Early Development

This is a sub-page of Prerelease:Grand Theft Auto III.

Development of the game started in late 1999 on the Dreamcast. After the initial months of production the platform switched to the PlayStation 2 due to it being a more commercially successful console. ¹

Early Models#

To do: Put the images here and actually say something about them.

• https://www.flickr.com/photos/thesoos/sets/72157623327772613/with/4364941470/

Early Map Wireframe#

This wireframe render of the map was released on Rockstar North’s website shortly after the game’s release. It's unknown what exact period this map is from, but a bunch of differences can be seen.

Early	Final

• The islands were much further apart from each other.
• The bridge connecting Portland and Staunton Island had not been added yet.
• Portland had an extra area on the northern end that was removed in the final map. It's unknown what exactly was in that area, another map render shows a road that connected to it.
• The docks at the bottom of Portland were different.
• The lighthouse in Portland was further away from the main island.
• The airport was located on Staunton Island instead of Shoreside Vale. Its design seems to have been more or less identical, save for the absence of the additional runaway present in the final game that faces toward Staunton Island.
• A bunch of streets in the middle of Staunton Island were removed.
• On the bottom left of Staunton Island there used to be a big patch of ground where there is now a dock. This area was changed seemingly late into development as it's also seen like this in the manual's map render (where it's depicted as a grassy area).
• Stauton Island's Bellville Park was in a different position.
• There was some kind of ship docked in the middle right of Staunton Island. It's unknown what it exactly was as it cannot be found in the final game.
• The bridge entrance in Staunton Island was a more generic path than the circular road in the final.
• The bridge entrance in Shoreside Vale was completely different.
• Shoreside Vale as a whole was in an early state at the time of this render, mostly being represented by models of simple shapes except for the dam area. The bottom half was completely different, it seems there were way more suburban areas and their creation was abandoned after the airport took their place.

References#