Ex-GTA dev looks back to Rockstar North's origins as DMA Design

The first Grand Theft Auto game was made by a company that was later integrated into Rockstar Games, and a popular former GTA developer who worked there has spoken out about it. Obbe Vermeij, a former technical director at Rockstar North, has been revealing a lot of details about the early Grand Theft Auto titles. For instance, he discussed why there were random plane crashes in San Andreas, or why Vice City had trash lying around but San Andreas did not.

Now, he's turned his attention to DMA Design, the company that developed GTA and was later renamed Rockstar North after being taken over by Rockstar Games. Here's what Vermeij said about DMA Design.

Obbe Vermeij discusses GTA creators DMA Design

Obbe Vermeij recently posted on X, discussing DMA Design and the games they made. Before being renamed Rockstar North, they were already renowned for making Lemmings in 1991 and Grand Theft Auto in 1997. Vermeij mentioned some other games that the GTA developers came up with during this period:

Blood Money (1989) for the Amiga, Atari ST, MS-DOS, and Commodore 64
Hired Guns (1993) for the Amiga and MS-DOS
Body Harvest (1998) for Nintendo 64
Space Station Silicon Valley (1998) for Nintendo 64 and PlayStation
Wild Metal Country (1999) for Dreamcast and Windows

He also named some canceled games like Attack!, Clan Wars, Tanktics, Covert, Zenith, Kid Kirby, and even Uniracers (also called Unirally), which was limited to its initial run of just 300,000 copies due to a lawsuit. Remembering his former company rather fondly, Vermeij added:

"There was a spirit of creativity and freedom that just doesn’t exist today."

The images embedded in the former technical director's X post, as seen above, are from the various reunions held by the DMA Design developers. He said:

"The last couple of years, some of us have been getting together, where it all happened all those years ago. Dundee, Scotland."

DMA Design was formed in 1987 in Dundee, Scotland, by David Jones and they made a six-game publishing deal with Pysgnosis. After the success of Lemmings, the studio grew rapidly, while making several expansions and sequels. The company faced some financial difficulties after partnering with Nintendo and BMG Interactive, which led to it being sold to Gremlin Interactive.

Following the massive success of the first GTA title almost 10 years after DMA Design's founding, Take-Two Interactive bought out the company and formed Rockstar Games. DMA Design was eventually renamed Rockstar North in 2002 after the release of GTA 3 when Dan Houser began leading the company.

In response to his original post, Vermeij linked a website that chronicles the history of DMA Design for those who want to learn more about the company.

Also Read:

San Andreas random plane crashes explained
Trash in Vice City and its absence in San Andreas