Dan Houser contributed to the writing and production of every Grand Theft Auto installment as well as Red Dead Redemption 2. When he left in 2020, he was the Creative President of Rockstar Games, the company he co-founded with his brother Sam Houser. Now he is working on new projects, including a comedy-style open-world game, stating that he cannot watch the GTA 6 gameplay demo because it would "interfere" with his creative process.
In a recent podcast interview with Variety, Hauser admitted that despite his deep ties to the Grand Theft Auto series and the fact that his brother still runs Rockstar Games, the former GTA writer has no idea what was included in the GTA 6 gameplay demo that premiered on Netflix this August.
"I haven't seen it," Hauser said. "I try to avoid it because I always stay away from things that interfere with or disrupt my creative flow. I spend a lot of time polishing open-world games, and the rest of my energy goes into figuring out innovative marketing strategies. I don't need to see what others are doing. I'm constantly thinking about new production approaches rather than sitting there comparing how I would have done it differently."
Hauser further explained that he can no longer properly enjoy open-world games because he constantly finds himself analyzing the production logic while playing, which is too distracting.
"I find that when I play games, I can almost instantly deconstruct the strengths and weaknesses of the development team, which is too distracting," Hauser said. "I can't help but think, 'Their animation team is weak, but the game design is excellent.' Or, 'Oh my god, I can imagine the meeting where they discussed this feature.' I'm not a game designer; I'm more of a creative director. So I'm always looking for fresh, unprecedented ideas. Honestly, I also draw inspiration from older works or ideas that have been lingering in my mind."
The former lead writer at Rockstar explained that he was "fortunate" never to need "to know what everyone else is doing," so he doesn't have to play every new open-world game that comes out. At his new company, Absurd Ventures, founded in 2023, other employees play all the new open-world releases for him.
"I'm exploring new ways of creating," Hauser stated.
"When we started working on Red Dead Redemption, I stopped watching any Westerns as soon as the project kicked off. I only watched The Sopranos after leaving Rockstar. I had seen just one episode before—my then-girlfriend, now wife, and I watched the series finale live together. I hadn't watched a single episode prior to that. I finally caught up with the entire series during the pandemic, and I'm glad I did. The show is brilliant; if I had watched it back then, my approach to making GTA would have been completely skewed. So I deliberately avoid things that might overly influence my creative process."
As for Hauser's current work, he is building multiple multimedia IPs through Absurd Ventures. So far, the company has released audio dramas, comics, and novels, and is also developing two video games based on these IPs.
"One is a comedy-style open-world game, focusing on humor and memorable characters. More details will be revealed in the coming months," Hauser introduced. "The other is a dystopian sci-fi title about a game development project that spirals completely out of control, featuring a rogue AI that has gained self-awareness. Unfortunately, this AI was developed by two people who despise each other, so it even hates itself."