The GTA 6 leak didn’t help anyone. However, it indirectly led to a lot of game developers talking candidly about how games are made, which is always a treat. Many developers have even shared their own ongoing builds to put the leak into perspective and correct hasty criticism of unfinished games and graphics. We rarely see the game industry gathering around this sort of thing, and it’s even rarer to see so many developers come together to explain how the sausage is made.
This is a leak, not GTA 6
The GTA 6 leaks, which dumped outright gameplay and screenshots of a scrappy build of a game still deep in development, led to some truly mind-boggling assumptions popping up online. Video game development is hard to understand at the best of times, which may be why so many players took to social media platforms like Twitter and Reddit to get some wild opinions out there. Graphics are the first thing done in game development, don’t you know. It was hot, misinformed takes like this that prompted a notoriously protective industry to share some of the worst versions of their beloved projects — the amazingly ugly, brilliantly broken concepts behind the games we love. It would be almost impressive if such misunderstandings were not disturbingly frequent.
Despite all the calls for greater transparency in how video games are made, there’s a reason many developers don’t show builds or share details long before their games come out. Quite a few reasons really, and the GTA 6 leak has brought up many of them. For starters, a non-trivial segment of the game population looked at the leaked GTA 6 footage and seriously assumed this would be the final game. The irony is that if the leaked build had looked worse, just comically blocky and rough, less people would probably have misunderstood. But you don’t have to dig very deep to find ridiculous comments condemning the “lazy developers” at Rockstar or telling them to “fix the graphics”. It’s been nine years since the release of GTA 5, so why doesn’t this look much better?
The answer, as numerous game designers have pointed out this week, is that every project has different priorities and graphics can be quite low on the to-do list.
All games start ugly
What art looks like for a video game in development. https://t.co/15bo6L6qMaSeptember 20, 2022
Why does GTA 6 look so rough in those leaked images? Well, of course, because the game isn’t finished yet. It probably won’t be finished for years, meaning the graphics will be extra unfinished at this point. But why is that?
I’m not a game developer, which might explain why I find it useful to make a game like building a house. The analogy goes here: you can’t paint a house that hasn’t been built yet. And it would be a waste of time to paint parts of a house if you haven’t even finished the frame yet. What if you paint it early on, but then want or need to change the frame or materials? You just have to paint it again. It’s better to keep it ugly but workable for as long as possible and only spend time and resources on refurbishing it once you’re sure of the basics.
“Graphics are the first thing done in a video game” This is what early versions of Cult of the Lamb looked like pic.twitter.com/F5EyEH6M9rSeptember 20, 2022
You can say much the same about a game that is still in production. As many developers have explained while pointing to their own early builds, graphics are often one of the last parts of a game that need to be completed, at least in terms of the build being shipped. Early art is usually a proof-of-concept mock-up, or a placeholder that sees big changes later on. And even after developers pick a style, hollow out environments, repeat characters, and so on, those resources can’t be added to the latest build for a while. Going back to the house analogy, you can have the paint ready, buckets and buckets of it, but keep it until the time is right.
The misunderstandings surrounding this process repeat why these leaks are bad. Whether it’s a spotty report on an unannounced game, or a video of a build that doesn’t represent a definitive game, leaks inevitably lack context. We’d have a very different conversation if Rockstar had released similar footage themselves and framed it as a pre-alpha look at the next GTA. For example, we would get better images, which would change the perception of the game and let the experts guide the conversation. Developers and artists can make wrong assumptions and end up telling us a lot more about the game. You don’t get that with leaks of the same material, which can make naturally messy projects look a lot worse than they actually are.
Leaks are not transparency
I am not defending companies here; I just want to try and correct some misconceptions as best I can. I always want developers to share more pre-release details and insights. I think it’s good to learn and see how games work. This is undeniably naive to say, but I like to think that even a crude understanding of production and troubleshooting can give non-developers (like me) a more useful perspective for critique and analysis. I was intrigued to see the guts of the Dead Space Remake and the sweet blocky skate playtest, for example. But these types of previews are only useful when properly placed, while slapdash leaks can harm players and creators alike.
As we’ve seen, leaks can give people the wrong idea about how a game develops. They can also lead or disappoint people by mentioning elements that may have been cut or revised by the time a game is properly unveiled or released. There’s a reason That they are not talked about publicly until they are set in stone. Leaks are harmless entertainment at best, but they are often actively harmful and counterproductive, especially when handled haphazardly. It’s one thing when a leak reveals important information that would never have come to light otherwise, but that wasn’t what this was.
In any case, this leak was a reminder that many games don’t come together until the very end, which is why in-depth premature analysis is often a wasted effort. If you look under the hood of just about any early developer, you’ll likely find some parts made from chewing gum, wire stirrups, and live crabs. In fact, games can be held together at their best with duct tape and prayer, and this leaked GTA 6 build would never even be seen by the public. It’s no wonder you can still see the staples and glue.
Should game developers respond with open arms to unfair criticism and, in the case of this leak, literal cyber-attacks?
There have been leaks like this cutting through the smoke and mirrors of game marketing to give players a real look behind the curtain. Here’s my question: a real look at what? This leak tells us more about how GTA 6 will not watch, and even less about how it will play out. The consequences have been more speculation than information, and much of that speculation has been misinformed or done in bad faith. Leaks aren’t the antidote to pre-rendered trailers that don’t tell us anything about how games actually play, in part because they share many of the same issues. At least trailers, however far-fetched, allow for creative control.
I understand that we want more openness in the games industry. Me too, so I’m thrilled to see so many developers talking openly and comfortably about the funny, ugly realities of game making. I want these things to be seen and celebrated behind the scenes – and some of them are, if you know where to look. But fragmented leaks of otherwise confidential builds will get us nowhere. In fact, they can easily make things worse. Should game developers respond to unfair criticism and, in the case of this leak, literal cyber attacks With open arms? Besides, I’d say there are many other areas of game development that would benefit more from more transparency than freakin’ graphic. Games will look like what they’re going to look like, and they’ll come true when they come out. No amount of leaks are going to change that, so if we’re going to ask for transparency, at least let’s ask the right questions in the right way.
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