Phase 5

This is a sub-page of Prerelease:Saints Row (2006).

Phase 5 was the longest phase out of all the developmental phases¹, where they spent time conceptualizing the game. It was also used for testing stuff while the team was beginning the Milestone builds².

2004#

circa. Summer#

Move to Xbox 360#

For the next phase, development was moved to the Xbox 360 because they wanted a more powerful system for creating an open world. The team wanted to further emphasize the open world freedom by not having to make the player wait at loading screens when coming and entering districts or buildings like in some of the 3D Universe Grand Theft Auto games. Leftover files show that the move was done around August 2004.

The upgrade to a next-generation console showed to be a bit of a burden for Volition, because the system had technology that hadn't been fully taken advantage of at that time especially for a small development team and due to the lack of experience with such technology. One of the most difficult parts of the transition was the memory output expansion, which was increased to 8x whereas the DVD's output was increased by 3x. In order to not come across streaming issues, they decided to divide the city "into chunks", so that each section would be loaded at a time, in order for the game to run smoothly.

Despite that, the transition was smooth and Microsoft helped Volition by giving them the necessary tools for further development.

circa. Fall#

Vertical Slice#

Watch on YouTubeA new map, described as the "Phase Five map", with more detail and approximately with four city blocks in size was used for Phase 5 of development, where it "would provide a proving ground for fundamental engine necessities". It would be used in tandem with the game's setting being developed at the same time³.

Footage of the build was shown off at the Game Developer's Conference 2015, containing over a handful of differences;

• The game is laggy with low framerate, likely because the team were still getting used to the Xbox 360's capabilities.
• At the beginning, a tow truck can be seen which was obviously cut from the final and would later reappear in Saints Row 2.
• There was basic red graphics that likely represented blood when people got ran over.
• The gunfires were a lot more drastic and had flashing effects, which was likely removed to reduce lag, and would not blend in with the realistic style.
• The rival gang pedestrians all used the same model with minor alterations.
• The voice clips for pedestrians getting shot were also different and were obviously placeholder.
• The streetlight models are reused from The Punisher (PlayStation 2), another game by the same developer.
• The Lucida Sans Unicode font from the Phase 3 build makes its final appearance here.
• The notice now correctly says "You picked up (sic) baseball bat" rather than the weapon's internal name.
• The blood particles on the player were red circles rather than realistic droplet triangles.

Gallery

2005#

March-April#

Creating Stilwater#

Stilwater was conceptualized at some point into Phase 5, which is around early 2005. It was developed before the story was written, where the districts were decided on first before its creation. The premise of the game would be similar to Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City and True Crime: Streets of LA, as it would be "built around gang banging in an urban setting". One of the key inspirations of the city were of cities like Chicago and Detroit, notably for the latter so it can have a run-down feeling. However, creating the city wasn't that of an easy task for Volition because they never created anything this big before.

When Stilwater was laid out in the game's engine, the initial aim was to make the world as big as Vice City from the aforementioned game. At first, the team thought it was too small so they quadrupled the size but it would end up being too big for the team to build a city that large, so it was downgraded back to its original scale. It was also the point where the team decided to cut flyable aircraft due to the small map size.

The city went through many different names during months of conceptualization, where the suggestions were of real-life, copyrighted and over-the-top profane names. It was initially decided that Stillwater would be the name, but it was a real-life city so one "l" was dropped from the name, resulting in the iconic name of Stilwater we all know and love today.

Initial Map Draft

Initial Map Draft	Artist's Render

When the map draft was put together, it was initially a bit bigger in comparison to the final. Some of them would eventually appear in Saints Row 2, in new locations;

• Though a trailer park isn't present in the final game, it was downgraded to a singular trailer where it is used for the Westside Rollerz Snatch Activity.
• Around the area of the mall's initial location is a small shopping district, where it may have been a leftover of the original plan.
• The junkyard and train station doesn't appear in the final. The latter was likely reworked into the King Plaza Station, found in Downtown district in Saints Row 2.

The map was later drawn out by an artist, showing a rough layout of what the city would be like.

• There was a wide river area on the top left of the map, which doesn't appear in the final.

Attention to Detail

After fully deciding on the size, the team decided to work on the buildings and road layouts, aiming to not duplicate city blocks and to put a bigger emphasis on detail in order to differentiate the world. It would go through many different layout changed due to balancing the Activities and Story Missions in several areas.

Their aim was to build the street layout first, put in the rough model and shading, and finally implement the building assets, geometry and shading, where one artist worked in each neighborhood.

On the right is an example of how much detail a specific map part would've had.

