Dan Houser Big Interview: GTA, RDR, Rockstar Games

For Rockstar Games, a near-mystical aura of secrecy is an essential part of its philosophy, which is why any time former employees speak about the company’s past, it draws particular interest. Even more so when the person talking is a former vice president and the key writer behind Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead. That’s why Dan Houser’s current public presence still genuinely surprises the community. We know it’s driven by the need to promote Absurd Ventures current projects — especially the recently released debut comic — but still…

His first on-camera interview was a major event for both him and the fans. But that took place at a convention, where long, in-depth conversations aren’t the norm. So the next logical step was a proper studio sit-down with lots of questions, reflections, and no rush — and Houser visited podcaster Lex Fridman. They covered a lot: open-world games, writing, and much more. And of course, trying to produce a full transcript of a three-hour talk would not only be exhausting — it simply wouldn’t make sense. So we recommend watching the entire thing. But we’ve highlighted the most important points below.

Grand Theft Auto

• He did not work on GTA 6, which leaves him with mixed feelings. On one hand, it’s exciting to work on something new. On the other, it’s hard to part with what you’ve been doing for two decades.
• The cancelled GTA 5 story expansion Agent Trevor was about halfway done.
• He praised Ned Luke’s excellent work in bringing Michael to life.
• The overall darkness of GTA 4 — especially its immigrant story written by an immigrant — may have been influenced by the difficult time he was going through while writing it. He was lonely, unhappy, unsure whether he wanted to stay in America, and the studio was being hounded by the Hot Coffee scandal.
• He considers Niko the franchise’s most interesting protagonist. He loves all of them, but Niko most of all. Still, he wanted to kill him off at the end — but it wouldn’t have worked as a video-game ending.
• He also likes CJ from GTA: San Andreas — not because of the writing, but because of Young Maylay’s performance. Thanks to the actor, Carl feels so human.
• GTA: Vice City was heavily inspired by the film Scarface (1983) and the TV series Miami Vice (1984–1990). (Not a big surprise — anyone who played it can feel the influence instantly.)
• The secret of the series’ success is likely that new installments don’t come out very often, but when they do, they bring meaningful innovation.
• It’s unlikely the series will ever move to a setting outside the U.S., simply because the gameplay relies heavily on the availability of weapons.

Red Dead

• During RDR 2 development, the pressure on the company was enormous. The game was delayed twice, the budget was ballooning, and the story of a cowboy with tuberculosis didn’t seem all that cheerful.
• The tuberculosis idea came from the Houser brothers’ grandfather, who survived it before antibiotics existed — only three out of 35 people in his ward did.
• The concept of an open-world cowboy game (RDR 1) emerged right after Red Dead Revolver, but the team was busy, and the actual project didn’t take shape until 2005–2006.
• At first, the script for Red Dead Redemption I simply wouldn’t come together. But since they were working on Grand Theft Auto IV at the time, there was no rush. Dan struggled to figure out how to write genre-appropriate dialogue without making it sound silly. Then he went on vacation with his girlfriend — pregnant with their first child and now his wife — and things slowly clicked. Over a few days he wrote several scenes and realized the flow had come. Probably because he himself had begun taking care of a family, the protagonist ended up written the same way.
• In late 2008 or early 2009, in a meeting with lead designer and co-writer Christian Cantamessa, they decided how John Marston’s story would end. It was difficult to implement in game terms, but necessary narratively.
• He emphasizes the importance of actors like Rob Wiethoff and Benjamin Byron Davis, whose characters (John and Dutch) played crucial roles in both games.
• Gavin — the subject of countless myths, legends, and theories — does exist, but the whole idea is that Nigel will never find him, no matter how hard he tries.
• He calls RDR 1 a more traditional western, while the Red Dead series as a whole he sees as an anti-western — even an “eastern”, if you like, where cowboys of the Wild West move back east, toward civilization.

Rockstar Games

• Before working there, he lived in Colombia, ending up there at 25 due to “poor life choices”. On a beach, he was attacked by local bandits with machetes, from whom he fled on foot and then by taxi. After that, he received an email from his brother Sam and left for New York. That’s when the company was founded.
• The unreleased Agent went through multiple setting concepts. One was set in the 1970s, during the height of the Cold War. Another was set in the modern day. An open-world format didn’t fit, because a criminal can logically do whatever they want with full freedom — but a spy can’t. A spy has missions that must be completed here and now to save the world. (Though one could argue — Metal Gear Solid V handled this just fine.)
• Rockstar once considered making a game about knights and mythology, but it never went beyond a concept.

Movies

• Between The Godfather Part I (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974), he chooses the second. He likes the split-era structure. He loves the Little Italy scenes (he lived in nearby Soho), as well as the Ellis Island and Sicily segments. Everything about these films is perfect: script, cinematography, music, actors. You can’t think about the mafia without thinking about The Godfather.
• He prefers Casino (1995) — in his view, the best movie about Las Vegas — but believes Goodfellas (1990) transformed filmmaking in its time. It also inspired The Sopranos (1999–2007), which similarly portrays criminals as ordinary people.
• True Romance (1993) may have the best script ever written (by Quentin Tarantino, incidentally). Its world is one you want to live in and simply listen to the characters talk.
• Come and See (1985) is the greatest war film. A slightly less serious alternative is Apocalypse Now (1979), but in its original cut, not the re-edited versions.
• Best westerns: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and The Wild Bunch (1969).
• Favorite comedy of this century: The Office (2005–2013).
• Favorite sci-fi: Blade Runner (1982).

Books

• At 17–18 he was obsessed with Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1971), and at 20 — with the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway.
• Five books that most influenced him at different stages of life:
  • Winter Holiday (1933), Arthur Ransome
  • Wuthering Heights (1847), Emily Brontë
  • Tender Is the Night (1934), F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • The Thin Red Line (1962), James Jones
  • Middlemarch (1871), George Eliot
• The three greatest books about World War II:
  • The Thin Red Line (1962), James Jones
  • Life and Fate (1959/1980), Vasily Grossman
  • The End of the Affair (1951), Graham Greene

Video Games

• He truly fell in love with video games only after he began making them himself.
• The greatest game of all time is Tetris (1989) on Game Boy — ironic, considering it has no story at all, just pure gameplay.
• He admires Todd Howard’s work at Bethesda and the world of The Witcher.
• He compares The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (2023) to the works of Alfred Hitchcock: unreal, yet perfect as a game/film.
• His son likes Sea of Thieves (2018).

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