Ex-Rockstar dev talks about GTA 5's Mount Chiliad Mystery: Report
Mysteries and Easter eggs have been an immensely popular part of the Grand Theft Auto franchise, and GTA 5's Mount Chiliad Mystery is among the top ones. For those unaware, it involves a strange mural on top of Mount Chiliad. Fans have presented countless theories as to what the mural could mean, and while some seem quite compelling, we are still looking for a definitive answer 11 years on.
Notably, Ben Hinchliffe, former Game Designer at Rockstar Games, talked about it during a recent interview on the YouTube channel GTAVIoclock. Although the ex-Rockstar dev stated that it was something he "didn't really touch upon," he revealed that some Easter eggs are just meant to "mess with people."
Here's what he said on GTA 5's Mount Chiliad Mystery:
"Yeah so, unfortunately, that's something I didn't really touch upon. That was all more Rockstar North guys that kind of dealt with that, but obviously there's always a desire to put in these really complex Easter egg hunts and trails that the really dedicated players will follow, and some, you know, as with all Easter eggs, sometimes you just put them in to mess with people. They don't actually do anything, you just mess with people right, just to drive them a little bit crazy."
However, it should be noted that Ben Hinchliffe didn't explicitly state that the Mount Chiliad Mystery was only meant to mess with players. Rather, he reiterated that it was more of the Rockstar North developers who worked on this infamous GTA 5 mystery.
"In terms of how it evolved and the structure of that, its more the North guys that did that."
Thus, it looks like Grand Theft Auto fans will have to wait longer for a definitive answer on the topic.
Former Rockstar Games dev gets asked about GTA 5 Mount Chiliad Mystery
Ben Hinchliffe, a former Rockstar employee, was asked about the Mount Chiliad Mystery during a recent YouTube interview (attached above) but was unable to provide a definite answer to solve the long-running mystery. He did, however, discuss other aspects of the game, such as the vision for its development:
"The internal vision for five was just to go bigger and better, like always, always go bigger and better, make it more cinematic, make the player feel like they're in a movie right, that was the aim, is to just push it in every, every area"
Ben's tenure at Rockstar lasted from July 2009 to May 2022, during which he worked on multiple titles, such as LA Noire, GTA Chinatown Wars, and Red Dead Redemption 2, besides GTA 5 and Online. Furthermore, Ben Hinchcliffe appears to be involved in Grand Theft Auto 6, as per his LinkedIn profile, and even spoke about it in the same interview, expressing high hopes for the title.
Also check: GTA 6 "will blow people away," as per an ex-Rockstar designer