Concept Art

City Skyline

The first conceptual art of Stilwater's skyline, having a different layout.	A slightly later piece, resembling more of the Downtown seen in the final.

Two paintings of the cityscape of Stilwater were painted to get a rough idea of what the skyline would look like. Interestingly, two of these can be found as painting textures in the final game as an easter egg.

Locations

Saint's Row was one of the first districts to be developed, according to the "chunk order", along with Rebedeaux and Prawn Court. The initial concept art of the Saint's Row church seemed to have been located in the middle of a grassy rather than being surrounded by buildings in the final.

The initial design of the neighborhood was what would eventually be the basis of the finalized Saints Row name idea; designer Alvan Monje was testing a prototype of a neighborhood that had this church whilst other developers were in the middle of a conversation on what to name their project whereas when the neighborhood was entered, the words "You have entered Saint's Row" appeared on screen which prompoted Doug Nelson to use that as the name.

While it was an interesting idea, Stockman wasn't too fond of it because he thought it was "too restrictive", representing the location itself rather than being a more universal name.

Concept art for what a rundown street would look like, which would end up being used in the CGI trailer. It's only featured in GamePro Magazine.

Concept art for the Red Light District.

Concept art for Chinatown.

Buildings

Concept art for the Raykins Hotel.

Conceptualizing The Characters#

Main Characters

Johnny Gat

An earlier design for Johnny Gat, where he had a more basic design.	A slightly later design, this time with an added rougher appearance.
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Reference model for Johnny Gat's finalized design.

Johnny Gat was modelled of an image of Chinese actor Jet Li, whom was found on internet image search.

Rival Gang Lieutenants#

Benjamin King

Finalized design.

Rival Gangs

Vice Kings

Some of the early gang designs for the Vice Kings, where they appear to look fancier judging from the style of clothing. Only a few elements would make it into their finalized designs and their respective lieutenants likely due to them not being suitable for a semi-realistic gritty gang setting. A similar "fancy-like" gang would probably be loosely reworked into the Morningstar in Saints Row: The Third.

Los Carnales

TEST

Earlier gang concept art for Los Carnales, where they apparently looked larger and baggier. None of them wear sports-themed jerseys or golden bling in the final designs, where the former would likely be used onto the Vice Kings' designs.

Different design variation ideas for one of the gang members.	Interestingly, the "chosen" design on the left doesn't appear in the final. The rightmost design was likely reworked into one of the Lieutenants.
TEST	TEST

Later concept art for Los Carnales, closely matching that of the final.

A mockup of what it would look like ingame.

Westside Rollerz

Early designs for the Westside Rollerz, where they originally had long-sleeved clothing and bling. Notably, some of the designs appear to look more of a purplish hue.

Slightly later designs, showing a little more detail. The rightmost design on the left image appears to be an early concept of Joseph Price, the gang's leader.

Elevation Build#

In the GDC 2007 presentation, the earliest in-game images of Stilwater can be seen on the Stilwater Elevation Slide, due to having a completely different HUD from the later builds.

• Many of the buildings appear to be unfinished and untextured at this point of development.
• Stilwater had a lot of elevated ramps, many of which weren't present in the final.
• The minimap is now circular, but it's completely different and appears to be unfinished;
  • It lacked a border, where it was somewhat reminiscent of the design in Saints Row: The Third.
  • Gunshots were represented as "red swirls", rather than gradient outlines.
  • A placeholder-like minimap is seen on the bottom-right and top-right photos, where the bottom seems to closely align with the Suburbs district whilst the bottom is for the Red Light District.
  • Gang or Police Notoriety was represented at the top right, in the form of either a skull or a star respectively.
  • There is a mysterious green dollar ($) symbol, possibly representing shops but the E3 2005 build convinces otherwise. It may also be the original symbol of the Third Street Saints, represented as a green dollar sign, representing money.
  • Icons for shops didn't have diamond borders.
  • The Northern symbol on the radar was represented as an arrow.
  • Money was displayed at the bottom-right corner.
• There was a yellow "R" on the top left side of the HUD, which may have stood for Respect, with a number next to it.
• Some of the vehicles received minor changes;
  • The Bootlegger had a different bumper design.
  • The unfinished vehicle on the bottom-left image is possibly the Jackrabbit.

Pre-E3 Builds#

Screenshots

A lot of images were sent to Press Kits before E3 2005 happened the following month. They consist of images of Playa roaming around on the Phase Five map, showing off the basic gameplay elements and graphical detail of the game. The images were uploaded from April 7-12, 2005 in order;

Those screenshots were publicly released to exclusive to various places, such as GamePro Magazine from November 2005 and Neoseeker, which show a closer look at the game. The following differences date this to before the E3 2005 build, due to the Press Kit images showing the dates as April 7-12 2005.

