Why does the moon in GTA 3 change measurement everytime you shoot it with a sniper rifle? It’s a query that’s been haunting all of us for a very long time now. Effectively, Because of one of many builders who labored on the sport, we now know the reply.
GTA video games are identified for being house to the odd semi-hidden quirk or easter egg can that make for an effective way to impress your little cousin if it’s their first time watching you play. Getting contained in the Statue of Liberty in GTA 4 and casually basking within the cartoonish pink glow of its beating coronary heart might be my private favorite, however I’d think about it didn’t come about through an unresolved dev argument.
You recognize what did? The truth that you’ll be able to trigger GTA 3’s moon to vary measurement by sticking a bullet in it. Yup, ex-Rockstar Technical Director Obbe Vermeij – who you would possibly remembeR having beforehand shared some particulars about a short effort to make a Scottish zombie survival sport utilizing Vice Metropolis’s code – was there, and the entire moon factor was his approach of making an attempt to cease his coworkers from arguing with one another.
“The artists gave me a texture for the moon in GTA 3. I positioned the moon within the sky, made positive it was seen at night time and that it was an inexpensive measurement,” Vermeij explains in a latest tweet (thanks, GamesRadar). “Just a few days later, [four] artists have been at my desk asking me to vary the dimensions of the moon.”
“It turned out they could not resolve what the dimensions of the moon must be,” he continues, “Two of them wished it smaller to be extra practical. The opposite two wished it bigger to be extra cinematic.” So, what was the answer?
Effectively, Vermeij determined to make it potential to vary the moon’s measurement between three totally different choices by capturing it with the sniper rifle he was additionally engaged on on the time, so his fellow devs might take a while to match the choices, earlier than hopefully reaching a consensus.
Did that occur? Effectively, the developer’s story ended with him declaring: “The artists by no means obtained again to me, so I simply left it in. It was nonetheless there in [San Andreas].” Basic.
Vermeij additionally helpfully clarified that he wasn’t chargeable for GTA San Andreas’ model of the moon being able to vary phases, which is form of unhappy, primarily as a result of I favored the concept of 1 particular particular person being saddled with the accountability of placing the moon up in early GTA video games and ensuring it does all the moon-related issues it ought to.
The GTA collection has come a good distance since they days of shape-shifting celestial our bodies, having now blazed previous the 420 million gross sales mark.