While the Grand Theft Auto franchise is easily one of the most popular and successful in gaming history, it is worth remembering that Rockstar Games also developed another game that went on to be a cult classic in its own right – Bully. In an interview with IGN, former Rockstar Games VP and writer Dan Houser has revealed details about how the studio developed Bully, discussing some of the struggles that the process entailed.
Among other things, Houser noted that Bully’s unique concept, which used a school as its primary setting, led to the team struggling quite a bit while developing it. While the team itself was unsure about whether or not Bully would turn out to be a good game, it ultimately “came together really well”.
“The development was hard. The game was in trouble all of the time. It was difficult. It was an out-there concept. We were struggling with it. I wasn’t sure it was going to be any good. We really wanted it to come together. It was really fun afterwards because it came together really well. The team did a great job. It was a sort of really strong game at the end. It kind of came together very late.”
Houser went on to talk about how creating a new IP was quite difficult for the studio that had become quite popular around the time it was working on Bully due to the critical and commercial success of games like Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. This, along with the game’s controversial name, led to quite a bit of misunderstanding amongst the populace as well.
“So I think one of the challenges with that game was it never got the attention it deserved. We were too focused on trying to at least get people to stock it or to not protest it before it even came out.”
Rockstar Games was no stranger to controversy during the mid-2000s, thanks to releases like Manhunt and even the infamous Hot Coffee mod for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
“We had to spend most of 2006 diffusing it, so we couldn’t positively promote the game in the way we normally would’ve done. I think that didn’t help it. I mean, that was the same time as Hot Coffee, and it felt like things were imploding. It was very stressful. And just go to work each day, wonder who’s protesting you that day, and hope that things can shake out properly. I wasn’t directly involved. Luckily, I was just sort of right off to the side, and wasn’t directly involved in organizing most of that stuff. But it was really stressful for the people involved.”
Discussing how the core gameplay of Bully started to come together, Houser noted that members of the development team were still quite confused about what players would do in it, since it didn’t have things like guns and cars. Eventually, however, the project’s lead designer started adding concepts into the game like the school’s class schedule and lessons.
“Then, one of the designers put this thing where you could stick a Post-it note on the back of a character that said ‘Kick me’ on it. Then an NPC would run up and kick them. And just seeing that work, you’re like, that’s a great moment. So then you’re, okay, we’re starting to get somewhere. So I think that moment was probably when I always remember going, this IP that wouldn’t work in a GTA, obviously; it’s not interesting. But as a kid, and suddenly it was the scale of the school and the scale of a kid’s life, it started to feel really fun.”
Currently, Bully is playable on PC, PS2, PS4, PS5, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and the Nintendo Wii through various means. PlayStation users can grab it through the digital re-release, while Xbox One and Series X/S users can access it through backwards compatibility for the Xbox 360 version.
