Developers reveal how terrible early game builds look when moans are made about GTA 6’s visuals

GTA 6 leaks have caused a lot of confusion about the game’s graphic fidelity. Other rational people will look at the leaked gameplay footage of a project that won’t be completed for years and see the placeholder barks, Ken-doll textures and conclude that this is clearly the final product. It’s not going to get any better.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, if you were hoping for an avant-garde, deconstructed GTA 6 adventure, that is not the case. Early builds—even early builds of beautiful games—tend to look rough, and to prove the point, developers have been posting screenshots and videos of some of the biggest and prettiest games around in their earliest, ugliest stages of development. For example, the lead designer shared this video of Control in its early stages.

This is a rare glimpse at a side of game design you don’t see very often. If games marketing had their way, all of us would believe that videogames could be delivered by storks. It might be a mistake to think that most games spend large chunks of their development time trying to catch fire. It would make Mass Effect’s universe look so magnificent and impressive if it was known that Commander Shepard ran around in it for a time. without a head (Opens in a new tab?

It would, personally speaking. I don’t know about you but the fact almost every game that actually ships feels like a miracle to me makes them more impressive. A video of The Last Of Us’ Joel (opens in a new tab Running around on a map that looks exactly like a PS1 level makes it look even better.

As momentum builds, the meme train continues to roll. More and more developers are showing off their early builds. This thread can be found on Resetera if you want to keep track. (opens in a new tab We are trying to gather them all.

Let me leave you with this video from a personal Bungie project. Some games are just perfect right off the start.