Grand Theft Auto VI will feature Rockstar's most complex and densely populated world yet, according to Rob Nelson, co-studio head of Rockstar North. Building upon the foundations laid by Red Dead Redemption 2, the studio aims to create an expansive environment where players can get lost and discover content organically, beyond the main objectives.
Nelson explained that the development of Red Dead Redemption 2 allowed the team to refine their tools and techniques for building immersive open worlds. "With that game we took the time necessary to take advantage of that generation of hardware to maximize the quality of our open world population, design, and gameplay so that when you were riding from here to there in-game, you were constantly getting distracted and pulled in different directions," he told IGN. This approach is being continued and expanded upon for GTA 6.
"GTA 6 is a continuation of our team pushing in this direction – doing everything we possibly can to create the largest, deepest, most densely populated and complex world we have ever built for people to get lost in," Nelson stated. The game's world, Leonida, will leverage the power of current-generation consoles, providing more memory and enabling greater detail than previous titles.
One significant advancement highlighted is the diversity of non-player characters (NPCs). Thanks to new technology that allows for on-the-fly animation retargeting, NPCs will feature a wider range of body shapes and heights, and their movements will be more varied. This was a technical challenge in past titles, where different body types often had to share animation sets, limiting visual variety. "Now we have a huge variety of heights and shapes and it all works together because of what this team was able to pull off," Nelson said, emphasizing the improved realism and believability of the world's inhabitants.