The various offshoots of the popular Grand Theft Auto series are full of Easter eggs and secrets that fans often only discover many years later.
However, why Rockstar Games has integrated some secrets into the games often remains hidden from us.
This makes it all the more interesting that Obee Vermeij, a former developer at Rockstar Games, has now spoken out to explain an old mystery in GTA 3 and GTA: San Andreas: Why does the moon enlarge in the game when you shoot at it with the sniper rifle?
The mystery in GTA 3 has been solved after 23 years. The explanation for the moon mystery is basically quite simple, but also amusing.
The secret of the moon is revealed!
Obee Vermeij, who worked at Rockstar Games for many years, was responsible for the moon in the sky of the game world in GTA 3. In a detailed article on X, the former developer has now explained why the moon can be changed in the way players have known it for 23 years.
„I placed the moon in the sky, made sure it was visible at night and was a reasonable size.“
Some time later, four artists approached Vermeij and asked him to change the size of the moon.
What wasn’t supposed to be a big deal turned out to be a somewhat more complicated issue. The artists couldn’t decide how big the moon should ultimately be.
Two of them wanted to make it smaller to make it more realistic. The other two, however, stuck with a much larger moon to make it more cinematic.
After a lengthy discussion, Vermeij finally suggested that he could change the size of the moon. This allowed the artists to decide in peace and finally inform him of the final result.
As he was working on the sniper rifle at the time, he designed the moon in three sizes (small, medium, large). The player could change the size by shooting at the moon.
And the end of the story? The artists never contacted the developer again, which is why he simply left the moon and its special features as they were, and it even still exists in this form in GTA: San Andreas.
A fascinating story that shows that not every secret in a GTA spin-off is the result of a great creative team, but sometimes just coincidences!
