GTA Online content creation is as easy as sending a text message, says Rockstar

Creating new content in GTA Online is as easy as sending a text message, Rockstar North president Leslie Benzies has told Game Informer.

“We want to give players the opportunity to create anything that we can create within the team and for it to be as easy as sending a text message,” said Benzies. “I think we’ve managed that with the editors. Now anyone can have their own races or deathmatches spread amongst the world of Grand Theft Auto Online players within minutes.

“The race and deathmatch creators are the simplest and will be available first. We’ll then release more variations to allow any type of mission to be made.”

Benzies adds that players will need to get to grips with GTA Online before content creation is made available.

“We want people to understand the game before they go off and create,” explained Benzies. “You only have to be a few ranks to be able to start, so you should be there within an hour of play.”

Race creation is pretty simple, says Benzies, allowing the player to “select the vehicle type, the race type – Normal race, GTA Race, or a new mode that is great fun called Rally. You choose the weather, the radio station, whether police can interfere, and then whether you want ambient cars. After that, you place the checkpoints, test the race, and publish it”.

Deathmatch games offer more options for creators, allowing players to “set the type, default kills, as well as the time. You then place the spawn points, weapons, and any extra props and vehicles you’ll want on the map”.

In addition to user created content, Rockstar promises it will continue to release missions developed in-house.

“There will be a continuous flow of content and we’ll be creating new missions faster than people can play them,” says Benzies.

The ultimate goal, however, is to see the gamers creating content “as complex as the ones found in our single-player games”.

“We want to give the player the power to make anything their brains can come up with,” says Benzies. “At some point in the future, we’d like people to be able to make their stories with all the tools we have available to make ours.”

GTA 5 launches next week on September 17, and is followed by GTA Online on October 1.

People underestimate the difficulty of sending a text message. My mum’s been struggling to send texts for the last 10 years.

Source: Game Informer October Issue