• The Five-O originally had "Stevenson Police Department" on the sides rather than "Stilwater", meaning that it was likely one of the prelimary names for the setting.
  • However, the eighth image shows the final name, meaning that it was likely from a slightly later build.
• The license plates of the Five-O originally said "PD1138" at the back rather than "POLICE" in the final.

The image from the trailer released much later in the year shows the HUD:

• The Orange "R" seems to have been removed.

This image was shared by Andrew Borman on August 27, 2024⁴, showing what the iconic Saints Row district looked like at that stage, in April 2005.

• The church was unfinished, and appeared to have been bigger according to the minimap. There was no graveyard, also.
• The Saints Row district originally had more suburban houses as opposed to apartment blocks.
• The orange "R" at the top-left is seen for the first time.

Footage

A trailer of the build was released by GameSpot at E3.

May#

E3 2005#

Saints Row was unveiled for the very first time at E3 2005, where it was listed as a "launch window" title for then-forthcoming Xbox 360 console.

Gameplay Build

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: Find a "complete" version of the IGN Coverage. Check to see if the E3 coverage footage has the Stevenson or Stilwater Police Car graphics, if it has the former, move such images to the "Pre-E3" build.

A demonstration of the game was shown off at E3 2005. The e3 build used Xenon alpha development kits, which were underpowered when compared to final Xbox 360 hardware, with beta hardware arriving to most developers in the weeks following the event. The map for e3, while using assets that would be reused later in a similar layout, was limited to just a few blocks. Due to a lack of finalized hardware and software, coupled with the early state of the game, the framerate struggled. It would be shown at Games Convention 2005 in August.

Coverage

Major Differences

• The HUD has received some minor changes:
  • The Gang symbols for the Vice Kings and Westside Rollerz now display on screen rather than just one gang, even though the Los Carnales aren't present. The Respect Meter from the top-left screen in an earlier build was moved to there.
  • The respect numbers now uses the Compacta Black font, where the font would make it to the final game.
  • The Minimap now has a metallic grey border, along with a grey map rather than a satellite view in the final.
  • The El Train railroad on the minimap is now marked, as a placeholder-looking red line.
• Recruited Homies were represented as a placeholder-looking pink dot. There was also no whistling sound when recruiting them.
• The menu selection sounds were different and there were no prompt sounds.
• The Text font for mission objectives were placed at the right side, using a lowercase Compacta Black font.
• There were no foot or hand symbols that represented open-able doors.
• Shopkeepers only had two voice clips; one for welcoming and one for buying clothes.
• The Homies section of the mobile phone were different;
  • One of the Homies were named Lin, which would be a primary character in the final game. Her appearance and voice was also slightly different.
  • Ashley, Jenna and Eva were also Homies, but none of them are present in the final.
• The car explosion sound was different.
• There is a cut radio station called 101.5 WPMP, which played the following songs that aren't found in the final game:
  • Snoop Dogg - "Gin And Juice"
  • Sugarhill Gang's - "Ain't Nothing But A Party".
  • 2Pac feat. 50 Cent - "The Realist Killaz"
  • Cypress Hill - "Insane in the Brain"
  • Jay-Z's - "December 4th"
    • It is worth noting that the songs likely didn't make it to the final game because they were too expensive to license. Though Cypress Hill's track did make it to Saints Row IV on The Mix FM.
• The Vice Kings gang symbol was different.
• The mission is of a Stronghold which was likely retooled as Aisha's Favor.
• The mission accomplished screen for completing a Stronghold isn't present.
• The Pedestrian at 1:29 has a placeholder voice clip not present in the final.
• When breaking into stores, there was originally a timer at the top-left corner which likely represented the time before Police Notoriety would begin. This was replaced with a "build-up" on the Notoriety Bar in the final.
• Snatch was originally called "Pimping".
• Green blips on the map were originally purple.

Activity Differences

• Some of the text was different;

Take the car and go pickup(sic) the client.

Take the car and pick up the client.

Pickup the client. Their location is shown on your radar/map.

Pick up the client.

Get going ... and take the scenic route!

Drive around and let the client have some fun.

• • Some sentence revising was done for the Snatch activity. The second was likely shortened in order to make it less obivous. The third is most likely flavor text as it doesn't show a prompt for the player to visit a specific location.

Honcho has taken the lead!

You have lost the lead!

• • The text was changed to likely avoid the player for confusing "Honcho" as a character.
• The "Pleasure" and "Footage" bars originally had icons, while the bars didn't show until Playa picked up the client.

