tester on GTA Online, and a few weeks later he’s doing some deep stuff, full-time, super important. “If they are good ideas, that is. If they’re
shit we’re not going to do them.” TAKING LIBERTIES
Good ideas and good judgement helped Rockstar North’s stature not just grow in the industry but amongst its sister teams. In the latest generation, it has become a
safety net almost for sister projects, having a huge hand in finishing Red Dead Redemption, LA Noire and Max Payne 3. This has actually evolved so much, say Benzies and Semple, that now ‘production’ of each giant Rockstar game isn’t just done by one studio – but all of them working together. “That’s the way we work now - everyone
works on GTA, or Red Dead, and so on, then we move on to the next thing,” says Benzies. “Now that it takes 1,000 people to make a
game, that’s a requirement. But we don’t want 1,000 in one place.” Is it 1,000 people making GTA V? “It’s probably more, much more.
DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET “And that’s because of the size of the thing,
we are modelling at such a minute detail. Once upon a time the car models have four moving parts. Now there are 15 alone in a car’s retractable roof. The detail is ten, twenty times greater than GTA IV, so it takes ten, twenty times more people. “We’ve been blessed with more power on these machines, so we continually have to push it – plus these guys are freaks. When they see a convertible’s roof moving back, the artist is excited by it, and that’s the kind of people we like to have working here. Isn’t that how all the great things on the planet exist, because someone thought something was cool?” Semple says that the now global
production process also seriously widened the Rockstar North talent base. “There is a broad range of skills at the
company,” supported by the business’ shared tech. “Rockstar is a very connected company. That’s probably different to other studios or publishers. No part of the game is being worked on that other teams don’t know about.”
HARD WORK PAYS OFF Although everyone at Rockstar says that this huge scale – both within its games and the team(s) that make them – has been the biggest change over the years, North itself hasn’t suffered. Its leaders say that retention is high, with
few departures. “I think we run a fair place –work hard, get
rewarded,” says Benzies. “Some people here started as testers and are really senior now. If you have good ideas, they get in the game. Everyone can be who they want to be – and it shows. “Our turnover is low,” adds Semple. “People
do leave, but by and large that can be personal reasons for relocating or wanting a change.” People stay, because “we empower them to
The drive comes from wanting to not
only honour our previous titles, but better what’s gone before. That’s how we make games.
Andy Semple, Studio Director
know that there’s a level where they can make a difference. That’s more important than any hierarchy.” What North expects in kind is dedication. That doesn’t necessarily mean crunch but
Semple is direct: “Making this kind of game with all its ambition is hugely rewarding but also demanding and difficult. It requires a certain level of energy and talent to get through that. There is an investment in the game from the people that make it. No one wants to sell it short and subsequently will ensure to make it the best it wants to be. “Everyone is acutely aware of what we are
working on, how unique and special it is – and the push and drive comes from wanting to not only honour our previous titles, but to better what has gone before. That’s just how Rockstar makes games. It’s what our
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