A former Rockstar developer talks about the extra content the studio creates for its games to give something to all players.

Rockstar Games titles have distinguished themselves in many ways, from their stories, to the level of detail in their open world, to the freedom that each one manages to grant. Red Dead Redemption 2 was the studio’s most recent title, and even though it came out 6 years ago, it continues to surprise us with the details and secrets it contains. But beyond these hidden secrets for players, the title has extra content that not many players have seen.

Content for those who do not follow instructions

Recently, the GTA VI O’clock YouTube channel featured former developer Peter Hinchcliffe, who worked on titles like LA Noire, GTA V,Red Dead Redemption 2, and even an early part of GTA VI.  During the interview, Hinchcliffe mentioned that part of his job as a developer is to think of content for those curious players who will not follow instructions and get lost in the game. For him, “good games are games that don’t block the player or stop them, but actually allow them to do what they want to do, and it still works” something that allows players to do weird things.

Sure, Hinchcliffe explains that there are times when certain missions have to be completed with instructions, like following someone, but because the narrative requires it. However, he gave an example of the extra content that these open worlds have allowed him to do, as in the case of Red Dead Redemption 2, where “there be extra content in the game specifically made for if the players didn’t do as they were told.”

Hinchcliffe gives the example of The Mercies of Knowledge Stranger Mission, a mission given to you by Professor Andrew Bell III, who asks you to get moonshine for one of his experiments. The mission has Arthur ambush a wagon of the liquid on one of the bridges from Bluewater Marsh to Saint Denis. But what happens if you don’t steal the wagon? What happens if you follow them instead? This is where the game presents the extra content that you’ll never see unless you’re curious.

“If you don’t ambush it on the bridge when you are told to, and you follow it along the road for quite some time, it will end up in a bandit camp. And there is a full camp there, with enemies doing other animations. The guys go off the wagon and into the tent. I literally like, I’d say 99% of the people never saw that.”

At the end, Hinchcliffe asks questions that a player might have and how to put in that “extra narrative that you have to put in.