10 Secret Origins Behind Iconic Video Game Features
8. GTA Was Meant To Be A Racing Game
It is hard to think about open-world games without Grand Theft Auto popping to mind. GTA eventually redefined gaming as it pioneered the creation of video games with an unprecedented degree of freedom. The scale of changes brought by GTA into the gaming world is so massive that it's almost unbelievable that we wouldn’t have traversed through the iconic Los Santos and Vice City if not for a bug.
GTA was initially meant to be a run-of-the-mill cop and robber game that focused on car-chases between cops and the main character. During development, however, a bug occurred that made the cops keep ramming into the player’s car and push him off the road.
Apparently, there was a problem with the police’s path-finding algorithm that made them try to get to the main character inside his car, ramming him in the process. The testers enjoyed the bug so much that they spent more time just generally causing a ruckus and provoking cops rather than completing the bland main missions.
The development team saw it as a promising premise and built a game that emphasised giving players a considerable degree of freedom to just roam around provoking cops, rather than on linear missions so often associated with video games at the time.