Former Rockstar Leeds Sound Designer Interview

Rob Carr, a sound designer at Rockstar Leeds who worked on several video games during his time there, gave an in-depth interview on the Kiwi Talkz channel a week ago. It was a careful and measured conversation, much like any interview with a current or former Rockstar Games employee. The reason is the lifetime non-disclosure agreement (NDA) that all Rockstars sign. This had already become clear from the announcement.

That said, the developer still shared some interesting details.

• Rob Carr joined the Leeds studio thanks to its then-president, Gordon Hall. At the time, Carr was giving guitar lessons and running a music shop when Hall offered him a job about 70 kilometres from where he lived. His first project was Beaterator, for which the beats were provided by Timbaland. There were many rough drafts that needed to be polished and brought to completion. After the contract ended, Robert was offered the chance to continue working with the studio. After discussing it with his family, he agreed that passing up the opportunity to work with the creators of GTA 4 would have been foolish.
• The mission Three Leaf Clover and the interconnected stories of the main characters (Niko, Johnny, and Luis) became the blueprint for what was later implemented in GTA 5 — the heist-focused theme and the use of three protagonists.
• RDR 1 is his favourite game among those he worked on. Of course, RDR 2 is superior in every respect, but the first game was incredibly advanced considering it was originally released on PS3 and Xbox 360.
• After contributing to other titles as well, including GTA: Chinatwon Wars and L.A. Noire, Carr left the studio in 2016. At the time, he was working 60–70 hours a week, and the sound designer chose to prioritise his family — his wife and two children.
• Rob believes that GTA 6 will incorporate some ideas from both Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption II.

Today, Rob Carr lives in Finland. Despite his incredible experience in the industry, he remains unemployed, but he continues to work on his own project — Nyrkkipöytä.