Before Rockstar North was a billion-dollar juggernaut, it was a scrappy outfit called DMA Design operating out of Dundee, Scotland. They weren't trying to change the world yet. They were just trying to make a game called Race'n'Chase where you drove cars and occasionally hit people. It sounded simple. Boring, even. But when you look back at the grand theft auto 1997 concept art, you start to realize that the vision for this series was always way more ambitious, gritty, and stylistically "cool" than the pixelated, top-down mess we actually got on the PlayStation 1 and PC.
The art tells a story of a game that wanted to be a movie.
I’m talking about those ink-heavy, comic-book-style sketches that defined the vibe of Liberty City, San Andreas, and Vice City long before they were 3D playgrounds. Honestly, the gap between what the artists drew on paper and what the programmers could actually fit onto a CD-ROM in the mid-90s is staggering. You’ve got these sketches of hard-boiled criminals and sleazy urban landscapes that feel more like a Frank Miller graphic novel than a 2D driving game.
The Gritty DNA of Liberty City
The original grand theft auto 1997 concept art wasn't just about drawing cars. It was about world-building. If you track down the early character sheets, you'll see figures like Bubba, Travis, and Katy. They weren't just sprites. The concept art gave them personality—leather jackets, scowls, and a sort of 90s grime that the top-down perspective totally flattened.
Stephen Hammond, a writer and producer who was at DMA during the early days, has often shared glimpses into this chaotic development period. The team wasn't following a blueprint for a genre that didn't exist yet. They were riffing. The art reflected a mix of British cynicism and an obsession with American crime cinema. Think Reservoir Dogs meets The French Connection.
One of the most striking things about the early sketches is the emphasis on "the street." The artists were obsessed with trash cans, fire escapes, and neon signs. It’s funny because, in the final game, you can barely see any of that. You’re looking at the top of a car. But that foundational art is why the game felt "dirty" in a way that other games of the era didn't. It had an attitude. It wasn't "Save the Princess." It was "Don't get busted by the cops while delivering this van full of explosives."
When Race’n’Chase Became GTA
The project was originally called Race'n'Chase. It was supposed to be a multiplayer racing game with cops and robbers. Boring stuff. But a famous bug in the AI made the police cars go absolutely insane. They stopped trying to arrest you and started trying to ram you off the road with suicidal aggression.
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The testers loved it.
The concept art shifted almost immediately. It went from "organized racing" to "urban chaos." You can see it in the shift from clean car renders to sketches of mangled fenders and smoke-filled city blocks. The art team started focusing on the three cities: Liberty City (New York), San Andreas (San Francisco), and Vice City (Miami). Each had its own mood board. Liberty City was all greys and browns. Vice City was pinks and cyans. This color theory, established in 1996 and 1997, is still the "visual Bible" Rockstar uses today for every sequel.
The Mystery of the Missing Detail
A lot of people ask why the grand theft auto 1997 concept art looks so much better than the game. It’s a hardware problem. The PlayStation 1 had about 2MB of RAM. That’s nothing. You can’t render a living, breathing city with 2MB of RAM. So, the artists drew these incredible, sprawling vistas of skyscrapers and docks, and the developers turned them into flat textures.
But here is the cool part.
Even if you couldn't see the detail, the "vibe" survived. The loading screens in the original GTA are legendary. They used the actual concept art to bridge the gap between the player’s imagination and the limited graphics. When you saw that stylized drawing of a guy leaning against a sports car with a Uzi, your brain filled in the blanks while you were looking at a 20-pixel character on screen.
It’s a masterclass in psychological immersion.
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The Artists Behind the Chaos
While names like Sam and Dan Houser are synonymous with GTA today, the early visual identity belonged to people like Ian McQue and Aaron Garbut. Garbut, in particular, has stayed with the series as an Art Director, and you can trace a direct line from his 1997 sketches to the hyper-detailed world of GTA V.
The 1997 art wasn't polished. It was raw. It used heavy shadows and exaggerated proportions. It felt like something you'd find in a counter-culture magazine. That was intentional. DMA Design was a "cool" studio in a way that Nintendo or Sega weren't. They were the guys who made Lemmings, but now they were making something dangerous.
Why We Still Care Decades Later
You’d think art for a game that looks like a bunch of moving rectangles wouldn't matter anymore. You'd be wrong. The grand theft auto 1997 concept art is a time capsule. It captures a specific moment in the mid-90s when the UK's "Cool Britannia" was colliding with American gangland tropes.
It’s also surprisingly rare.
Unlike modern games where "The Art Of" books are released on day one, the GTA 1997 assets were scattered. Much of what we have today comes from old promotional CDs, fan archives, and occasional leaks from former employees. Seeing a high-res scan of an original Liberty City map sketch is like finding a piece of the Rosetta Stone for open-world gaming.
What You Can Learn from the Original Sketches
- Vibe is more important than fidelity. If your art has a strong soul, players will forgive bad graphics.
- Color tells the story. The three-city system proved that color palettes can define a brand better than a logo.
- Embrace the accidents. GTA became what it is because a bug made it fun, and the art team was fast enough to pivot.
Tracking Down the Assets
If you're looking to find the authentic grand theft auto 1997 concept art, you have to be careful. A lot of "fan art" or AI-generated stuff gets mixed in these days. The real deal is usually found on archival sites like the Grand Theft Wiki or the personal portfolios of the original DMA staff. Look for the "drawn by hand" look—specifically the ink-wash textures and the hand-lettered titles.
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There's a specific set of character portraits that were used for the player selection screen. These are the "Holy Grail" of GTA concept work. They represent the first time the series tried to give the player an identity, even if that identity was just "generic criminal with a cool jacket."
Moving Forward With Retro Inspiration
If you are a developer, artist, or just a massive fan of the series, there's a lot of value in studying these early works. We live in an era of 4K textures and ray-tracing, but sometimes those things feel sterile. The 1997 art was anything but sterile. It was messy, loud, and provocative.
To really appreciate where the series is going with GTA VI, you have to look back at where Vice City started—as a few neon-drenched sketches on a desk in Scotland.
Next Steps for Enthusiasts:
- Archive Hunting: Check out the Design Documents website. They occasionally host high-resolution scans of early DMA Design pitch papers that include proto-GTA sketches.
- Compare and Contrast: Lay a sketch of 1997 Liberty City next to a screenshot of 2008's GTA IV. You’ll be shocked at how many landmarks and "vibes" remained consistent across a decade of tech growth.
- Study the Loading Screens: Go back and watch a "Longplay" of the original GTA on YouTube. Pay close attention to the transitions. Those stills are the purest expression of the game's intended aesthetic.
The 1997 concept art wasn't just a draft; it was the promise of a world that would eventually take over the entire entertainment industry. It’s the raw, unrefined ghost in the machine.