Location Differences

The majority of the gameplay in this build takes place around Rebadeaux and Prawn Court, which look drastically different despite having the same general layout. They were the only districts present on the chunk map⁵, as the road leading to Sunnyvale Gardens seems to be cut off with a 2D backdrop of skyscrapers. The night time images were also on a completely separate chunk, albeit much smaller.⁶

• There was originally a Sloppy Seconds store located there, but it was changed to an On The Rag store.
• There were notably a lot of elevated areas which were not present in the final.
• The interior of Sloppy Seconds looks almost the same, save for a few minor textual changes;
  • There were no additional posters on the outside.
  • The "All sales fine! NO REFUNDS" sign was different.
  • There were no Volition t-shirts present near the changing rooms.
  • The changing rooms lacked detail.
  • The "Jo Big D" and "You're not going to find anything CHEAPER..." sign was originally a "1/2 off sale" sign.
  • The hanging t-shirts were a lot more colorful, notably with pink hues.
• The place for the mission in the build remains unchanged (which would be the Raykins Hotel), except that there are red banners present.
• The cut Rim Jobs "green car sign" is present near the main road from out of early Rebedeaux.

Vehicle Differences

• Cars had no unique names when entering them.
• Some of the cars looked different:
  • The Compton had a slightly different grille.
  • The Hammerhead had a different-looking trunk.
  • The Fer de Lance looked almost exactly the same, save for a changed detail on the front of the trunk. It also had a different engine sound.
  • The Mockingbird had different rear lights and side windows, and didn't have a badge at the grille of the vehicle.
  • The Taxi had a different license plate color.
  • The Capshaw at 0:54 of the GamePro coverage had a different extension at the top, different colored trims and different headlights.
  • The Five-O decals now say "Stilwater Police Department" in comparison to a slightly earlier build. Oddly, prerelease media referred to the setting as "Stillwater" so it may be a last-minute change
• The Fer de Lance could be found on the road or summoned when a Homie is called. In the final game, it is bought exclusively from Foreign Power instead. A color variant of that car can be found in the files, albeit unused.
• It seems that license plates couldn't be knocked off of cars when they get damaged in some way.
• There appears to be a cut decal feature for the Ant.

Other Differences

• Vice Kings originally rode in Trax Master vehicles with maximum notoriety. In the final, they only use Stiletto cars.
• The sound for the Rocket Launcher was different.
• The coolers at the Brown Baggers branch in Rebedeaux originally said "Cold Beer", rather than "Cold Drinks", likely to apply to wine being sold.
• There is a cigarette neon that would end up being removed in the final.
• In the E3 City 2005 Build, it was mentioned there will be twelve radio stations with a heavy emphasis on hip hop music and that there would be six original songs composed for the game, matching that on the final.

Screenshots

Screenshots were uploaded a few days after E3 2005.

Coverage Screenshots

Images that were primarily released on gaming sites.

Unknown Coverage

This coverage was shown on 3DJuegos, while some images ended up in GamePro magazine;

3DJuegos Coverage

Spanish gaming website 3DJuegos⁷ has a lot more images than usual, showing a closer look at the build and the sunset time cycle;

Other Coverages

Russian gaming website RiotPixels has a few mysterious images which seem to date from around the build.⁸ Another exclusive image is also from Gameswelt.

• Differences go there.
• Some of the images on the 3DJuegos website has "Camera Slew (Paused)" displayed on the top right, in Lucida Unicode debug font.

Early Trailer Map

A CGI trailer was released that shows off the general feeling of what the gameplay might be like. An early map of Stilwater at the end, which looks drastically different from the final;

E3 2005	Final

• There was no highway going through the Saints Row district.
• The cut trainyard and trailer park district can be seen.
• There was originally a racetrack circuit area near the Ultor Dome. A similar place also appeared in Saints Row Undercover as part of the police training, but would officially appear in Saints Row (2022) as the Dustfaire racetrack in Vallejo.
• A third cut district was originally present notably near the bottom-left corner, but most of it looks overlapped.
• The highway originally had an incomplete connection to a scrapped western district.
• Chinatown and the Barrio wasn't present.
• There wasn't a park near Chinatown.
• The Factories had more occupied space.
• There was no bridge leading to Saints Row district from the Factories.
• Sommerset had the same layout, but seemed to be a bit more barren.
• Sunnyvale Gardens was incomplete and had less buildings.
• There was no sewage grates.
• The train tracks originally ended near Prawn Court rather than going into a tunnel.
• The construction site near the top of the Saints Row district wasn't there.
• There was a harbor with a freight ship instead of an abandoned foundry.

References#