On February 5, an information bomb exploded in the gaming media space: Dan Hauser, lead screenwriter and producer of major Rockstar games, will leave the company after 22 years in the saddle. Who is he, why is it important and how will it affect the sixth part of Grand Theft Auto? Let’s figure it out right now.
It’s no secret that top officials Rockstar Do not like to appear in public, preferring to remain heroes in the shade. Because looking at Dan Hauser – a bald and squat unshaven man who exchanged for five decades – it is difficult to recognize the author of the main video game hits of the 21st century. Such a loader in the port to work or pour beer at the bar. In his pocket, many awards for outstanding services, and in the track record of almost all the games in the series GTAboth parts Red dead redemption, Bully, Max Payne 3… But more important than all the loud signage and regalia is how Danu managed to change the approach to creating stories in large-budget and large-scale games, when it was not customary to label them with three capital letters “A”.
Dan and his older brother Sam born in the british family of a movie star and a jazz musician. Parents’ occupations largely determined the range of interests of the young Dan. He only preferred gangster films to romantic comedies, and rock and hip-hop to academic music. But brother’s passion for video games Dan at first did not share. In the youthful years of the 1980s, he could be caught much more often not with a gamepad in his hands, but with a book. It is not surprising that the guy ended up in the literary department of Oxford. Sam Hauser meanwhile, went his own way, which by the end of the 90s led him to a managerial position in the company BMG Interactive. She was about to prepare to launch on the market an unmatched game called Grand Theft Auto. Soon Sam enlisted the support of his younger brother, who was supposed to deal with scenarios of future games, and the company received a new name: Rockstar.
How to disassemble each work Dan individually, it would be more correct to look at his approach to creating narrative as a whole. First of all, the word “realism”, often sounded in the dungeons Rockstar from Dan as the lead screenwriter, there was never an empty phrase for a studio. If the guys needed to create a virtual analogue of New York in the person of Liberty City, then a whole delegation, armed with notebooks and cameras, flew to real New York. If you needed Miami 80s, as in Vice city, then the developers of a friendly company went to watch cult gangster films dedicated to this era. The collected materials were combined into a database, which was subsequently accessed by artists and scriptwriters.
No one in the industry had the idea to profess such a scrupulous approach – these are just games! IN Rockstar but it extended even to the smallest details. If a car appeared in the game, then it had to be not just a certain model, but also a specific year of release and configuration. Or take, for example, radio stations. Only to create radio jingles in Vice city Dan For hours I listened to recordings of commercials and talk shows of the 80s, trying to capture the spirit of the times. The choice of music was easier – cultural background Hauser provided them with everything necessary.
But just to recreate reality is not enough. The author’s look and techniques give her artistic value, the main of which in the arsenal Dan There has always been a satire on modern society. By his own admission, the same neon-cocaine 80s for him became an opportunity to “ridicule modern reality with its greed, love of money and bad taste.” And what could be more suitable for depicting the vices of society than a look from behind the shoulder of a seasoned criminal? With such a perspective, the images of the characters embodying these vices are distorted to the grotesque, caricature – it is enough to recall the eternally stoned paranoid lawyer from Vice cityselling cops from San andreas or psychoanalyst from GTA 5.
In the same time Dan He could tell a serious and even dramatic story when it was necessary. In his late work, the contrast of the comic and the tragic is especially noticeable. Against the backdrop of brightly comedic GTA 3 and Vice city tie San andreas, where the protagonist, who returned to his father’s house, is haunted by the memories of the deceased mother, seemed unusually gloomy. But right next to it is a frankly comedic Big Smoke with a baseball bat at the ready, as if declaring: “It’s still GTA! ”Even beaten by life and aged Max Payne during a shootout in a fashion club will not miss the opportunity to complain about disgusting music.
Perhaps the most personal for Dan became the story of nico bellic from GTA 4 – An immigrant, in search of freedom, found himself in an amazing, but completely unfriendly city to outsiders. Danu at one time he himself had the opportunity to find himself in an atmosphere alien to him and personally uphold what was important to him – the right to creativity, his own voice. It just so happened that the most striking parodies of American reality in video games were created by the British.
Housers always tried to create a mass product, to make games as large as movies (by the way, it’s Dan insisted on attracting movie stars of the first magnitude to the scoring of games). At the beginning of their career, this seemed crazy, but just before our eyes GTA 5 became not only the most successful game, but also the most successful entertainment product in history, leaving all the Hollywood blockbusters far behind.
Dan Hauser with its eclecticism and numerous references – not Bergman and not Fellinibut Quentin Tarantino from the world of video games. And despite the fact that his stories are focused on a wide audience, no one doubts that Danu I managed to keep my own style. No wonder the script Max Payne 3 many have dubbed “too Rockstar” or “gtash.” Let someone put the game in reproach – a matter of taste. The fact remains: a story written Dan HauserIt’s impossible to confuse with anything.
One could say that a whole era is leaving with him, but only this is not so. Actually era Dan – the time of bold sayings, harsh satire and rock stars – left earlier, and the youngest Hauser managed to survive it for several years. Even rare interview an industry veteran is easy to understand: in modern society, he clearly feels at ease.
“In the current situation, it is completely unclear what to do with GTA 6. Whatever we do, people will complain. Both radical liberals and radical conservatives have become too aggressive. This is creepy and at the same time very strange. Both sides reach the point of absurdity. That is why it is difficult to imagine a satire on this society. Some things that we sometimes see today look like satire on their own. ”
And these are the words of a man who survived in fierce wars with champions of morality, who blamed the games and specifically the series GTA in all conceivable sins. Danu I had the opportunity to feel the anger of this aggressive culture on myself. Shortly before the release Red dead redemption 2 he admittedthat during the development of the game, the “Rockstar” sometimes had to work 100 hours a week. The gaming press immediately ganged up on him, journalists vied screaming about the inhuman working conditions in Rockstar. A few days later Dan I decided to clarify that we were talking only about company executives who are used to working at a frantic pace, and no one demands such violence against ordinary employees. But this car could not be stopped.
In modern realities, one careless statement is enough to be branded as a scumbag for many years. Even under today’s care news Dan can see comments in the spirit of: “Ah, is this the one that built inside Rockstar slavery with crap conditions for employees? Well, good riddance, no one will miss him. ”
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