GTA: The Beginning. BBC archive video about the development of the first Grand Theft Auto (1997)

Back in 1996, when trees were big and video games were small and mostly in 2D, the BBC filmed an interesting report from behind the scenes of the Scottish studio DMA Design Limited, which was developing a new heist game – the first Grand Theft Auto. It should be noted that at that time DMA Design Limited was already a world-famous studio. The first Lemmings came out in 1991, became mega-popular and sold 2 million copies, which was a lot for those times. However, the guys at DMA Design Limited seem to have remained the same geeks they were when the studio was founded in 1987.

The atmosphere of the video is very reminiscent of what you could see in the first Ukrainian game studios in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

The first Grand Theft Auto, which is the subject of this report, was released in 1997 and became a mega-hit. In 1999, Grand Theft Auto 2 was released, and DMA Design began to change owners – Gremlin Interactive, Infogrames, BMG Interactive, and finally Take-Two Interactive. In 2001, the studio released Grand Theft Auto III and broke into the big leagues. In 2002, DMA Design Limited changed its name to Rockstar North and became part of Rockstar Games. What happened next is well known.