Devs show off how bad early game builds look after moans about GTA 6’s visuals

The GTA 6 leaks have gotten a few souls in a tizzy about the game’s graphical fidelity. Otherwise rational people look at leaked gameplay footage from a project that won’t be finished for years, see the placeholder barks and Ken-doll textures, and conclude that, well, clearly this is representative of the final product. It won’t get better than this.

Fortunately (or unfortunately if you were looking forward to an avant-garde, deconstructed GTA 6 experience) that’s not the case. Early builds—even early builds of beautiful games—tend to look rough, and to prove the point, developers have been posting screenshots and videos of some of the biggest and prettiest games around in their earliest, ugliest stages of development. Take, for example, this video of an early build of Control shared by the game’s lead designer.

It’s a rare glimpse into an aspect of game design that you don’t often see. If games marketing had its way, we’d all believe that videogames were delivered by storks, fully-formed and perfect. The fact that games, with very few exceptions, spend a vast chunk of their development time on the verge of catching fire might ruin the magic. Would Mass Effect’s universe feel so majestic and impressive if you knew that, for a while there, Commander Shepard was running around in it without a head?

I mean, personally speaking, yes it would. I don’t know about you, but the fact that basically every game that actually ships is something bordering a miracle makes them feel more impressive to me, not less. A video of The Last Of Us’ Joel running around a map that looks like a PS1 level makes the final game look all the better, as far as I’m concerned.

The meme train keeps on rolling, and more and more devs are showcasing their rickety early builds as time goes on and momentum builds. If you fancy keeping track, you can check out this thread on Resetera that’s trying to collate them all, and here are some highlights.

I will leave you with this short video of a personal project of a Bungie senior designer; I guess some games actually do just look perfect right from the start.