The world in GTA: San Andreas is initially divided into three parts with loading screens
On October 26, the famous game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas turns 20 years old. In honor of the event, former technical director of the Rockstar North studio Obbe Vermeij shared a story from the project's development related to the structure of the open world.
As it turns out, the authors planned to divide the three cities (Los Santos, San Fierro and Las Venturas) into separate locations, accessible by train and plane via loading screens. This will solve many difficulties and will also allow us to overcome the memory limit on the PlayStation 2 console.
However, at the final meeting before starting production, the developers refused to divide the map into three parts, deciding to create one large state. The authors understood that this decision would complicate the creation of an already ambitious game, but they wanted to maintain the seamless effect of the open world.
Just before the artists started working on three separate maps, we had a final meeting in the office where we changed our minds and decided to create one large map. We think being able to move freely between cities is much better than moving through loading screens.
GTA: San Andreas went on sale on October 26, 2004 on PlayStation, after which it was available on Xbox, PC and other platforms. In 2021, the game was included in the GTA: The Trilogy remasters collection, released on all current gaming devices.
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