According to a retrospective article published by GamesRadar, several former members of DMA Design recounted the development process of the original GTA. The game initially started as a city simulator and, after multiple prototype iterations, gradually evolved into the top-down criminal gameplay that was eventually finalized.
Programmer Mike Dailly first created an isometric prototype on a 486 PC, but due to issues with vehicle movement, gameplay initially revolved entirely around walking, making the actual pace feel too slow. He later experimented with a side-view approach and, inspired by a top-down racing concept, added ground and perspective effects to the prototype, which finally gained management approval.
The project was subsequently approved for development under the title Race'n'Chase. In a 1995 design document, DMA Design positioned it as a multiplayer racing and collision game, planning to include three distinct cities along with missions, pedestrians, vehicle theft, and police chases.
The development team decided early on to use a top-down perspective rather than full 3D graphics. The game was planned for release on PlayStation, PC, and Sega Saturn, and the developers believed creating separate engines for each platform was impractical, so they opted for a technical solution that could accommodate all platforms.
The game's criminal theme was not established from the start. The team originally envisioned a cop-and-robber driving mechanic, initially casting the player as a heroic character. However, with the introduction of the "exit your vehicle and enter another" mechanic, developers realized players were essentially stealing cars, shifting the project toward a crime-focused urban sandbox and leading to its mid-development rename to GTA.
Three cities were each handled by a different level designer: Stephen Banks created San Andreas, Billy Thomson was responsible for Vice City, and Paul Farley designed Liberty City. The team wanted the cities to function autonomously, with police cars driving from stations to crime scenes and ambulances departing from hospitals to transport the injured; more complex ideas like repairing traffic lights were canceled during development.
Some content was also adjusted due to performance differences across platforms. Trains in the PC version consumed significant memory and only appeared in a few missions, so they were omitted from the PlayStation version. Vehicles, characters, missions, locations, voice acting, and most cutscenes were also cut during production, with each city ultimately retaining only one cutscene for its main antagonist.